I tend to collect from all my flowering plants and they are a mishmosh collection, some bought before I started WSing, some grown myself from bought or trade seed. I've found that some seeds from hybrid plants (i.e.purple millet) grow just fine from collected seeds, while others are not true to the parent but sometimes nice anyway! I figure I'm not losing much (just some pro-mix, which I'll recycle for a pot or something anyway)by trying and I really enjoy collecting seed. My biggest frustration is that I will occastionally purchase a plant and get excited about the possibility of it flowering and setting seed (and growing more next year!) and it won't flower (some fancy plectranthus I bought this year) or it flowers but I can't find and harvest seed (Veronica "goodness grows"). The best thing about winter sowing is the very low "risk" - if even 20% of my jugs are duds, I haven't lost much. When I used indoor lights and had to baby everything inside it felt much more risky to try things I wasn't sure would work out. My advise...Get out there and collect some seed! I imagine that there is not a lot of time left in zone 6 as I am almost done in zone 7! Nancy

Randy, I've not had very good luck getting mine to ripen. The 1st ball that I cut off was turning brown. I let it dry for a couple of weeks, opened it up, and the seeds were ripe. I had picked a couple more of them at the same time, only they weren't as brown. And, when I opened them up, the seeds were still green. I have the pot in the garage. Since then, 1 other pod has opened up on its own. I still have several large pods on the plant, but don't have alot of light in the garage. So, I'm still waiting for them to ripen. Sure wish that I had a greenhouse! And, now with all of this talk about a possible "Ice Storm", and power outages, I'm sure that they will be goners with having to open and close the garage door for cords for the generator. I sure hope that they are waaay wrong. I still have nightmares from the last bad one!!!! Cat, I would love to help, but I don't have enough seeds to share. I'm sure that Randy will have better luck. Your Queens will like the Hairy balls. I found several eggs and cats on mine. Several butterflies enjoyed the blooms, also. Here's another link concerning the balls ripening, but I can't say that it helped me much, aside from making sure that the balls are more brown. Here is a link that might be useful: Harvesting Hairy balls

Indeed Trudy ! I was, as some would say, aggressive in my approach. :) I was especially interested in your Hosanna and Bee Glorified. Steve had alerted me to their origin since he wanted to make some Fascination x Elegans crosses this year. Unfortunately he did not have any Elegans pollen. A shame really since I could send him pounds between the three of mine. :p In any event, I had a BLAST !!! It was so exhilarating to sit there like a rabid animal, constantly clicking refresh and throwing my âÂÂbudgetâ to the wind. Since IâÂÂm still starting out, I have a lot of capacity, figuratively speaking. My âÂÂprogramâ has only birds-eye-view goals. But with all the seeds I managed to win IâÂÂll definitely have a nice array on which to draw from for my breeding stock. From there . . . genes are the limit. :) Thank you again to everyone who made this happen, and a big Gratz! to Josh and his family on the groundbreaking !!! Cheers, Ludi These were the auctions I won. I sat at my computer for almost 5 hours to watch them all . . . . . . . obsess much ?!? ::giggles:: CBCT 1 - âÂÂIce Age Trailâ x OP - 50 seeds CBCT 7 - 'Sea Tornadoâ x OP - 20 seeds Huseman 3 - âÂÂRosedale Shady Ladyâ x âÂÂKrugerrandâ - 25 seeds Goodenough 1 - âÂÂUberVirgoâ x Mr. Blueâ - 15 seeds CBCT 9 - âÂÂDark Forestâ Streaked x OP - 50 seeds Bendig 4 - âÂÂBlue Lightningâ x OP - 25+ seeds Shaw 5 - (Epson Derby x OP) x QOTS - 25 seeds TVW 21 - âÂÂMcWilliams #2â x QOTS - 20 seeds - âÂÂMcWilliams #2â x OP - 25+ seeds Ramsey 11 - âÂÂGlorious Dayâ x OP - 50 seeds TVW 23 - âÂÂHosannaâ Collection - #4 - âÂÂHosannaâ x âÂÂQueen of the Seasâ - 20 seeds - âÂÂHosannaâ x OP - 25 seeds Ramsey 12 - âÂÂGlorious Graceâ x OP - 50 seeds Port 8 - (First Meeting x Pink Flamingo) x OP - 25 seeds Shaw 6 - âÂÂFoxfire Chinese Dragonâ x OP 136 (aka âÂÂFFCDOP136âÂÂ) x self - 25 seeds TVW 26 - Prairie Meadows x OP - 20 seeds - Joy, Unspeakable Joy x OP - 15 seeds Kuenster 4 - âÂÂMominatorâ x OP - 25 seeds Milt 3 - (My Friend Mary x Blue Angel) x QOTS - 30 seeds

If that type (DTM) info is meaningful then one should definately keep those records. I keep a clipboard of seeding records to maximize on my growing methods. It really helps to look back and determine how to tweek the planting date on a particular variety in order to arrive at the size plant I want at a particular future date. I just happen to note dates I'll pick my first tomatoes, almost always cherry varieties, but I expect those results and I am not willing to take the steps to change them. Its my belief that one can pick a few (just a few) fruits earlier by severely limiting root growth. I've had plants in 6-packs that were never potted up (for plant sales) and they would seem to have ripe fruits (only few) weeks ahead of plants that were potted up. I wouldn't recommend this practice to achieve earlier harvest. There are a few practices which I believe will help a transplant to bloom and produce earlier. Trenching plants (1/2 stem burried) which are a little larger seems to help them recover transplanting stress and they usually bloom sooner, possibly up to 2 weeks sooner than a plant that is planted a week earlier- so you might gain a week. Poor transplant handling or shocking of plants, especially if planting in too cool soil or subjecting to neer freezing temps will usually delay growth and blossoming by serious levels. Those growing plants in pots have that advantage of regulating the plant's environment a bit more.