I have Leucosceptrum japonicum 'Gold Angel', which I planted last year. It survived being in my pot ghetto for much of the summer before I planted it in the fall. It is a lovely charteusy-gold color, even in medium shade with a bit of speckled morning sunlight under the branches of a maple and a dogwood with Hemlocks to the south (though it doesn't have much root competition since the maple is 4' lower on the other side of a wall.) It did get touched by an unusually late spring frost this year, so I might throw a towel over it in the future if frost is predicted, but it has grown well past the lightly damaged leaves in just a couple of weeks. Since this is its first growing season in the ground, I expect it to take off and provide a taller contast to the lower gold hosta and Hakonechloa/Japanese forest grass and the other darker green plants in the area once it has grown a bit more. It's supposed to grow to about 3'x3', and I expect that most years I won't see the flowers since they are really late as well as relatively unobtrusive. Here is my baby gold Leucosceptrum in the upper middle of the bed and a link to the post that caused me to plant it (though due to a tree removal, I ended up putting it in a different bed than originally planned.) Here is a link that might be useful: New England gardening thread with Leucosceptrum comment

There's nothing quite as cool-looking(temperaturewise) as BLUE flowers. I grew Phacelia a few years ago, best blue i ever saw, next to cornflowers. The bell-shaped blue flowers with icy-white anthers were beautiful, and stirred up images of cooler weather. They do have a short bloom time, hot weather just about stops the show, cutting back helps somewhat. Give 'em a try, i believe there are 2 or 3 varieties. Good luck, and enjoy.

I am so glad I found this thread. My favorite part of gardening is experimenting with seeds, cuttings and grafting. This year I collected a lot of seeds from my own conifers and have them planted up. Regarding damping off. I have a few things that I do to prevent damping off in my seedlings: 1. Use a soiless medium. I use peat moss and perlite. I use 1 part peat moss and 2 parts perlite. 2. Make sure your soiless medium and containers are sterilized. A few years ago I got lazy and used the same containers I had the previous year without cleaning then up with bleach water and had a disaster. A lot of my seeds rotted. 3. Add a fan and allow it to blow over your germinated seedlings. Be careful though it will require a close eye as the movement of air requires much more water on your seedlings. But this REALLY helps me. I also believe it makes my seedlings stronger as it mimics the wind in nature creating stronger stems. You all probably know all this but thought I would mention what is working for me. *** Japanese maples What I would not give to be able to grow them outdoors here. I pay good money to purchase them for pots so that I can grow them around my ponds. I wish mine would set seed. It would be so fun to experiment with them. Enjoy those seedlings you all are finding.

Seedlings are fine,just water when needed.I just stick them under the patio table for winter,more to keep the long spells of rain we usually get away.No need to move them until the cold weather starts.If you're gonna garage them(though not really nessecary) bring them out when buds swell and shove them under a table or something if you expect a frost. As Mike says,Just leave the seeds out in the open,don't cover with anything and forget about them 'til next year.You can put a mesh or something over them if you like to keep 'thieves' away but nothing waterproof.Again,next spring be prepared to protect them from frost once they've appeared. Pruning's a matter of choice.You could snip off those little branches,the plant wouldn't notice...unless you prefer the direction they're growing,then remove others.