I brought back some edelweiss as a souvenir of my trip to Switzerland, but I think the planting instructions on the back are assuming an alpine climate, not California. I read that they like a sandy soil, which means I will need to plant in a pot, since our soil is very clay-heavy. The package says full sun, but I'm wondering if that will work here, where it can get into the 90-degree range in the summer. It also says to plant May-July in pots, keep cool and transplant to outdoors when tall seedlings. Well, it will not be cool outdoors in July here. It might be in the 70s or 80s in May, but I don't know if that's as cool as they prefer. I do live in N. CA, which gets cool at night. My USDA zone above (9) is somewhat misleading, as we have microclimates here. I can never remember my CA zone, but I am sort of at the edge of 3 different zones, anyway.

What do you think? partial shade? How much? And what time of year should I sow/transplant the seeds? (Actually, I can't think of a shady spot where I could put a pot. All my pots are in full sun. I have a hill with plenty of shade, but I can't put a pot on the side of a hill. I do have a shady spot where I had some camelias that died, but I would have to amend all the clay soil. It's like solid clay, which is likely why the camelias died. I didn't plant them, by the way -- the previous owner did.)