Gil, Astilbe is not hard to germinate, but the seed is very minuscule, so yes, its best to sow this one indoors under a dome with lots of humidity. They are also very slow to grow! If you have no patience, I'd suggest just to buy a potted plant from the nurseries in the spring ;)

Sharon

Gillian, i finally got some cypress fine to grow (sort of!) last year. I sowed them inside (soaked them first), and a few germinated. But only one survived transplanting, and that one didn't do that great. Only one bloom that i can recall. I'm going to try them again this year and i'm thinking that i'll sow them right into the container i want them in. They were supposed to climb a trellised planter that my daughter gave me, and that's what i'll try again. Oh - this year i bought seeds for the white one. They're in McFayden's catalogue, but i got them at Walmart.

Sharon, no kidding they are small, I thought the packet was empty! I sowed a dome of them in one of my fancy humidity domes ;) and brought them upstairs for the bottom heat on the freezer. I will be patient... I bought one last year at the nursery and it got sorta swallowed by a nanking cherry shrub, but I think it's still alive. But it was pretty expensive, I'm thinking $7 to $10... that's why I decided to give the seeds a shot. Even if I get one or two I'm still ahead.

Marcia, well that's... ummm not entirely heartening but they are planted so I will see how they do. Lots of people on the forum here seem to have problems with morning glories and their relatives... huh. If mine do ok maybe we can see what we did differently. I ordered mine from McFayden last year and forgot to plant them. They are supposed to be red white & pink.

Those are the ones i planted last year - the single bloom was red.

My morning glories tend to do all right. I grow them with cosmos because both don't like to be fertilized too much. Last year, the blue MGs and pink cosmos were - mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmm good!! Very pretty combination!

Now i'm laughing at myself. How come i love that combination of colours in flowers but i'm so mad at all the fashion gurus that are making all the clothes pink and blue this year?? Yuck!! :>

Wow my astilbe has started coming up already! That was less than a week. Now to keep it alive...

Marcia I was at the mall this week and there was a store where everything (not just the window, everything) was black, blue or pink. I think you need to come shopping in Winnipeg!

We seldom get to Winnipeg, but you know where we go there, eh? Princess Auto... How fun! :) I told dh that next time, it'll be Lee Valley, at least! And when i go to Thunder Bay, all my shopping is done at plant nurseries - i don't mind the pinks and blues there!

Oops I lied. I forgot I planted some shasta daisies in the same dome. That's what came up. :-( Oh well at least I got daisies!

What is it with the Y-chromosome and Princess Auto? I don't know any man who is immune. My dad gets their little catalogues and he gets mad if you throw one out before he reads it, even if the sale was over 3 weeks ago...

One time when we were in Winnipeg, dh dragged me into a Princess Auto. "It's just like Canadian Tire," he told me. Uh huh. :) Now he gets those catalogues and it's worse than me ordering seeds and plants. Every couple of weeks, i check the mail and there's a parcel for him. He even did his Christmas shopping for the boys there! LOL At least my parcels only come in the spring and fall!

Hi, I'm new to this site - just signed up today.
I planted Astilbe last year in mid January, following the instructions on the McKenzie seed pack. The first seedlings were up in 10 days and I grew 24 to transplant outdoors. They grew to a height of 12-15 inches. Some even tried to flower their first season. I'm anxious to see how they over-winter in the bed on the east side of our garage.
Brenda

Hi Brenda, glad you found us :) Welcome! My astilbes are up now. The germination rate wasn't great but I might get a couple of plants out of it. Oh well, the cost of the pack of seeds was much less than the cost of one potted one so I'm still ahead.

I don't see why yours shouldn't overwinter, it sounds like they made good progress their first year.

My cypress vines are doing great! They're starting to look a little viney already, I guess I will have to train them on something soon.

Glad to hear your cypress vines are doing so well. I picked up the seed for the white flowered variety, but since yours are growing so fast, I think I'll wait a month before starting mine ;) BTW, I tried starting astilbe from seed a few years back with no luck at all, so congrats on getting them to sprout for you!

And a big welcome to you Brenda! Drop in often. :)

Laurie