I just wanted to mention that the photo I saw was of the crested type.

butterflylion,
Chief's flowers are round and Bombay is flat, I hope you already knew that though. Chief is a little taller also. Useable good stems they are close, chief probably had a small percent more. Chief had about 6 good stems and Bombay 5. Hope that helps.

Good luck.

Bryan

bfl,
Cramer's Cockscomb yellow is actually green. Both Bombay and Chief produce 8 stems per plant. Remember to pinch them. Grow both of these if you can because the Bombay blooms a full four weeks before the Chief.

Trish

Thanks for sharing the info. In warmer climates will Celosia re-bloom? The Green Celosia is Bombay and is at sunvalleyfloral.com/ I haven't found any seeds yet.

The Celosia featured on sunvalleyfloral.com is Celosia, Cristata Bombay Series, Yellow Gold. In warm climates, you will get 8 stems per plant. The stems aren't all going to bloom at one time. We can cut from a plant for a few weeks. If you want continuous flowers, you can succession plant celosia. That's what we do...........

Trish

Trish, does the 'Yellow Gold' look green when you grow it? Our hot summers sometime effect colors on some flowers.

Yes. It looks lime green. Our summers are hot and humid as well.

Trish

Trish, bfl is right.

There is a green,
http://www.thesunvalleygroup.com/thesunvalleygroup/FlowerDetails.cfm?ID=24&Type=Bombay_Celosia&site=pvf

That is different from the yellow gold you refer to.
http://www.thesunvalleygroup.com/thesunvalleygroup/FlowerDetails.cfm?ID=713&Type=Bombay_Celosia&site=pvf

bfl, to get seed I would call the Oxnard division to see if they will sell you a box of green celosia. If not I would locate one of their wholesalers and contact them. I have called my father in law (lives in Camarillo) to go over there and get a few bundles.

Once you get the celosia you should be able to collect as much seed as you need. Hopefully it is not a hybrid. Also if you know of wholesalers in your area you can ask them if you can collect seed before they ship it out to the retail shops. That is where I got most of my Bombay seed.

Good luck.

Bryan

bfl, I just called one of the wholesalers (espirit Salt Lake). They said red is still on, but no green until later this spring (hopefully by March). They get it from someone other than sunvalley, they said sunvalley was to hard to work with. They also said come get all the seed I want! :) I will let you know when I get it.

Bryan

Why are we as growers talking about imported flowers?
Espirit is located in Miami; and, they are a large importer of flowers from Equador.

I spoke with the representative from the wholesale house where we purchase much of our seed. There is no true green Celosia, cristata, Bombay Series. The acid in your soil is going to affect the green cast which some of us growers have found in our celosia. If you save the seed from your imported flowers, the color is going to be different in your soil because your pH is going to be different. Large growing operations know how to do this.

I also spoke with the customer service representative from the large floral wholesale supply house in western Michigan. They receive flowers in from Espirit. He's never seen a real true green. It's a yellow/green.

Trish

Trish, We are not talking about imported flowers. If you read my other post above you can see by the URLs that I posted sunvalleygroup is not over seas. They also grow a green and yellow/gold. They are in CA and espirit Salt Lake is a wholesaler in Salt Lake City, UT that buys from growers all over the US and overseas, including sunvalleygroup. No they are not the Espirit Maimi you are talking about. I understand the not true colors and PH levels affecting plants and colors.

bfl's question was about sunvalleygroups green bombay celosia and how to get seed. I was trying to let them know how to attempt to get seed.

Bryan

What about Celosia 'Spring Green?' I saw Harris has seed of it for sale. Have any of you grown it?

Here is a link that might be useful: Celosia 'Spring Green'

An outstanding "green" (acutally lime) Celosia is Sylphid, a "plume type" sorta like Pampas Plume.

Very productive, especially if you don't pick until they get some size. They make an outstanding addition to any bouquet.

I have also been happy with Celosia Sylphid and agree with tommyk about it's production. I have not been able to find it anywhere other than Johnny's, which is fine as I am not planting a lot because each plant produces so many flowers.

Teresa

Is Celosia Sylphid open pollinated? Can you save your own seeds from season to season?

I seem to be no good at growing celosia. My first try was two years ago and I started them 8 weeks ahead of last-frost. They never got tall enough to use. I've read since that they will get stunted if left too long in the cell-packs, so last year I started them only four weeks before set-out time, and they still never got much over a foot tall and weren't very useful for me. Both years were different. The first summer was coolish and last summer was fairly hot and quite wet.

I'm going to try them again this year, but I don't know what to do differently. I've tried the Sylphid, which was more yellow than green for me, and Pampas Plume, plus a mix that I don't remember the name of. This year I'm going to give Cramer's Amazon a try too.

Any growing hints for me?

ThinMan

It seems to really take off the hotter and more humid it is. When all the other flowers are looking peaked, it is thriving,

Teresa

Thinman, Celosia has been pretty easy for me to grow. In fact last year I had a bed that self sowed and still grew to about 2.5 feet tall but I'm also 2 zones warmer than you. Here's a quote from Johnny's Select Seeds web site that might apply to you:
GROWING ON: 63-68F night with long days. Low temps and less than 12 hours of light per day can cause premature flowering.

That's pretty warm night temperatures. I suppose you already read that Armitage says that celosia doesn't recover well if the seedlings are root bound. Maybe temperature is more your problem. You could try starting them out under row covers for the first month to give them extra heat early on.

Oh, one problem I have had is fasciation on my cockscomb celosia. I get these flat wide stems that are awkward to fit in a vase. The side shoots work better than the big central leader. Does anyone know if this is an issue with all celosia cristata or is it just because I'm growing an heirloom variety?

- Steve

@ Teresa - Sylphid is also now avail from Gloeckner's, looks to be a little cheaper.
I grew Spring Green last year, it's gorgeous .... The colouring is much greener than Cramer's Lemon/Lime

@ Steve - Sylphid volunteers never come true for me...

Cheers Kim
Billabong Fresh Flower Farm

thinman:

I grow three types of Celosia: Pampas Plume, Punky Red & Sylphid. I transplant seedlings into 2-1/4 x 3-1/4" cells and grow until after frost. We use black plastic with soaker hoses underneath in raised beds. One thing we've learned is not to start cutting any of those types of Celosia until at least 2' tall. It seems if you cut before that height they don't branch and grow quite as well. Our Celosias approach 3' and provide us with lots of cuts.

It could be one of those plants that just won't grow for you, regardless of experience. For the life of me I can't get tall growing marigolds to do much for me while everyone else is overrun with them.