Echinacea purpurea seedlings chomped by cats!

My poor little echinacea seedlings, which have been through so much, have fallen victim to the cats! Most of them are still alive, so I'm hardening them off in the hopes of saving them from further suffering.

By way of contrast, here is the happy healthy old echinacea plant that's been growing outside for a few years. Although one of the cats has been sneaking outside a bit to enjoy the sun, he hasn't tried chomping this plant.

Echinacea purpurea: seedlings

The once-bedraggled echinacea sprouts are doing surpisingly well. Here they are about a month after their rescue from the bowels of my fridge.

Echinacea purpurea seedlings looking good!

It's hard to believe that so many of the bedraggled Echinacea sprouts that languished in my fridge for a year have survived, and even look healthy! You can see that some of the seedlings have a slightly fuzzy true leaf growing now. Click on the photo to see it enlarged.

Echinacea purpurea: sprouts

Echinacea purpurea, known in English as eastern purple coneflower and in French as echinacée pourpre or rudbeckie pourpre, is a perennial native to eastern North America. It is used as a herbal medicine and is becoming popular as an ornamental plant. The flowers are like big purplish-pink daisies with conical brown centres.

Last week, I posted about the poor bedraggled echinacea sprouts that had been languishing in my fridge since last year. I planted them and put them under fluorescent lights, and a surprising number (8 or 9) of them seem to have survived! As you can imagine I am thrilled!

Can these Echinacea sprouts be saved?

On March 18, 2008, I put a bunch of Echinacea purpurea seeds in a plastic bag of damp potting mix to cold moist stratify in the fridge. They were supposed to be there for 6 to 8 weeks, but my fridge being what it is I didn't find them until August or September. By then they had sprouted, and they say that if they sprout while being stratified they should be planted immediately, but I didn't think I could put them outside so soon before winter so I just left them in the fridge.

Today, about 6 months later, the sprouts look much like they did back then. At least some of them look like they might still be alive! Here they are, sown at last. I just set up some fluorescent lights for starting seeds, so they will get a chance to grow a bit inside while we wait for the weather to warm up. If even one of these sprouts survives, it will still be a bargain price for Echinacea, since the whole packet of seeds (Gardener's Choice from Canadian Tire) was less than a buck!

Echinacea purpurea: winter

Echinacea purpurea, known in English as eastern purple coneflower and in French as echinacée pourpre or rudbeckie pourpre, is a perennial native to eastern North America. It is used as a herbal medicine and is becoming popular as an ornamental plant. The flowers are like big purplish-pink daisies with conical brown centres.

The seedheads, which are like spiky dark brown balls, remain ornamental in winter (until the snow gets too deep).