Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #37

Star how did you ever make out with your Kiwi Blue? Mine still look great but have already started seeding. I have no idea how long I need to let them mature, so I planted a few today to see if they'd come up. If I remember right they were pretty quick germinators. I really must get out this week and take some pictures!

Oh I do have one that I took today. It qualifies as a cottage garden pic since I grew all the flowers in my very own cottage garden. LOL
:-P

(Be kind. It's my first attempt at floral arranging.)

Lala... that is gorgeous!! that talent is something i totally lack.

Very impressive, Lala - I recognize most of the flowers - what are the blue five-petalled flowers. (I want to see if I can replicate your design - see how inspiring you are?)

My Kew Blues aren't doing very well but I put them in a planter this year usually I have them in the ground they seem so week in the pot. They make lots of seeds! I think I have a lot to learn about planting in pots lol I have no luck with them at all :(

La, your arrangement is beautiful! You did a great job!

Well, i jsut got home around noon today...and BOY do i have the Rudbeckias blooming!! mostly Black Eyed Susans but various types... it's jsut stunning.

OH heck... and i even found my Jacob Kline Monarda!! woohoo, that was a nice surprise. guess i forgot where i planted it... thought it was in a different bed.

I'll take photos later, though it is really dark, looking like rain.

Lea... the Salvia... it has lil bits of white on the blue blooms... i'll try to get a good photo.. i have to use Dh's camera, since mine does not do macros well.

I'll be back later tonight... lots to do today.

Hey thanks y'all. My SIL commissioned the bouquet and since I wasn't sure what she was using it for I tried to make it look good all the way around. That's a lot easier said than done!

Michaela the blue is tall phlox. The very dark red is purple amaranthus which I thought made a striking filler but I'm not sure how well it will hold up. I'll have to ask about that before I use it again, I'm ready to make a bouquet for myself now. I don't know why I've never thought of doing that, especially with the flowers in the back 40. Heck I'm the only one that sees them anyway so I might as well cut some of them and bring a little of the outside indoors.

here is the Salvia blooms.... i did manage to get a decent photo from my camera.

I took a lot of photos today... lots of weeding [hence, lots of mosquito bites]
I have to sort thru and edit photos, but will post some... the field is looking really pretty.
LOTS of yellow and pink.

OH -- will also have a question about Butterfly Weed vs Milkweeds ... i'll have an image.

Lala.. Beautiful arrangemnt. That a talent I don't have either. Ther e is a floral arranging forum and them folks are great over there too, I like hanging out and seieng what they cna do with the flower s from their gardens.

Ya shoudl pop over ther e and put yoru pic in the Cafe. Always coffee and such there.

I neve r did get th ekiwi;s to grow. decided to heck with them sinc e they wasn't the type I really wante d to grow I want the plain dark leafe d an d purple flowers. Gonna get me some of them seeds. when i do wil share with ya.

Today I decide d her e just a bit ago to fialyl get out ther e and do some mowing. Had trie d and trie d all mornign to get mower going adn it wouldn't when next door came hoem aske d him if he would start. Figures. one pul and that man did what I spent and hour trying to do unsuccessfully.

So ther e I go merrily mowing along, wishign he would have mowed it for me and resigned to havign to do it myself and determine d to have it doen before 8 so i cna watch my tv shows.

I mowing and felt something hit me in face, but with weds nd dirt and broken branche s stil evrywhere figured somethign just flew up and hit nose.

I get to the end of the section that I had set my goal for that day and man oh man was having trouble breathing and nos e hurt when i trie d to wipe sweat off.

release I was havign trouble breathing... so ya knwo what embarrassment is..

Embarrasement is when ou have to go ove r to neighbor house. knock o door and stand their lookign piteful with a wash cloth adn a pair of tweezers and ask her to get what ever got stuck up yoru nos e out cuz you cant get it dislodgged.

feelign like a 3 year old, and whinning liek one too wondering if I was end up with one sid e of my nos e all streche d out of shape, she finally got it out.

Guess when i felt the piec e of wood hti the outsid e of my nos e didn't feel the one that got stuck up sideways in there. Had a big ole chuck of wood.

