your neighbors would love the plants, and maybe later they will share with you something you don't have. Or how about setting them at the end of your drive with a for sale sign on them? Check around maybe there is a non-profit plant sale/bake sale going on soon and they might like the donations. I do volunteer work at a monthly bake sale and although not a baked good I brought them anyway and they all sold. Check the girlscouts, Masons, Easternstar, Boyscouts, local nursing homes, old home day, american legion, Elks something like that. Isn't in a nice feeling to know you grow things so well :) Karyn

Tommy is almost right, it's a cross between Abies koreana and Abies lasiocarpa. Gee is selling it as Abies koreana x Abies lasiocarpa. Some day it will have cones, don't worry...

Thanks Resin. I was planning something more complicated than necessary. When I ordered seeds I either planted or germinated them immediately. If I want to germinate the seeds in March so they are on a normal cycle do I need to keep them cool over the winter or just keep them dry?

Oswegian, the information in that link is incorrect. I'm certain if you contact Ron Smith about it, he will correct it. Or, since you live so far away from me, _I_ have no objection to you keeping those diseased plants to see what they look like next year, but your gardening neighbors might not appreciate it. Deb Brown is a horticulturist with the University of Minnesota Extension Service: Deb Brown, here, on aster yellows on purple coneflower: Ron Smith is a really good horticulturist, but I think he's off on this plant path recommendation. When you see these symptoms, the best course of action is to rogue the plant... pull it out and destroy it. There is nothing that will cure it. Craig Winters, a Master Gardener in West Otter Tail: I have not heard that aster-yellow infected plants will 'outgrow' it. I have not seen this happen. It is a disease with no way to treat. Any infected plants I pull out immediately and throw (NOT compost). I usually get about 4-6 coneflowers a year get infected. But I probably have about 20 new ones from seed each year! Barbara Gasterland, an MG in Hennepin County: If it is aster yellows then the plants will NOT grow out of it. They may not have the same distortion next year if they winter over but it does not go away. You did the right thing by yanking the infected plants. I can sympathize it's tough to do sometimes. If left in the garden the plants will probably be less hardy and not make it through winter. And the longer you leave it in the garden it is just letting the leafhoppers spread it from that plant to another. At least that is my understanding. Ah yes a search sez I hit it right. www.extension.umn.edu/info-u/plants/BG447.html Here's a Info U link on Aster yellows to confirm. Would it be nasty to send it to the Extension in ND? Paula Denman is another MG in Henn. Cty: I've always been told to remove them ASAP. It's herbicides that plants can "outgrow." Unless we've new info yet to be released! It's a little unnerving to see this recommendation in print from an Extension horticulturist. I think you get the idea; I'll spare you the rest of the responses I expect to get over the next few days.