Seed Swap & Chat #58

Lea, is your balloon flower really blue or is it purple or lavender? I've been on the hunt for a really short truly blue balloon flower for a while, so if that's what it is, please save me seeds! Not sure what I got in last year's piggy swap because they haven't bloomed yet.

I saw a caterpillar in my garden today. I don't think I've seen one of these before. It's white and very very fuzzy. Any idea what it is?

AND it looks like seeds are starting to form on my arisaema ringens. How exciting. I bagged up the pod, which looks sort of like an ear of baby corn.

Didn't get much done. A few more yards of landscape fabric down. At this rate I won't finish til next year.

Now I remember what I wanted to ask. Did anyone plant my purple noid clematis seeds and did they germinate? There are new ones forming and I don't know if I should bother to collect them or not.
Also any other germination reports on any of my seeds?

Oh heck... looks like i missed a lot.
been super busy at work, Buddy tore his ACL -- surgery tomorrow.

I only saw my name mentioned - something to do with a camera/computer??

sorry didnt read all the posts, i've been gone about a week.

if someone needs me for something -- drop me a Dmail -- that way i 'll see it.

Lea that's awesome! I was just complaining to dh that I haven't seen any Monarch cats yet.. I saw a Monarch for a few days back in late June and she looked like she was laying eggs all over the place. So hopefully they will be around soon. I am so sad that I haven't seen as many Monarchs this year. It was the same way last year. I found out the first year I had planted tons of milkweeds here, that it had been a record breaking year for Monarchs. I didn't knoiw that at the time because it was my first year at it. So now with only seeing a MOnarch here and there for a week, then nothing is really depressing! I can't remember the details but I remember getting an e-mail that they lost huge numbers of Monarchs in Mexico due to a storm or frost or something mother nature dealt... so sad :(

I think the white cat is a white wooly bear, I'm not sure if that is the correct name for it. I found one the other day too. : )
I know I have short blue balloon flowers, I'll have to show you a pic. I grew some from my own seeds and so far only one out of about a dozen was a tad too tall. So they come pretty true from seed.

Hi Tcs glad to see you back! : )

Hi tcs! You're our designated computer whiz and mentor to us computer slowbies. (Hope you don't mind.) Lea needs some instruction on how to get her pics into the computer and then how to find them to post. My computer keeps seizing up and ctrl/alt/del doesn't help, so I have to keep unplugging it to solve the problem, but Norton Utilities says I need more RAM, so maybe that'll help. Haven't gotten around to getting it yet.
What's ACL? Doesn't sound too good.

Thanks, Meredith. What do wooly bears turn into?
Please do post your blue balloon flower.

Terese, know you are busy and probably won’t see this but I hope Buddy comes thru the surgery ok poor baby! Such an ordeal for a kitty! Hope you are keeping up with yourself lol

Oh NO NO Sharon I don’t want to bother Terese she is doing good to keep up with what she is doing I’m sure ;)

My balloon flower is this one:

http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/plant.asp?code=P910#lbl_culture

Sounds just like what you need to me they are blue but sometimes they are so close it’s hard to tell. I wish I could grow the white maybe I’m just always planting them where it’s not amended good enough I’ll have to try harder.

Not sure exactly what the white fuzzy bear cat is but garanteee you it’s some type of moth.

I found another cat on my wild blue indigo today something different or I’ve never noticed them out there before saw little droppings on my shoes that I have sedums in under it so started looking for him. I was just thinking of cutting the foliage back now I’m glad I didn’t until I find who he is.

Sharon I lost Marsha think that’s the only seeds I got from you gosh they were hard weren’t they! I’d like to try them again this year if you have any I would WS them the second time I think can’t remember germination requirements but those were so pretty!

I hope to be collecting some pink Salvia Viridis this year for the first time it’s just now blooming but I got them in the ground late I planted four plants it’s a pretty plant too! I just hope they aren’t hard to collect from those salvias can be so darn contrary at times!

Seems to me I've always had a lot of butterflies Meredith except last year and this year but as you probably remember I had to destroy some milkweeds last year and started out with none this year :( I have had a bunch of tiger swallowtails I think and the black ones the yellow ones have the stripes on the top of the wings and I've had zebra ones too almost white and black so cool I used to see a few but seeing more now just wonder if my spice bush has anything to do with that and I think they like poplar trees, young ones maybe, and I have several of those in the wild bird garden and probably in the woods near by I saw a different little hairstreak I think yesterday it had grey on one side and brown on the other? They fly off so fast it was hard to tell but I'm watching for him again there are host plants here for those too but can't remember what they are. I counted ten of those tiger swallow tails on the butterfly bush out front that I let come up just for the butterflies and hummers it's pink.