Now I have an excus e for nto to try and mow part of the back tommorrow. : )

in 2008, I ws'ed some Butterfly Weed. I need to go look for the packet to see where i got them from -- that info was not in my database.

They are just about to bloom, and they are Pink, not Orange. and in 08, I did not have the huge variety of Asclepias. Unless i got them from a person, and not a retailer ... i guess it's possible I got the wrong ones.

what do you all think? Is this ButterflyWeed ? Asclepia Tuberosa ?

tcs you have SwampMilkweed there, it is a good one thjough. I would keep it if I were you. : )
Asclepias incarnata http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/539/

thanks Meredith.... Guess i need to go on a search for the Tuberosa, since i really want those.

someone, possibly even you - gave me the incarnata in the swap this year... because I WS'ed them this year.

This picture is a perfect example of what the two different Milkweeds, A. tuberosa a.k.a. Butterfly Weed and A. incarnata a.k.a. Swamp Milkweed. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/202739/
The lower left corner shows the orange and much shorter Butterfly Weed.

....got any left over seeds????

Not me, the ones I used from my own stash only gave me two seedlings. I sowed a huge amount too. I think they might be better from commercialgrown. Or if I can improve my collection timing somehow.

I wish they transplanted well... there are a few of them growing down the road from our RV park.

OMGosh Star you DO have some adventures! My first response is, 'oh you poor girl!' But I have to admit that Jerry Lewis-like image is running a close 2nd. Between the flying wood chips and the attacking insects you might want to think about taking a hiatus from yard work.

You know what? The spots disappeared on the cerinthe and I think we had what we were supposed to have all along. I WILL get out and take pictures tomorrow and show you how they ended up looking.

Oh my gosh Ella! We could wright a sit com just using your garden adventures, LOL. My Vincas are blooming their little hearts out , by the way :-) That bed is one of my driest spots for some reason, but those Vincas don't mind at all.

Terese, that pink butterfly weed is lovely! Glad to see them, I've got some that I WS'd and have been wondering where to put them. I'd like to put them in the pink bed, but that's the dry one with the Vincas. Since they're "swamp milkweed" I'm assuming they wouldn't like it there?

Neal --- those are doing just fine in a "dry" bed.

I do not water back there... when i originally got the "Swamp MW" seeds... i did worry about where to put them.. but seeing how i though they were Tuberosa.... they went in that bed... well all my beds are dry beds... i lean towards xeriscaping

so -- give it a whirl, they just may surprise you.

Terese

That's some story about your mowing experience! It almost sounds like a Saturday Nite Live skit, except that it could have ended with a run to the emergency room, and that certainly would not have been fun!

I like the swamp milkweeds too. Mine aren't in a particularly wet bed either, just the ordinary garden where I try not to water unless completely necessary. The butterflies love to nectar on the blossoms, too.

I just had 5 'purple milkweed' seedlings pop up in a flat yesterday, so I am excited about that. I understand Asclepias purpurascens http://www.northcreeknurseries.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/340/index.htm can take some shade (although it doesn't mention it in this link) , so I'm hoping they will be happy in a part shade spot.

I planted a few A. tuberosa seeds at the same time as the 'purple milkweed' but they haven't germinated yet. There seems to be a lot of conflicting info on whether or not the tuberosa needs stratification or not, and/or light or darkness to germinate. I bought my seed from Everwilde and they say to soak it in warm water for 36 hours and then plant. Other places call for 4 to 8 weeks of stratification in the fridge. I don't know if the different ddirections have to do with the age of the seed, where it was collected (north or south climes), or just that the seed is willing to germinate (or not) under different conditions. Or perhaps different recommendations could be just 'myths' promulgated on the Internet!

I planted mine in a tupperware container, though, and kept it inside so it stayed at 70 degrees. I did cover the seed with a little soil, and then noticed other sites said just to press the seed into the seed starting mix. I hope I see some sprouts before too long.

Well, sorry for the information overload on Asclepias. It's just one plant I can't have enough of in our garden, and I would love to be able to grow it from seeds with confidence!

Have a good gardening day! t.

