Re: Echinacea
- Subject: Re: Echinacea
- From: A* L*
- Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 09:44:56 +0100
susannah@cyber-dyne.com wrote:
>
> At 05:34 PM 7/22/2002 +0100, Anthony Lyman-Dixon wrote:
>
> > ... I should have sown it in September
>
> Hmmm... this sounds interesting! When you plant them in September, do
> they sprout right away, or wait until spring? If they sprout right
> away, how big do they get before cold weather? Do they lose all their
> leaves in the winter in your area? Do you have a lot of slugs and
> snails? The reason I ask is that I'm wondering if, here in Oregon,
> they would get big enough that they would survive the snails when they
> resprout in the spring (they do go dormant here).
Hullo Susannah,
Germination starts after about two weeks and is fairly erratic but most
seedlings are up in their trays (flats) after approximately 6 weeks and
growth continues until the weather gets cold by which time the plants
are normally between half and one inch. They keep their leaves but stop
growing until the light and temperature pick up again in the Spring.
They certainly wouldn't survive the slugs and snails here which love our
alkaline conditions and high rainfall and so they are potted and kept
inside until sold, apart from a few two year olds which go in to the
display beds until the following Winter's rain drowns them, they are
grazed by deer or the slugs get them as they emerge the following
Spring. This sounds as though the wet West of England is a disaster
area for Echinacea grown outside, which it is, so it is doubly amazing
that our friends at Hardstoft (no web site) hold the national Echinacea
collection up in Derbyshire where the climate is even worse. Definitely
worth a visit if you are ever in the UK, it really is magnificent.
Anthony
