Don't you just love it when something works out like you hoped? Congrats!

That is how my grandma used to plant all of her seeds and her gardens were terrific! Try it with the gaillardia and report back. Congrats!

Good for you! I'll try that with my liatrus.I've only tried it before with foxglove and also had success. Maybe works best with plants that flower on a tall stalk?

These were the seeds that did not germinate for me last year. Now I know why. Thanks for the heads up.

Gaillardia tip: Bakemom, this is assuming that you already have a gaillardia growing in your yard, but... if you take a sharp knife and cut into the plant root, in several spots, it will put out babies. Think of cutting in a pattern like spokes in a bicycle wheel. I did it in fall; In spring I had more babies around it, all in lines, than I knew what to do with.

Karen

Thanks Karen - so far, my ws gaillardia didn't sprout - I'm going to go grab a knife and try your tip.

Here is a link that might be useful: my blog

I've been trying to grow Liatris without success for some time ad decided to try it one more time this year. Now I know I can discard the container right now. I'll have to try and find someone with plants nearby. Gaillardia is an annual for me. I have had good success saving seeds and sowing each year. It's one of my favourite plants.

I had tried this with both liatris and echinacea seed heads. I'm not sure if the liatris worked - since I didn't mark where I sowed the seed heads. But as I was out mulching today, I found 2 new echinacea plants - in spots where I logically would have buried seed heads.

In the meantime I have hardly any sproutage in my echinacea WS containers.

I had read that in a gardening book and I'm glad it worked for you. I haven't even planted my liatris seeds yet. Thanks for sharing that with us.

I don't know about liatris, but coneflowers are very easy for me to propagate - Just let the flower dry on the stalk, and then take the dry seed head and disperse the seeds in the garden bed, whatever time of year it is. I did that two years ago with the flowers of two plants I had and now I've got coneflowers galore all over my garden beds!! If I don't like where they're growing, I move them someplace else or give them to someone. I've gotten a pouffy one now, and can hardly wait to start doing the same with that one!!