Tab I have had better luck with my A. tuberosas at room temp, no pretreatment. I ws some this year and I only got 2 seedlings. The Swam Milkweeds can take pretty dry conditions, however they do best in a decent garden soil. I had some 3 year old seedlings in a very dry bed that I moved this spring, they didn't flower in their second year so I moved them this spring. I am hoping they pull through. It seems like I have some sort of disease in my butterfly garden that attacks the swamp milkweeds. I also have a problem with my commercial grown Rudbeckia Fulgida. Looks like Sephoria leaf spot, the same kind of Rudbeckia, but grown from seed have had no problems so far. If this attempt to get Swamp milkweed going in the butterfly garden fails I am going to try and buy some full size plants and see if they do any better. My original plant died out but I had transplanted it after it was in the ground a couple years - and they aren't supposed to like transplanting once established.

t -- thanks for all that info.

I know i have the "purple" seeds somewhere -- I too can not have enough Butterfly plants.

I will sow some of the tuberosa seeds before weeks end.... then hopefully by Aug or so or earlier - i will have seedlings.

Meredith.... i too have heard that none of them transplant well -- deep tap root i guess.

wonderfully COOL day today... i am certainly enjoying it - getting a bit of work done .... both of my Parsley's from last year are enormous --- i snipped off most of the flower stalks.

As promised here are the Kiwi Blue pictures. I have them in 2 spots.

Here......

And here.....

(After closer inspection I see that the spots are still there. But they REALLY faded.)

Seed Co-op Closed

This message was edited Jul 6, 2009 7:30 AM

You have D Mail! I hope I made it in time, I LOVE your choices.

found this - semi-blooming out back... I must have WS'ed it last year... no tag, no idea what it is.

Posted thread in the ID forum

found a baby "cat" on the Swamp MW the other day... it's still hanging out... though i can not tell if it is eating or not. no real holes in the leaves. But it's been there since i first noticed on Tuesday... so it coul;d have been longer.

all pics were blurry ... my close-ups are lousy.

maybe some sort of Adenophora (Ladybells)?

lemme check PF..

take a look at: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54542/

thanks Jill... here is what i just found in my spreadsheet...

#33 sown 3/8/2008 Lady Bells 4/16/2008 Germ April 16, not sure what happened after that.

guess I planted them out.

BUT -- very strange... [well, maybe not] I can not find Lady Bells in my Seed Database, only the WS one.

Oh well...... at least i know what they are.

How'd the Micro Chip Dianthus work out for you?? i just harvested a lot of seeds today., and gave the plant a hair cut.

I got seedlings from the Micro Chip seeds! They probably won't bloom until next year. But I'm excited!

Hmmmmmmmmm... i think mine bloomed first year. you may get a lil surprise... if not... next year... they are so cute... Bright and deep pinks. I just love them.

Tcs... That's the same plant I have had here for several years and never able to figure out what it was. her e they a perennial for sure. The flower on mien was white though.

Well, what ya know now I know. : )

Lala.. For all the problems gettign them starte d they ende d up doign really good for ya. Still gonna find me some of the dark leafed seeds for next year.

I'm seeing some butterflie s this year, but no way a s many like like last year. Last year I had such an assortment flying all around and oodle s of Monarchs and very few this year. Wonderign if the c razy weathe r got to them.

Happy 4th of July everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful day. I've been seeing about the same amount of butterflies, however they do not seem to be nectaring on the plants as much. They are always zooming around and not stopping! Ignoring nectar plants that had been used frequently last year. Plus it has been raining a very lot here. So I am sure that hasn't helped.

A couple of years ago I received seeds for campanula americana in the swap. I want to report that they are now two year old plants and are magnificent. Alas, I never recorded the name - so whoever you are. These are brilliant plants and I am grateful to have them ^_^

I wish I had a seed database even half as accurate/up to date as yours, tcs!

Our butterflies are fairly scarce too. We did have a number of great spangled fritillaries flying around the monarda, coneflowers and swamp milkweeds during the last few weeks.

