Expert: Jim Hyland - 7/12/2010

Question
I bought some italian cypress seeds on Ebay and successfully cold stratified them and germinated them.  The are little plants with blue flowers that have a white and yellow center.  The plants are about 12-18 inches and look like a flowering leaf type plant.  No needles are present and it doesn't look like the cypress I see on the internet.  I can't find a picture on the internet of a 2-3mo. old plant.  Can you tell me about the blue flowers?

Answer
The cypress leaves are flat and scale like not true needles. Here is a picture of these.  http://www.tree-land.com/images/italian_cypress_tree_leaf_lg.jpg

The blue flowers are not cypress--sounds like you may not have gotten Italian cypress seeds or at least other seeds were mixed in. A picture might help ID the plant.