Cone flowers are my favorite! I was cleaning up a flower bed of mine the other day and was pulling some weeds, and there were a few cone flower plants growing (hiding) that were seedlings from a plant close by. I carefully dug them up and moved them to a different spot. I know that they won't flower this year because it's late, and have done this before, and they will be fine next spring/summer, but can I plant seeds in August for flowers next year? I want to share some with a friend of mine and don't know if I can just carefully put a small plant in a pot for her or should I just give her some dried seeds?

The seeds do need to be chilled for them to germinate...So planting them now should give you plants and flowers next summer. So over the winter they will get just what they need (cold) to germinate in the spring.

Thanks!

ND

you can do both......

See which method wins??//Then write and tell us the results...

dodge

I was just out tonight digging around and cleaning up a bit and found MORE cone flowers growing. I carefully dug them up and moved them to a larger area......I should be leaving the few leaves on them correct?

Coneflowers are one of my favorite flowers too! Of course, I love any daisy-like flowers. Of course, sometimes the new plants don't look exactly like the seeds that were planted, but that's okay too.

Another question! When I plant the seeds - do I sprinkel a few or just one?!?! Silly question, I know, but I have only planted these from roots or from moving one that is already growing, never from seeds before. Help?

Spell check - sorry - I meant sprinkle.

I would sprinkle a few just in case to make sure that some germinate, also some may be lost to critters, rot etc.

I usually don't do much with seeds because I like propating by other methods. The few times I've planted seeds I never plant one unless it's for my starter plants in pots. When planting in the ground I sprinkle them because the birds get a lot of them and I can just thin them out they sprout.

I wintersowed some last yr. they'll bloom for me next yr.
I did sow one whole seedhead in another bed and it grew this year& bloomed earlier than the plant it came from.
my WS ones are the tennesee coneflowers.I hope their close to as full as the seed head one.It was bigger than the plant it came from.

there are also some new ones out under copyright for breast cancer research.

http://www.waltersgardens.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=whatsnew.detail&recID=111

I need this one cause will proably be the ONLY plant i ever find named after me

I love cone flowers, too. This year I planted some yellow and some orange ones. Very pretty. Between my neighbor and I, everywhere you look, you see some cone flowers. Wish I had a dig. camera so I could show you. I put a bug in Santa's ear for Christmas. Sue

Sue, which yellow and orange did you plant? I have 'Sunrise' and 'Sunset' and I love them!

All I know is that those cone flower seeds are like splinters if you get stuck. I'm speaking from experience. So wear gloves.

Sheri, I can relate to that because I've been stuck many times. I finally got some mud gloves and they really work great! No more sore fingers.