Hi, guys,

Just me checking in after long silence. Hope all your gardens are growing beautifully.

Just had a question you might be able to help with:

Remember when one member of the thread posted a long list of what seeds to plant when?? (can't remember her name but you know who I mean~~she was from Indianapolis and quite knowledgeable) This was like a year or two ago.

Anyway, can anyone tell me where I can find the list?? Can't find it thru the Search here~~already tried.... Thanks so much...

And happy gardening to all of you. t.

Hey t how's it going long time no hear :)

Are you talking about Illoquin/Suzy by any chance she had a thread going of what to plant when I think I'll go and see if I can find it but there is someone else on this thread too that started a list too and I think I can find that one I'll look :)

Here are some threads that Suzy started:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/809495/

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/804677/

But then one of the newer girls on here a year or so started this list oh it was klstuart:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/943821/

Not sure what you are looking for but here is another link that I kept:

http://www.alchemy-works.com/fall_planting.html#top

Here’s another one to help with soaking seeds with H202:

http://www.using-hydrogen-peroxide.com/gardening-with-hydrogen-peroxide.html

Tips for planting by the moon, I think I got these from George/Ansonfan:

http://www.kaykeys.net/spirit/earthspirituality/moon/moonseed.html

http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases_calendar.phtml

All of the information at your finger tips :) Hope you found what you want :) This is a good time to get all of this together anyway lol

Lea -- buddy is the dog, charlie is the cat.

I'll try to catch up later. Will get Bud at 4pm today. poor baby.

Lea.. .i think i have a Dmail somewhere that i had once sent Veronica that mentioned getting pics on the PC and finding them... i'll see if i cant find it, as it may help.

OH -- and i have the perfect mini hosta to send you. it's a NoID, but definitely in the "tiara" family

Hi, LeBug, Yes, of course, it was Illoquin/Suzy and how did you find those threads so quickly??! thanks so much for the one website with all the methods summed up. And kaystuarts spread sheet is very sophisticated! No excuses for screwing up germination now!

Well, after all that, I guess I wanted to find out what seeds we should be sowing now (like holly hock and digitalis) so we can plant them in autumn and get a real bloom cycle from them next year...

Thanks for any additional thoughts....

Hope everyone is doing well and having a good time in the garden! J.

t, go to stokes seeds and check their site I hear they have a guide for when and what to plant this time of year I haven't seen it if you find it put a link on here for me lol I save all the links to things like above in my favorites :)

I'll b back later need to water some plants :)

That was a great idea to check stokes I wanted to see myself and I found this : ) http://www.stokeseeds.com/category.aspx?CategoryID=561&Name=Flowers-Perennials

Hmm, so those are months for sowing outdoors? I've never tried that. Not much luck with seeds that aren't right under my nose indoors. But, wintersowing works well for me, maybe I should try it! What are the easiest perennials you've tried?

Thanks Terese for sending me instructions didn't want the girls to bother you but having those instructions already is a different story I'll have to wait to check them out between plants and going to the funeral home the next two days I'll be kind of busy it was my neighbor's grandmother that passed and her mother isn't far behind I feel so sorry for Tammy!

That little mini sounds like it might be able to take some sun where did you find it at does it have some vareigation like the tiara it must have so cool ;) They have so many minis that I haven't even seen the last couple of years. It's kind of funny because those and the vase shaped ones are my favorites no in between lol Though I do have some of the in between hosta.

I put new food in the hummer feeders last night before I started watering plants and a couple of the hummers were buzzing around me while I was watering summer time is here such a nice sound!

Filled the finch feeder and there was a baby at the feeder thought he was going to stay there the whole time while I was filling it up wasn't old enough to even be afraid of me LOL I don't know why I feed these suckers in the summer they get all the flower seeds they need trying to save some coneflower seeds and of course they are gone before they can even finish making seeds! They have almost finished all of the Liatris (sp?) seeds too and I was wanting to pitch some in the side yard for fillers for next year.

I'd like to start some canterbury bells for the fall but it's too damp downstairs and I have coop plants under the table top lights.

We were suppose to get a cool front come in this morning until this afternoon then some showers but it's 80 out right now and a little humid I might add wonder what happened to the cool front I was looking forward to that!

Today is Robin/dryad57 birthday!

Happy Birthday Robin :) I hope you see this since you are never on anymore he he he

Thanks, Meridith for the Stokes link. Exactly what I need to know.

