CompuServe Messages

Mark, I haven't done it and I'm no expert (I edit a journal for the Ohio Native Plant Society, but my qualification for that is knowing even less than the average reader), but here's a summary of what Harry Phillips says (in GROWING AND PROPAGATING WILD FLOWERS): (1) Can be sown indoors or outdoors with good results. (2) Indoors, sow after moist-cold treatment in the refrigerator for at least 60 days. Sow evenly in a flat of standard sowing medium, cover with 1/4 inch of soil, and keep constantly moist. Expect germination within 2 weeks. The seedlings are small the first year, only 2-3 inches tall, with just one undivided leaf, and go dormant within three months! When that happens, you can pot the small corms individually and keep them in a shaded place outdoors (outdoors to Phillips is North Carolina). Plant them in the garden at the end of the second season and they'll probably flower the third. (3) Outdoors, just collect and clean the seeds in the fall, and sow them 3-4 inches apart in a seedbed. Transplant them to the garden at the end of the second season. You have the 60 days of moist-cold treatment, so you can go ahead whenever it's convenient. They don't require a great deal of light, but constant moisture is essential. All Jones and Foote (GARDENING WITH NATIVE WILD FLOWERS) have to say is that it self-sows readily.