Stratifying Perennial Seeds. 1.8.22

 This year I want to grow Echinacea "Cherokee Spirit".  The colors are very nice, and the plants are more compact and bushy, compared to species Echinacea.  They are expensive, so I ordered seeds.  Species Echinacea seed requires cold stratification.   The seed packet did not mention that, so I'm stratifying half and starting the other half directly.  I don't know, but maybe early starts will give first year flowers.  With species Echinacea, I don't get flowers until the second year.

I use the same method that usually works for me - place the seeds on a moistened paper towel, place that into a zipper sandwich bag, and place that in the refrigerator for two months.

I'm also starting some Goldenrod.  Same method.

As an experiment, I also sowed half of the Echinacea seeds in a six-pack, which will be on a seedling warming mat. 

Then I opened a paper bag of Rudbeckia seed heads, that I collected in the fall and stored in the pantry.

A lot of seeds had already fallen into the bag (which I missed when preparing to stratify).  I brushed seed heads with my fingers, to harvest seeds. 

Then I treated some of those, same method as the Echinacea.

We'll see hoe they do.