There are certain types of flowers that I don't really like. Daisies are among them. I don't know why, but they just don't really impress me in any way. And most of them smell bad too. But Among those daisy-lookalikes there are some species that are exceptions. Like coneflowers (Echinacea). They bloom late into autumn staying bright after most perennials have passed their blooming time.

The only thing that I don't like about them is that they never make seeds here. They are so late that sometimes they don't even get to bloom before it's fall. So you need to choose a nice sunny warm spot for them and then water them throughout the summer, because warm and sunny spots are often too dry for coneflowers.

A few years back I had no idea how many different varieties there are of coneflowers! I had only seen the dark pink ones and my mother never encouraged me to have those either. She kept telling me they would never bloom.

Last year I bought some coneflowers in pots in the spring. I planted them along the wall, because it was the sunniest place I could think of. Only one of them bloomed (probably the one I watered most) while the rest of them just made leaves. A couple of them hated the heat and kept wilting and coming back all summer. This is the one that bloomed right next to tiger lilies. Needless to day that the lilies loved the hot and sunny place they were given.

I only ordered two kinds of plants; 'Summer Cocktail' and 'Hot Papaya' and this doesn't really seem to be either of them. But I still loved the vivid colour of the bloom. The plant was growing right next to the path leading to my front door, so I walked past it every day, and it really made me smile.

During the summer I was sowing numerous kinds of seeds, Echinacea among them. The seeds sprouted well and I got lots of little Echinaceas (the common type) and planted them in the garden. I'm not sure how old they'll have to be before they bloom, but that I will see that later on. Maybe this summer, maybe next. If they are still alive. I'm not sure if I should be hopeful about that after the autumn since the cold came before snow.

But since I love so much this "not-hot-papaya" of mine, I thought I would look for more brightly coloured Echinaceas for my garden. You can not believe how difficult that is. I haven't been able to find many places in Finland that would sell anything but the common 'Magnus' or alike. I recall seeing 'Green Envy' in some mail order catalogue one year, but that's in the past. I tried having a look at the foreign garden stores as well. Yes, some of them have some new colourful varieties, but the prices were so high I just decided that I could live without them.

Then I remembered that hey,  I have been growing these from seeds earlier, so maybe there are some seeds available of newer cultivars as well! I'm not sure if there are, maybe yes, but the best I could find after a very short search was eBay. Again.

I have been shopping at eBay shops gardeningbylee and moustic2307. I realise that the seeds sold on these shops are openly pollinated and may look nothing like the mother plant, but the good chance is that they will look exciting nevertheless. And if I wasn't able to get the correct plant when buying them in pots, then I probably don't really mind what the seedlings will look like as long as they look "different". And even if they don't they will look happy and colourful in the autumn anyway. The only way they could produce a big disappointment was if they didn't sprout at all or proved to be something completely different. What I mean by this is something different than Echinacea. Yes, this happened to me once... These seeds were a bit pricey considering there's no guarantee of the result, but I can live with that. I just won't order anything in the future if they all will grow to look like the common coneflower in my garden.

Here are the pictures that helped me choose the seeds I bought from eBay shops gardeningbylee and moustic2307:

It looks like some or most of these photos were from coneflower.com even though used by the eBay shops. Thanks to whoever took the pictures. They are here as reference to the shops selling the seeds. 

The cultivars (or as they were informed) are from top left to right :
'Tomato Soup', 'Tangerine Dream', 'Supreme Cantaloupe', 'Sunset', 'Secret Passion', 'Secret Affair',
'Raspberry Truffle', 'Pink Double Delight', Meteor Yellow', 'Marmalade', 'Hot Papaya', 'Gumdrop',
'Guava Ice', 'Glowing Dream', 'Flamethrower', 'Firebird', Colorburst Orange' and 'Champagne Bubbles'.

There were lots of other varieties to choose as well, but as the result is likely to be something else than the mother plant, I thought these were quite enough. These are going to fill my garden completely for a few years. Or will they? I have been told that these plants are quite short lived. I'm hoping that this isn't true.

In any case, I will be reporting about the result as soon as I see them. And probably even about the progress along the way.

I have been preparing for the summer already. I have been buying seeds, sowing seeds, storing bulbs, and... even buying some new ones. Yes, I know! It's only February. I will only be able to plant the bulbs in May after there's no frost in the ground any more.

I bought lots of different lilies, Irises and other bulbs last year. Most of them didn't even bloom. The best performers were low growing lily varieties like 'Mona Lisa' and the tiger lily 'Pink Tiger' (which I believe to be 'Splendens' instead, because it doesn't really look like 'Pink Tiger' at all). Others were just too late last summer, and didn't get to bloom before winter. Summer 2012 wasn't exactly warm. It was quite cool and I kept waiting for the "summer to finally arrive" all summer long! Those lilies that were early enough were growing along the southern wall, and probably enjoyed more warmth than others.

I have been ordering most of my bulbs abroad for years now. Mainly because it's easier to find more cultivars in one place. But then it happens, that I come across some lovely cultivar at my local hardware store, and have to buy that too... Here are some I bought last week.

So what I found there in Bauhaus were oriental lilies, dahlias, iris and Crocosmia. I also placed a big order at Eurobulb. My list includes some Eucomis, Iris, Hemerocallis, Gladiolus, Trillium and some other bulbs. To be honest, I'm not sure if there's going to be enough space in my garden for all of them, but I guess I'll just make more space if there isn't yet.

This is definitely the time of the year to buy some seeds for the next summer. Usually I start buying seeds as soon as they appear at the shops and when the first seed catalogs arrive. So I have been doing that for a couple of weeks now.

But seed stores online exist all year round, so I have been purchasing seeds even during the summer and in autumn. Today I have been shopping on eBay. I like buying on eBay, because sometimes you find a cultivar that doesn't exist at your local stores. I do buy online at "real" seed stores as well (such as RaraVäxter or Plant World Seeds) so it's not exclusive in any way. Actually I have been buying seeds for year online as well as at supermarkets, garden centers and practically from anyone who is willing to sell seeds at all.

Last summer I bought seeds from some Finnish hobby gardener online. They were all perennial plant seeds, so it will remain to be seen if they come true from seed. I know it's more than likely that especially Aquilegias will be something else than the mother plant. My favourite find last year was Touchwood Seeds and all those Aquilegias I wish to have in my garden next summer unless all the little seedling die during the winter. I kept sowing Aquilegias all summer last year, so I haven't been buying any new Aquilegia seeds yet. Now I'm interested in different poppy cultivars instead, both perennial and annual species.

I had some lovely annual poppies in my garden last year. Perennial cultivars were a disappointment, because all the seeds that were supposed to produce pink poppies turned out to be orange. Even the Papaver orientale cultivar I bought as pot plants, proved to be orange and not burgundy that they were supposed to be. But the annual Papaver somniferum cultivars were spectacular! Not all of the seeds grew up to be what they were supposed to be (especially those bought from various eBay stores) but some of them were even better than expected.

Today I have been shopping on an eBay store called Southern Seeds and this is what I bought:

 There are oriental poppies, Bellis, annual poppies, larkspur, zinnias and California poppies, Gaillardia and Monarda. I hope they will be as spectacular as promised and that the seeds will be fresh. The amounts were quite small, like 25 poppy seeds per bag, so if the viability rate is low, I won't have too many plants. Bellis is a biennial plant, so I will only be able to observe the result the following year.