Kat, great minds think alike, lol! I was also thinking Bells of Ireland, and I am trying a new amaranthus this year, Green Thumb, that I was considering. I think like you I will need to see this zinnia first. The lime green I can picture - that red color I need to see in person, because I'm having trouble imagining exactly what it will be. :) Dee

Flowerpollen: Yes, but... You could probably collect the seed from a small number of plants and plant them next year and get a decent crop. But for the long-term 'health', viability and genetic diversity, you need to plant a decent number of plants to collect from. When plants are Open-Pollinated (OP), each plant is slightly different from the others. A bee or fly or moth will 'work' a lot of plants, picking up a bit of pollen from the plant he lands on, and depositing some of that pollen to other plants. With every tiny bit of pollen he drops, the genetic makeup of the offspring of that particular plant changes. Those tiny, tiny differences is the genetic diversity that keeps the plants strong. Fresh blood, so to speak. If you only plant a few plants and keep collecting the seed, without outside pollination, the quality of your plants will start to diminish. That said, some of the most valuable seed maintenance has been made by individuals. You don't have to be a large commercial grower to produce good seed. I don't know much about triticale, so I looked up the genetic makeup, and even though it is a hybrid (they don't usually breed true), apparently triticale is relatively stable and does breed true: "Even though triticale is a cross between wheat and rye, it is self-pollinating (similar to wheat) and not cross pollinating (like rye). Most triticales that are agronomically desirable and breed true have resulted from several cycles of improvement, but are primarily from the durum-rye crosses with some common wheat parentage occasionally involved." [Source: see link below] So, I would grow the largest stand that is feasible for you, at least a patch 10x10' or more, collect the grain and mix it well, then collect seed from that mix. Sue Here is a link that might be useful: Triticale, from Purdue U.

Woops! I should have also mentioned that, in addition to the reddish "millet", there's a significant portion which is similar in color to white millet. It's more of a "golden yellow" instead of the traditional cream color. In other words, it's a tad darker than the white. Any idea what this is? Hope this doesn't confuse. Thanks again.

Thankfully I've seldom had to deal with grackles and starlings, but when they have appeared, chasing them off with a Viking yell and a broom eventually seemed to drive them away permanently, as well as entertaining my neighbors. Of course it probably helped that I never ground feed, had no platform or other feeders they could access, and the vast majority of spilled seed was Nyjer, which they can't eat. So - slim pickin's, combined with crazy broom-wielding lady = starling-grackle-elimination-success! Taking it a step further, when I eliminated all mixes and went to feeding one kind of seed per feeder (sunflower seeds in one, nyjer in the other), many other pests stopped coming by. Apparently millet is much-beloved of several pesky species. Finally, switching to clingers-only feeders eliminated the mob of English house sparrows that had taken over my yard last year, driving off ALL the other birds, including the hummers. This year I may see one or two HOSPs going after spilled seed but they never stay long. The hummers have never returned, though.