I'm so glad I found this thread. I'd been wanting to report, to anyone who cares, what I've sown so far. But, I didn't want to bore everyone with my list. So far I've sown: Virginia Creeper (4 containers) Obedient Plant (6) BES (3) Swamp Milkweed (5) Red Milkweed (5) Orange Milkweed (10) Indian Grass (1) Annual Coreopsis (9) Coreopsis Lanceolata (2) Orange Cosmos (3) Anise Hyssop (3) Woodland Sunflowers (5) Verbena Boniarensis (10) Purple Coneflower (10) Monarda (7) Liatris (6) Dotted Mint (3) Rudbeckia Rustic Colors (7) Lavender (11) Wild Blue Lupine (4) Malva Zebra Sylvestris (3) Snap Dragons (8) New England Aster (5) Joe Pye Weed (1) Holly Hock (3) And if they all germinate (which they will) I'll be up until midnight all spring getting them planted. My daughter thinks I'll run out of space, but she doesn't know I'll be donating some to friends. Thanks for enabling me! Martha

Gladys - your seedlings look great! I really do think the freshness of the seeds is key, or maybe Pacific Giant is a more reliable germinater? I tried an experiment earlier this year when I was starting a packet of PG seeds under lights - split them into 3 groups: room temp, fridge stratify, and frozen. (Of course I didn't write down any of this when I did it, so I can't exactly remember all of the variables.) I think I may have soaked some overnight as well. In any case, I planted 2 or 3 seeds that received each treatment and I ended up with a lot of seedlings...by spring I gave 3 plants away and planted about 10. I can't recall any individual treatment that particularly worked better than another, though I do remember thinking that the room temp seeds had a better germination rate than expected. Here's a pic of a weird little seedling that came up as a fused dicot. Its first true leaf is popping up on the left.

My 3rd year "Connecticut Pride" delphinium is also reverting to white. Its right next to a huge stand of Shasta daisy's so thats a lot of white! I guess I've got a moon garden starting. If it is a sport, would it help to pull out the sports to let the blue have a better chance in the future? There is some blue too now that is much shorter. If it is reseeding, I guess there would be no point in pulling it out. Will just go with the moon garden thing... I've had trouble getting delphiniums to hang around in the past, so I'm kinda bummed about losing the blue.

I grew some of these a long time ago when I lived in Beaverton, OR. They were spectacularly beautiful spring flowers. I do recall staking a few of the taller flower stalks as they leaned over a bit especially in the rain. They were as I recall somewhat fussy plants requiring some attention to soil fertility and declining with age. Also quite vulnerable to slugs. This is not a carefree plant but the climate in the PNW is good for them. The folks at Schreiner's Iris Gardens often feature these plants in their awesome spring flower bed displays.