I was interested in some of your ornamental grass seeds that you offer. But I was told that some of the ones I was considering: Japanese Blood Grass Imperata cylindrica 'Rubra Red Baron' Fountain red Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum' Feather reed Calamagrostes arundinacea 'Karl Forster' are actually sterile or don't come true from seed. Have I been missinformed?

Hi Ginger, I have some grass seeds I can share. I am offering seeds for SASBE right now. Please take a look. I don't need any more seeds. :-)

I wondered that myself some years ago about that very tree. In all my Gleditsia triacanthos 'inermis' seedlings they never got a thorn as 3 - 4 year seedlings anyway. I never found a thorn on them. I'm thinking "wow, what an economical way to grow this cultivar". And it was one of the easiest to get to sprout and grow. I had always heard the same thing, and its probably true in most instances that cultivars don't come true from seed. That must apply to some cultivars of plants more than other cultivars of plants. My guess is 90% of cultivars will look not much like the real cultivar. Take the Japanese Maple 'Bloodgood' for example, I learned some nurseries grow it from seed and I believe its purple sometimes but green the rest of the time, ex. when its hot in the Summer its green. When I learned that I thought, "what a ripoff". There people are spending a ton of money for what they think is real 'Bloodgood', and its a fake. Really, all you usually have to do is ask the nursery boys or girls if they're grown from seed or grown by cutting.

My crazy daisies, had a tiny ziplock bag of seeds, don't remember where I bought them, yielded all different kinds but they are all crazy, some prettier than others. I didn't mark them to save any seed, darn it. Since I WS'ed those and planted HOS, I don't know which ones clump or not; they are a large clump that will get larger. They are all winners in their own way, don't get disfigured, a few toppled in the heavy rain, maybe those didn't, but I deadheaded them all, and they have put out some more nice blooms, not as many as the first ones. So that is a plus. In the front bed, I sowed from unknowns that didn't clump and the blooms got splotchy and ratty, but the plants were vigorous, didn't topple or get over 4'; the following year, they took over the bed, so I dug them all out. I direct sowed those, and they didn't bloom until the second year. Those did come true to seed, all of them. Then I replaced with three Becky, purchased plants. They clump which I thought was good at first but they get too big too fast and took over again. One Becky got crown root rot, dug it out, letting the soil lie fallow for the winter. But I'd rather have some that don't clump that I can interplant with poppies and maybe perennial lupines, couple others. I thought Alaska might be it. Does it clump? Are there any other July flowering ones that are nice but grow as singles? The only ones I know that grow single for sure are oxe eye or Marguerites, but those are invasive and only bloom in spring. I have some better spring bloomers now, but I want some for summer. Maybe I should divide my crazy ones in the spring into three smaller groups and start with those or pull off all the outer stems. I notice if I pull a stem (some toppled), I get some roots with it. The two remaining Becky are very healthy, but I want them out or much smaller. Can I do that? I don't know where to put the left over ones from dividing. Sigh.