I love blanketflower, Kelly - it grows wild in beach sand at Gulfport and Biloxi, and seems to grow better there than here. Florida is known for its sand, so I guess that's why they're working out in your meadow. I mailed my order to Mary Ann at Pine Ridge Gardens, and the seeds that I ordered from Native American Seed in Texas came the other day - the seeds are Liatris pycnostachya, Cassia fasciculata/Partridege pea, Salvia Azurea/Pitcher Sage, Ipomopsis rubra/Standing cypress, Penstemon tenuis/Gulf Coast penstemon, and Tridens flavus/Purple top grass. All are native here. The plants I've ordered are Panicum virgatum 'Cloud Nine'/panic grass, P. virgatum 'Red Sunset', several Tridens flavus/purple top grasses, and two Liatris pycnostachya, all native. I'll soon be starting the seeds, and I'll plant the plants as soon as we get the top soil and spread it. I've got some swamp sunflowers and native delphiniums that came from Bustani's that I'm planting in my garden that I hope will yield seeds that I can then use to grow plants for the meadow - I hope to be able to do the same thing with the Monarda punctata that's coming from Mostly Texas Natives and some red stem sunflowers that grow up front. Plus the agalinis should make seeds that I can use. What usually happens when I plant things in an uncontrolled place - as opposed to, say, a raised bed in my garden - whatever wants to come up, comes up and dominates what I've planted. Still, the additional plants may very well take and enhance my meadow. Fun, fun, fun! Sherry

Well, in my production for OG's, I use both production blocks, field division blocks, and seed/division plugs. Production blocks that I use are about 6 feet across, and range anywhere from 120 to 200 ft long. They can either be raised beds with a border like wood or plastic, or ground level beds cultivated for ease of division and growth development. Seedling blocks are hand sown, and then raked in by hand, thinned out by hand, and definately pruned and dug by hand. For instance, Panicum varieties that I can reproduce by seed, is the easiest and cheapest. I can grow a containerized-ready to sell Panicum grass that was grown from seed within 8 months after first sown, using production blocks. Plug trays are used when running grasses and aggressors can prove time consuming, or that I have to propagate by small, rhizome or stolon division. Overall fertilization of seedling and divisions are lliquid fed for the first 3 months, using a mixture between a weak fish emulsion and liquid kelp. Kelp by all means is a true tool for the grower, from vegetables to trees. I use only products like neem oil, hexacide, sporan etc etc because I can see only the best results in controlling problems that may occur like rust or miscanthus weevil. Other than the blocks, I grow lots of plugs, from perennials to grasses, and all have the same regiment of feeding, moisture, pest/disease management. Yet, the grasses have the quickest turnaround in terms of plug to container, or plug to ground exchange. Grasses like Muhlenbergia japonica variegata are grown here by two inch pots, because I have to take a quarter sized piece of the stolon to work with, and putting that in a half inch plug won't work. Other than that, winter protection is only thoght about and used when the production block of that certain genus is prone to damage or not entirely hardy with surface roots. Grasses as a whole are straight forward in terms of cultivating, but one can easily be overwhelmed with too many plants in little time.

Hexaploidy is relatively common in grasses, both in cultivated cereals and in wild plants. I couldn't find anything specific on what you wanted, but chromosome doubling with oryzalin or such, I would think would get some fertile hexaploids and allow further breeding, even with the interspecific hybrids. There is also the possibility that by repeated pollination with diploid and tetraploid pollens that you might someday get a seed or two that's more fertile. It happens in other plants, and succeeding generations can improve fertility further. Probably take an ocean of patience though. The caution is that these grasses can be extremely weedy and invasive when fertile, so you'd have to be very careful to keep them in bounds. We sure don't need another alien weed! Vincent

This is Leftwood, from Minnesota. Now I see a little about where you're coming from. I am not sure about the seeds frying in a fire as I don't really know what kind of temperature such a fire attains. Although most certainly, your first burn would be hotter than subsequent ones. Someone else will need to handle your nuking question. Still, laying on the surface certainly makes seeds vulnerable. Speaking from a non-prairie professional point of view, seeds that are ready to sprout only do so with free water in the soil. In most established environments, including prairies or just an established field, this is the primary force that prevents growth of seeds. It is easy to see how brome grass (and prairie grasses that produce sods) make free water a very difficult resource. However any established prairie, whether dense in sod grasses or not, possesses this same quality: every inch of soil space is taken up by roots, or there are a hundred seeds already ready to sprout and take it up. That is why praire naturalists take advantage of gopher mounds and the like. These are "mini-microclimates" of soil "unspoiled" with roots, and therefore contain free water and make good nurseries for new seed among an already established area. If you plant in spring, as early as soil thaws and is workable, the cold/warm flucuations of early spring would certainly be a benefit. But . . . Given the time, this is what I would do for the following season: Make or take advantage of these nursery beds in the fall. Sow the seed. Spring burning shouldn't nuke the seed because there is nothing in the nursery beds to burn. Heat from a passing fire should be minimal. And they'll get the kickstart sprouting benefit from cold stratification. I would imagine that some prairie seed has evolved to be kickstarted by the heat of a fire too. Perhaps someone can enlighten us.