Kat, I am a lousy at growing bupleurum. This year I seeded my usual row in April and tried starting 20 in peat pots. At the moment I have two survivors from the peat pot transplants plus one full grown plant that apparently resulted when a stray April seed fetched up against a daisy plant and nestled in there. (Is there such a thing as a nurse plant?)

Still, three plants is three more than I usually get!

So I'm thinking transplanting is likely to be really iffy for you, but I'd be encouraged to hear that it worked if you give it a try.

ThinMan

Hey thinman, sorry for tardy response, my computer is a dinosaur and so has a really hard time processing my posts.

This plant seems to be a fair pain for alot of people. I tried the thinning, and got my heart broken, so dont try this at home! As to your question regarding nurse plants, absolutely, I believe in them. My rudbekia have nursed a verbascum, a weed verbascum, for a long time now without my seeing it until yesterday and the thing was 18 inches tall!!! Sneaky, eh?

Are you a proponent of peat pots in general? I have really bad success with these things, I find that my plants get spiral roots and dont get to their full height, what am I doing wrong?

Kat

No, I don't use peat pots much at all. They were a what-have-I-got-to-lose method this year. I'd like to know how to really start bupleurum right. I think that part of my problem may be that I plant them so early that I just sort of lose focus after a month or so of seeing nothing, and then they just dry out.

ThinMan