Growing Gailliardia from seed

I fell in love with Gailliardia last year after buying a young plant and enjoying the blooms all summer long. Today I bought a packet of seeds thinking I might try them again and hopefully save myself some money (and hopefully get a lot more plants).

Has anyone grown them successfuly from seed? I don't have a greenhouse so would only be using windowsills indoors.

Ta muchly

 

Hi SussexG, I have never grown Gaillardia either from seed or as a plant. But I suspect that they are not difficult from seed.

I had a quick Google and found this site http://www.robsplants.com/plants/GaillGrand.php , which said they were fairly easy. This site is saying needs light to germinate, which implies that you don't cover the seeds.

I have been sowing some seed myself today in a lightbox. They include a lot of items not known to me, so I spent some time Googling each packet. You can get some conflicting information, so you need to take a mental average of a number of sites. I have Internet Explorer and like to Google under the web pages, image pages and groups pages. There are all set in the menu at the top. The web pages are often people trying to sell you the seeds or plants, and may have a bias in their descriptions. But the groups pages are from forums like this, where you get a pretty honest discussion - but you must remember that some members live in very diferent climates.

 

Not something I have grown Aaron, but I cant think its difficult.

I think if I were you I'd wait until march maybe, and sow the seeds then, once they germinate I'd pot them in small individual pots, and harden off in may, planting out early june.

In other words grow them as a half hardy annuals, although I think some might be perennial.

 

I grew them last year for the first time as there were free seeds in Amateur Gardening they were very simple to grow, and a real rewarding plant,they flowered late and lasted forever even into the frosts,they flowered in the first year but as Pete say's some I believe can be perennial.I have saved some seed and it is just germinating.
What I call a good doer.
Here is a pic.

 

Dead easy. Some of the dwarf perennial ones such as Arizona Sun and Mesa yellow are first year flowering. So I would bung them in now. As i don't have a heated greenhouse I germinate them on a windowsell. If you want to grow perennials from seed you could try and get a small cold frame that you could move them into. Otherwise just keep them inside until things get a bit warmer. I tend to pot them on into pots. If you are aiming for flowering this year keep them growing and don't allow them to get crowded.

 

I am half tempted myself now that I have seen that photo, wow!

 

Thanks all.

I can really recommend them - the bloomed and bloomed all summer and autumn. According to my google research, they are actually known to bloom themselves to death - I have cut back last years plant so will wait and see if it reappears.

I'm going to try early sowing first (next month) and then again in March to hedge my bets.

 

I collected seed from garden escapees growing in the sand dunes, they're so bright and attractive. I will try early and late sowings too, to see which works best.