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Thanks everyone. I'm very happy with most of the volunteers in the garden. I don't cut back perennials until spring except the ones that get tattered or brown such as some of the salvias so I get a lot of reseeding. I have a few echinaceas including Tennessee coneflower, E. purpurea species, Magnus, Ruby Star, Sundown, Sunset, Sunrise, Summer Sky, White Swan, Kim's Knee High. I still really enjoy the purple coneflower species best with its huge cone and drooping petals. I won't worry about them crossing, they're already hopelessly mixed together already. I'm glad to know that Tennessee coneflower seed is readily available now so I won't obsess too much about its survival. I can always plant more, especially if the rabbits have their way with my new pocket prairie bed! The phlox crosses are new to me this year. I didn't really expand my varieties until recently and didn't notice the seedlings. I don't mind the color variations but I don't really want to stake so the taller floppier ones will go. I do put up with some powdery mildew and do stake if the color is fantastic (I'm thinking of Nicky in particular). But a so-so plant won't fare as well. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the new dwarf varieties I planted this year will do. I have two of the "Cocktail" series, Pina Colada and Cosmopolitan, and one of the Flame series, Flame Violet. My Jr Dance is declining unfortunately but I like the color. I am fond of Blue Paradise but it doesn't seem very vigorous and isn't spreading as I'd like. Of course David is the best and I now have a good thick stand of it from the original 3 plants. I can't be without phlox in my garden.

Update 1 for the 2008 batch Well folks, there is something new. The above posts were about the seeds I collected in the Fall of 2006 and that I started in the Spring of 2007. The seeds that I collected in the Fall of 2007 and that I started this Spring of 2008 are starting to show their distinctive caracteristics. So, I'll start posting what's new in that field in the following weeks. Some 30 seeds were from a cultivar known as "Sparkler" (can be seen on my site in the echinaceas' page and elsewhere on the web). It is a low growing plant with nice non drooping pink petals. What makes it diffrent from the rest is that it has a variegated foliage. It is not a nice variegation since the plant look more like a sick plant than a variegated plant. Up until recently, no seedling showed any kind of variegation, but most seedling were showing a slightly lighter green foliage than the usual cone flowers. One plant with about 8-9 leaves is now showing variegation on half of the leaves, and to me, it is much better looking than its mother. See for yourself, the variegations are circled in red on the 4 leaves that have them: Several plants out of the 100 plants or so now have buds showing, It will probably be at least a couple of weeks before we seen any flowers, but the variegated plant will be under close watch to see what will happen to it. Laurier My web site

Hi Dave, I was about to ask a similar question!... I know how to and have bred orchids, irises, hippeastrum, hemerocallis, never did up to now because of space and time limitations but know how to do it with roses, peonies, etc. As to composite flowers, I'm still in the dark, that is why I only relied on selecting plants from bees' made hybrids (see post below this one "New echinaceas hybrids". I've searched the web but haven't found good enough information. I've seen pix of the anatomy of composite flowers and much other stuff, but not much else as to how to do it more precisely. If that may help you, it did help me a wee bit but that's definetely not enough, here are several links I found: http://www.backyardnature.net/fl_comps.htmhttp://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/PLBREED/pl_breed.html http://www.geocities.com/sunflower_info/Biology_Sunflower.html The next 5 are taken from other GardenWeb forums, a serie of 5 articles on zinnias (same family as cone flowers), very well done but still not enough for what I need anyway. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/annuals/msg0922162712970.html?111 http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/annuals/msg111317249809.html?59 http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/annuals/msg0103283412199.html?39 http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/annuals/msg021539104249.html http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/annuals/msg0702450512654.html?93 Hope this helps a bit!... but I'm really not sure it will be enough for you too. Laurier My web site