Is anyone familiar with Painted Tongue (Salpiglossis) plants

I recently received seeds for the salpiglossis plant and I planted the seeds in fresh soil, kept them covered for about 5 days and all of them sprouted successfully. Unfortunately, they got moved to the sun a bit too soon and all but one died. The surviving seedling is very spindly, but holding it's own fairly well. I have just re-planted more seeds yesterday and I'm wondering if the sprouts are normally really thin and fragile? The surviving plant from the first batch has been around for about 3 weeks now and hasn't gotten any bigger but I'm wondering what to expect since this is my first try with these seeds. I have read that this plant is quite easy to grow and generally quite tolerant to climate conditions, but after the first seedlings died just from being in full sun for about 3 hours, I am wondering if it was really the sun or if they were just too fragile to begin with.
Any help you can offer from your own experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Karen

I googled it and found a bunch of information on this plant. One site says prefers sandy soil and shade. But to be honest I have no personal experience to share. The web sit I visited said the plant is very unassuming but you will get rewarded with 3ft. flower stalks with a wide varity of possible colors. Wish you luck.

I think the problem with your first group of seedlings is that you exposed them to too much sun too quickly, you need to adjust them gradually to sun, and 3 hrs in full sun could definitely be too much for seedlings that aren't used to it. The one that survived but hasn't gotten bigger could have been stressed pretty badly by the sun that killed the others, so it may just be recovering. If it's got its first set of true leaves and you haven't fertilized it yet, you might try giving it some fertilizer at 1/4 strength and see if that helps.

I think you're right about the sudden exposure to the sun, they got moved accidentally that day and we didn't notice until it was too late. I don't see the true leaves on it yet, it's very tiny and the leaves it does have are just barely showing, so I may give it another week or two and see how it looks then. In the meantime it's in a shady spot that gets a maximum of 30 minutes of sun a day. It's on the 2nd row of a set of shelves so once the sun gets overhead, it's almost immediately covered by the top shelf.
I appreciate the suggestions, I will certainly try the fertilizer once it gets a little bigger.

I had never heard of these flowers before; I tried them in full sun, they seemed to not like it, I think part sun/part shade would be better. They were a little spindly even when flowering, not a very full plant.
The lady at a nursery told me they are like a 'vintage' flower, used to be a common flower, then after petunias were developed they became less known; but back in the day they were very common.
Not sure if true but cool story.

Salpiglossis are indeed very beautiful and what could be a "vintage" flower in that I remember them in my father's garden and growing well. I really cannot think of anything special that he did to get them going. Packets of seed usually say plant seed in situ and this may be the answer. On the other hand if the seed is sown very thinly in a tray and pricked out into individual small pots that can be dropped into a bed it would be best. Keep them in half shade until a couple of inches high I would say. The trumpet shaped flowers come in many shades. I don't grow annuals much any more but they do brighten up a garden. Make some sort of staking of these as if grown well they can be 2 ft tall.