Here is a graph of BF count averages (1993-2007) of typical butterfly populations for each week during the summer in Massachusetts. http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabambc/flight-dates-chart.asp

I'm guessing NH and Ohio's data would be similar to Mass.(maybe adjusted by a week one way or the other) but Alabama's would be quite different, I suppose. I try to plant nectar flowers that will bloom when our butterflies are 'in flight' but I don't always get things in sync.

The Butterfly organizations (i.e., NABA) do a big national 'count' on the 4th of July (but it rained here all day yesterday) to compare numbers from year to year. I have never participated, though.

Firecrackers went off all yesterday afternoon/evening and I think they made the Hummingbirds full of nervous energy. We had loads of them feeding yesterday. Fun to watch the tiny ones grow bigger every day.

>>I wish I had a seed database even half as accurate/up to date as yours, tcs!

t, -- well I had a good base to start with.. i used Clothier's then tweaked it .... It was a great base to start with, then i just keep adding to it. I like having the link to Daves FP, that had been very helpful when i forget what it is.

Rained most the day yesterday too. Lousy for the parties, but great for the plants and lawn.

Usually every year I have a LOT of Fritillary butterflys on my Centaurea 'yellow knapweed' this year not so much haven't seen hardly any! I enjoy those as much as the swallowtails and monarchs, haven't seen many of those for this year yet either.

t, my purple milk weeds are seeding how are yours doing :) I haven't seen so many milkweed bugs for this year is anyone else seeing them? Is it too soon I wouldn't think so they are always here when I'm collecting milkweed seeds. I have so many weeds in my middle bed this year where my annual milkweeds usually reseed that I can't even tell if they are reseeding this year :(

I still only have three hummers so far STILL. Meredith it was raining here all day yesterday but it was just a steady slow rain the hummers seemed to love it!

Meredith are your swamp milkweeds wilting at the tops? I finally lost one of my orange milkweeds to that wilting whatever it is and the other one beside it isn't wilting this year after about three years of wilting! The one orange milkweed didn't come back that was beside the house either that had that wilt seems like I read somewhere it was some kind of disease in the soil.

For whoever it was that wanted to know if the Mountain Bluet would rebloom if deadheaded, mine is blooming a little more now not like the first show but enough to make the plants pretty again :)
,
tcs, some of my campanulas have leaves like that the ones that are taller, I have a few different kinds out there but don't have the names to them or I would look them up for you.

I went thru and just yanked the old flower stems out of my micro chips they came out real easy I never shear them I'm always afraid I will kill them they are so close to the ground.

My gooseneck has taken over my asters this year I had two or three different kinds in my nectar garden and just can't bring myself to take the gooseneck out lol I love that plant! I have a whole hill of it by the kitchen window so I should really try and get rid of the ones in my nectar garden!

Does anyone know if the Bradford fern and Lady fern can take some morning sun? I finally got my tree cut down out front and had to dig all of my shade plants up by that side of the house, a job I had really been dreading! I got my ferns in the ground before we got some rain yesterday but I'm wondering if I put my ferns in the wrong spot but I didn't have much shade to play with I've just got my fingers crossed! I had two huge Caramel coral bells that I'm really sweating that they will be happy too!

I've been wanting that tree cut down for years now and when it finally happened it was like a spur of the moment thing the guy did it really cheap but now I have to dispose of the branches and logs in the side yard I hope it isn't years before I can get someone to cart it all away LOL I think I'm going to have enough afternoon sun there to make it full sun in the afternoon but the thing is I just planted hosta and coral bells there last year for part sun so I may be moving those plants later this year too lol It never ends does it lol If I had planted those coral bells and hosta there a long time ago I would have had that tree cut down a long time ago lol Wish I had known that all I had to do was plant part sun plants to get this tree down lol But I have a wide open space now to plant for next year if I get to stay here :)

I forgot to post some images ....

here is my "Sea of Yellow" [with a smattering of red and white]

here it is from another angle ... and nice thing about this bed.... most of it is just from "tossed seeds" ... not too much planting went on here.... at least where these plants are concerned.... just tossed Wild Flower seeds...

......so glad the Blue Buttons came back!! i love these. more stuff i did not plant this year....