I posted seed collection #5, Zinnia, in my last post. Number 6 is Smooth Rattlebox, Crotalaria pallida. I've photographed the plant and collected the seeds last fall. Here's a photograph of the plant in full bloom.
I have not assigned a number to Zinnia elegans, as yet, however I have taken photographs of the seeds that I collected. I read an article by "Zen" on Zinnia seed collection, and it was great. On the collection of Zinnia seeds, he is a recognized expert. Anyway, I sent him an email and I thought I would just copy this email into this post because it covers most of the basics of everything I wanted to talk about:
I look forward to "Zens" reply, and I can't wait to try the seeds out. I understand that the disc seeds and the petal/ray seeds are amazingly different, in that, As I recall, "The disc seeds more or less copy the parents and the ray/petal seeds have all kinds of cool possibilities!!! 
So, I can't wait to hear any responses from my friends here at NGA, & I can't wait to look and see what happens with these seeds. Any advice, as always is appreciated!
P.S. No results from the Coreopsis experiment yet. I'll post about that later.
It's been a little over 2 weeks now, and I still don't see any developments. Does anyone have any advice for me? I'm gonna keep trying. Here's a picture of the latest results:
Well, it's been 5 days since I planted the seeds. I don't see anything yet. Here is hoping.
Coreopsis lanceolata is a perennial. It was blooming for the last couple of months in my area. I still see a few places where it's evident. I collected the seeds recently, and I did some research. In my library I have a book that I bought a long time ago. It's been sitting moldering on my shelf not being used. Since I have got this new bug about gardening I pulled it out, and sure enough, I found a section on Coreopsis with a reference to lanceolata. The section includes what I need to know ( I think๐) on collection, storage, propagation etc. Here is the book.
The author Harry Phillips is associated with the University of North Carolina Botanical garden, as curator of native plants. I tried to find more information on him and some links to a bio but there's nothing available that I can find. I did find an interesting list of references related to perennial gardening that some might find useful. Here is the link.
https://ncbg.unc.edu/2022/01/1...
Back to sowing seeds. So, I took about 25 of the seeds of the Coreopsis and planted them in 4 pots. I figured since they're perennials and they would be doing that in nature (except the part about growing in pots) they can do it on my back deck as well.
According to the book I should get a very good propagation rate. So wish me luck and look for updates. If anybody has advice let me know. And I really mean that. Including critical advice like "dummy you're doing something really stupid". Please let me know. Of course I know everybody here is so nice nobody would do that. The advice might be critical but not mean.๐
I'll try to give you an update when I see some changes. Until next time.
