Cheap lighting would be shop lights from Home Depot or Lowe's. 48". They're easy to hang. As for keeping a dwarf tree alive, that's debatable. Do you mean Oroblanco? If so, it will need full sun and a lot of heat in order to thrive. And you'll never get fruit unless you can give it several months of direct sun and heat every year. They are delicious, and I wished you lived in an area where they grow. I live in a climate where citrus thrives, and have never seen them grown indoors under lights, and wish you good luck. Did you buy it locally, or mail order?

I second Cathy's winter sowing suggestion. I've started many native wildflowers this way, using milk jugs. Echinacea purpurea doesn't require a cold stratification period, so you've got some time to put this together. You could try the Winter Sowing forum, or Trudi Davidoff's site for tips. Wintersowing is like having tiny cold frames, so the seedlings can get an earlier start with more even temperatures. You do have to keep an eye on them once temps start to rise, taking the tops off on warm days, and making sure the soil doesn't dry out. After the seedlings have hardened off, you can transplant them into the large (and hopefully deep) pots where they'll spend the summer. I also think cooper8828's advice would work although it's more risky if the weather is really roller-coasty in the spring. Also -- you might try posting this to the Perennials forum. It's a busy forum and plenty of Echinacea experience there.

Killing plants is all part of the process! Starting plants from seed is a great way to increase your plant options and can save you a lot of money too. Both echinacea and gaillardia are fairly easy to get going in regards to starting from seed.. So that’s good. Bad news is that if you bought common purple echinacea seed… they most likely won’t bloom the first year. Some of the newer seed varieties can bloom the first year if started early (indoors) to get a nice long season… though it won’t be a prolific bloom by any means. So if you are looking for a nice bloom show in pots.. Purchasing plants would be the way to go. If you don’t need the immediate show… you could do as you mentioned and get them into the pots early spring… make sure they don’t dry out.. And let nature do it’s thing. You will need to keep your eye on them though since they are in pots raised off the ground…. From drying out quickly… late freezing… etc. Another option is to scratch up a seed bed somewhere in your garden… drop the seeds down and lightly cover them... again let nature go to town. In the second year, you could transplant them out of the ground into pots if you want. OR…. you could try your hand at starting them right now indoors in seed trays and a simple bank of fluorescent shop lights. This method gives you more control of their conditions and you get a big head start on the season… and it keeps you busy in the winter! These could just then be transplanted to the pots or garden once the weather allows.

It pretty much is, Katrina. I found out last year when mine didn't germinate. Found out that I need to stratify them. I'm also in 7a. So I threw them into the freezer for 3 weeks, I was so sure they wouldn't germinate I took them out and just left them lying on the kitchen table among a bunch of other seed-starting stuff. About five days later I decided I might as well deal with them. To my surprise, they'd begin sprouting and were imbedding themselves into the paper towel! LOL But they ended up fine--and bloomed just fine, too. This year I winter sowed a few more.