I grew astilbe from seed last year. I bought a pack of seeds (from Thompson & Morgan, I think), sowed them on the surface of sterile seed starting mix and grew them under shop lights. I probably started them in mid to late February, 10-12 weeks before last frost date. Grew them under lights for about four to six weeks. When they had 3-6 leaves, I transplanted them into plastic cups and grew them in a windowsill with little direct sunlight for another month or so. Maybe they would have grown faster with more light but I have very little sunlight in my house and I wanted to reserve it for the plants that really needed it. They were still very small when I planted them outside, but they were tough and grew slowly and steadily all summer, even in shade. may try wintersowing some this year too.

I am looking for both tall and short astilbes peferably whites, pinks and purples, I'm not to keen on the salmon coloured ones. I don't have many seeds but do have plants that I could trade for or a SASBE would be great. See my trade list Thanks Nett

Hi all, I am presently looking to find seeds for the following astilbes. In particular these varieties: Amethyst Bressingham Beauty Cattleya Eden's Odysseus Kriemhilde Moerheim's Glory Purpurkerze Superba I would also be interested in some of these varieties as well: Rhythum & Blues Visions Amerika Betsy Cuperus Deutchland Elisabeth van Veen Glow Jump & Jive Oh heck , lets just say I am interested in trading items from my trade list for astilbe seed . Please contact me if you have some to trade. Thanks Signet

The seeds are extremely small (smaller than poppy seeds). If you clip the dried seed heads and let them dry a bit more in an envelope, shaking will release the little dark reddish/brown seeds. You can then discard the stalks.