Critter, have you WSown them before? Ruds wintersow very well. I've done them for the past 3 years and they're right up there on the top of my favorites list.
I'm also anxious to see the Goldsturms this year. I received rootings of some last year from an online friend in Chicago. They looked healthy all summer, though stayed small. Hoping for a bigger, better show from them this year. This pic is the Goldsturms
Karen
Karen, Goldsturm is tough as nails and reliably perennial. I love the way they'll grow anywhere and put on a long show. They reseeded aggressively for me, so I'd recommend dead heading.
Karen -- yo have no snow??
all of mine are buried.
I do believe mine looked like that before the got covered.
These will be my first R. hirta! That's why I appreciate all the input and advice from this thread. I do have a "regular" BES, probably something like 'Goldstrum', and it gives me little volunteers each year. :-)
gemini_sage: Yes, everything I've heard or read about Goldsturm is good so I'm anxious to see how they perform this year.
tcs: Nope, no snow. We've had very little this year. Most years we don't get much snow, only a couple of inches at a time and that disappears, but do get that occasional one foot dump every few years. This city barely moves with an inch of snow, schools close.
Critter: You'll love the results from wintersowing the ruds. Mine usually start sprouting fairly early, at pretty low temps, (March) and are unharmed by subsequent frosts or freezes. Perfect for wintersowing. I've only sown 7 jugs so far this year, and one of those is the Cherry Brandy ruds.
Karen
So good to hear that ruds ws well. I went ahead and tried mine-what's wintersowing without faith, right? I put the Cherry Brandy out right before our big snowfall...Not that anyone in this house thought that it actually would snow, lol!
I was just going to add my Cappuccino Ruds to my tradelist (which I use as my inventory - keepers are "disabled") and found that there is no PlantFile for them! Also, the "Cherry Brandys" don't have a picture. Has anyone with a great photo of either considered adding to PlantFiles? I've never added anything before, but I love being able to "scroll though my garden," looking at the pictures on my tradelist and trying to imagine the garden in Spring.
I'm guessing using the photo from parkseed.com wouldn't be kosher?
-GB
Just stumbled across this and am so glad I did. I was planning to WS my rudbeckia seeds but then was second guessing myself on if I should. I have Cherry Brandy, Prairie Sun and Cherokee Sunset.
Guess I will go ahead and give it a try!!
I checked my records. You can wintersow rudbeckia now, but it doesn't make a difference. I've sown them in January and March. Either way they sprout the end of March/beginning of April.
I've always sown them in winter, and they've grown like weeds. I have a jug of Cherry Brandy out there now so I'm hoping they do as well as the others.
Karen
I figured I'd wait a bit to sow 'Cherry Brandy', since R. hirta is probably an annual here.
Critter: Have you grown any Hirtas in the past? Did they perform as annuals? Even if so, I'd say they'd be hardy annuals in the least, OK to sow in winter. T&M lists all their hirtas as half hardy annuals. I've sown several types and they last at least 2 years for me. I might have lost 1 or 2 without noticing, I can't swear to it, but I think it's always been a minimum of 2 years. I'm hoping for the same with Cherry Brandy.
This morning, finally, our layers of ice and snow are gone. I have to get out there and see if any green remains on my ruds, gaillardias, snapdragons, or anything else. This has been a really tough winter, with sub zero temps even before the insulating snow arrived. I fear for their survival this year. Soon the flooding will come too, and they're not exactly wild about that, either.
Karen
I was sloshing around out back yesterday.... I still have "green"
Some things - that were more shaded, still had some snow... though i bet it's just about gone now.
But things i noticed ... some were looking quite 'sad' but green none the less....
Shasta Daisy
Husker Red
Early Sunrise, Coreopsis
HollyHock
Bee Balm
- oh -- there was something else... i just can't think of it now.
but it was not a Rudbeckia... that is in a different spot.
I'll probably go sloshing out there again today. With the ground being so frozen, though i did noticed the top 1.5" were OK, since i had to shove a plant marker back in .... but all that water has no where to go.
OH and on the North side.... i did notice my Plum Pudding Heurcheras and my Jacob's Ladder still had color.
Karen, 'Cherry Brandy' is the first R. hirta for my garden. I'm hoping it'll last longer than one season, but sounds as though it's a good candidate for self-sowing regardless.
I hope they work well for you. I hope they do for me, too!
I have fallen in love with the green-eyed ruds in recent years. I've WSown Irish Eyes and Prarie Sun, as well as seeds harvested from them. They're among my favorite flowers.
Karen
Very pretty Karen! Those happy yellow faces are bringing up this gray day.
-GB
Do the new R. hirta varieties come true (or close) from seed? That would be nice!
Not in my experience. They seem to cross polinate readily. Above, in this thread, on Dec 19, I posted pictures of a double green-eyed rud. It was started from seeds I harvested from Prarie Sun. It was my favorite rud this year.
Karen
OK, thanks! If my 'Cherry Brandy' self-sows, I'll have another data point -- since it's my only R. hirta, cross pollinating isn't likely for me.
Critterologist,
I am still a little nervous about WS in my zone 3! I have ordered my seed and they are arriving. I even have the 'Cherry Brandy' also. I have my milk jugs and I am getting ready to get busy. Do you think it is still too early for me to start? I am also wondering if I should keep the lids on the top. Today was -10 low and 11 high! Somewhere I missed the info on determining when to start for the zone.
By the way, would you recommend WS daylily seeds?
Thanks for your help.
Helene
Helene, I am in zone 3a and wintersow from January on. Last year I did 100 containers. It is safe for anything hardy now. Just keep containers in a cool spot, under snow if you have it. If the seeds sprout too early the seedlings could freeze if the temperature dips (this frequently happens where I live.
Hi violist!
Finally, someone close to me! Thanks for the encouraging info! I do have snow still! It is still frozen here!
Please, tell me what containers you are using and if you keep the lids on them? Are you using milk jugs?
Oh, Im so happy to have someone in my zone! If I may, I will probably ask you more questions as I go! I am just south of the Canadian border from Manitoba. I just moved here a couple of years ago from California and I have alot to learn still! I used to run 5 greenhouses and 1 acre of nursery for a highschool. That was in zone 9 though. So, i know some things about plants, but this is a whole new experience!
Thanks for your advice!
Helene
Helene, You might want to check out the Canadian gardening forum as many of us are zone 3's. There is also a flurry of activity all of a sudden on the Cool Climate gardening.
This will be my third year to winter sow and after much experimenting I now use only the 4 liter plastic milk jugs, without lids. They just work best. I find the things best for wintersowing are things that can be direct sowed here. Perennials are fine if you don't expect blooms the first year.
I moved here from southern Ohio many years ago and that was enough of a gardening shock. I imagine moving to zone 3 from California would be even more traumatic. The way I got back into gardening was through our local horticultural society which has an incredibly useful online forum too.
Theresa
This message was edited Feb 14, 2009 11:02 PM
Shiirb, I think you'll definitely want to keep the lids off. You don't want them to warm up too much inside when the sun is on them and make them sprout too early. I think that vent is an important aspect of the process.
Oh, I LOVE those Cherry Brandy Ruds! I've never seen any in that deep red before! Thanks a lot, now I have one more thing to add to my wish list! LOL I should take a good, hard look at my seed list before I decide I "need" any more seeds!
Angie
