For me it occasionally happens because the dry ambient air causes some of the tomato and pepper seed shells to dry and harden before they have a chance to fall off. They annoy me so I remove them. Don't pull or tug them. Carefully using a small needle-nose pliers to gently squeeze the shell on the ends causes them to expand like a clam shell and pop off. Easy to do although not absolutely necessary, but I like to give the babies their best chance at success.

trudi d, I think you found it for me! When I googled, I searched for pink coneflower and didn't use the correct name of Echinacea and your link was perfect! I THOUGHT it was a coneflower, and was surprised that the botanical garden didn't have it. But that was before I saw how many varieties there were! I think it is pink double delight, the one labeled razmatazz has too short petals. The only thing that was kind of strange was that this plant I saw had normal looking coneflowers on the lower stalk - at any rate, identifying it as far as actually being a coneflower gives me more of an idea of what to expect growing conditions-wise. I hope it turns out to be winter hardy! As far as taking a picture, I don't have a digital camera - only my cell phone and I have no idea how to transfer the image to a place I can access it! Thanks all! BettyLu

Missed this post - sorry! Perhaps you've gotten your answer, but if not..... This site has great info on the whole process. It's a lot of fun crossing these beauties! Barb Here is a link that might be useful: Queen of the Tropics

That makes me feel so much better! I have a whole bowl of tomato seeds that I saved this year. And I was wondering as I was mushing the tomatoes and setting them to ferment (I had to use two quart jars to allow enough space for them to sink to the bottom)...Just how many seeds do I really need? And since I couldn't come up with a rational sounding answer, I decided to save as many as my furniture surfaces would allow, LOL! My entire living room is full of saucers full of seeds and my bedroom has corn hanging on the wall drying. Is that obsessive or what? I've got enough tomato seeds to supply every person in the county. Which I will probably share a lot of tomato seeds with neighbors and such. I've been trying to talk everybody into growing gardens again. Most of them used to grow a garden and they got so busy earning a living they let it go. Now with prices the way they are, I think people are reconsidering the importance of growing their own food supply. So, I've got patty pans, white spaghetti, tomato, cukes, watermelon, hot bananas and such drying all over the house. Steph