I've never grown it, so I looked it up. Every article says it's a tender annual, but reseeds itself readily. I also notice lots of vendors have the seeds for sale, but no plants. So, I think you can count on it not coming back in the spring, except any seedlings that may sprout.

Sherry

I cut every healthy stem to use in my flower arrangements.....where they last forever! Gomphrena is very easy to grow from seed and I always bring in a new supply for my winter sowing.

I was planning on winter sowing mine also. I don't think they would be dependable, if one was expecting to get enough of them from volunteers in the garden.

Rhizo, I ordered the crimson, and fireworks Gomphenas. Was it the fireworks cultivar that you liked a lot?

I mispoke using the term "winter sowing". I grow most of my own annuals in flats, under lights.....sowing in the winter so that they are blooming by the time planting time comes around in the spring.

I did grow Fireworks, and like it very much. I also like Audray Purple Red and Audray Mix. There was another kind I grew this year but can't remember the same.

I knew what you meant rhizo. I think I'm going to start them in jugs, just like with winter sowing, but I won't prepare them, and put them outside until Feb. or March. Thank you for the new info! Well I'm going to do plants like Zinnias , Thithonia, Salvia coccinia, ect. In the jugs I think. Some tropicals like Porterweed and Calotropis that I want further along, I will be starting inside, under lights much earlier.

harvest and store some seed in a LABELED envelope ... so that if you have a total winter crop failure ... [low odds in your zone] .. you have the stored seed to resow ...

and the envelope will remind you of the name in spring.. so you can google images of seedlings ...

ken