I was reading some of the seed catalogs last night when I couldn't sleep and they made perennial seed sowing in July and August sound like a snap! Uh huh....of course, they want to sell their seeds! I do love Wintersowing for the ease of it, but would like to have lots digitalis in bloom next year.

Loads of butterflies around here this year but no cats that I can find. I think the aphids have gotten to them.

No rain here either and very hot. Finished four hours of working in the yard transplanting, rearranging and putting in some new cheapo bargain plants from Lowes. Now I want to jump in Meridith's pool!! Are we invited??

We are builidng on an addition to our deck next week, but so far Meridith's DH hasn't shown up to install our pool.... (-:

Have a lovely week in the garden. t.

Thanks Meredith put it in my favorites just can't imagine planting anything in this heat I'm so sick of watering plants now lol Didn't you plant something a few weeks ago I saw you on that thread I was thinking of canterbury bells but they can't take this heat as seedlings and I can't either!

Happy birthday Robin!

Yeah, Meredith, can we all come jump in your pool? Maybe next mid-summer's roundup should be at your house!

Lol : ) I think it's gonna be a while before I'm up to hosting an RU... too much to do in my yard still. Like maybe get some lawn instead of weeds and crabgrass! I think the grubs did a number on us last year, the section near the pool deck had 0% lawn. Very disapointing after having a lot of yards of Loam trucked in, spread and hydroseeded. It looked good the first year, but didn't survive for one reason or another. It stinks when you walk barefoot because some of the weeds get pointy from mowing. ouch

Sorry about your lawn problems, Meredith. I've happily given up on lawn myself. The landscape fabric is almost half down, (digging and turning and packing as I go), and will hopefully soon be covered with pebbles. Then I can give away the 2 broken lawnmowers and never mow again. Hooray!

I was wanting to host a small RU this year but too many weed beds here maybe next year and maybe Huggergirl could come next year or anyone else that would want to depends on if I get my garden instead of that mess I have in my middle bed this year it's so embarrassing I have more weeds in three of my beds than in the wild bird garden, my long shade garden out back and my weedy herb garden ;(

Meredith I know how those hard pointy weeds are I just started going barefoot this year again here and there and couldn't hardly handle it felt good to kick the shoes off though the road didn't feel as bad as I remembered but I think all the rocks from it has washed in my beds beside it LOL

Hey I d love to come to another Round-up,count on me for next year.ive never sown seeds midsummer,Iam learning so much.We are going on vacation the end of august,Id hate to risk losing anything I start now.I ve been going barefoot all summer,my feet are discusting by the end of the day,we have a paved drive,my feet get black,using the crap outta the pumice stone..LOL

I hear ya all, I would love if my yard had no lawn.... hopefully in due time. : ) Lea I wish I was close enough to go to a RU at your house, that would be so fun!

I've only gotten to one round up, and it was so fun! Just really nice to actually chat with others that enjoy gardening as much as I do! We didn't have any locally this year, and I'm to crazed to host one myself in the spring. I guess there may still be one in the fall!

We've had massive thunderstorms for 2 days in a row now. Leaves stuff a mess, but SO nice to have rain I don't even mind the clean up! My Datura actually didn't even wilt in the 100 degree heat yesterday afternoon, they were so happy with the rain in the evenings! I should be out weeding, and taking advantage of the fact that I don't have to water... but it's so nice to have a break :)

I love barefoot summers, but have taken to wearing shoes more often in the yard, because certain 'stray' (neighbors feed but don't take in) cats love to leave presents in my lawn! Yuck! Chased one of them out of the yard with the jet spray on the hose the other day. I'd spray, and he'd move about 2 feet and plop down again, I'd spray again, etc. Brazen little monster. Was laying in wait in my butterfly/hummingbird garden! I love cats, but prefer them away from my gardens!

i went to the june R-U in Madison ,it was soo fun.I have 3 cats 2 on leashes so I scoop poop,glad they will poop outside though..LOL Well the dh is anyway,he does litter box duty..LOL

Here's my list so far I'm inviting if I get to have an RU next year anyone is invited that feels they can get here :) I'm not one to travel much myself I'd get lost in a brown paper bag LOL

gemini_sage
dryad57
Indynannyof8 ~ whoops I think Veronica changed her name and I forgot to write it down.
flowerfantasy
PlantsnobIN ~ didn't she change her name??
virburniumValley
huggergirl

I get so confused between Cubits and here lol

huggergirl I have litter boxes outside they would be happy with :) They would be more than welcomed I love fur animals sometimes I would rather be around the fur animals than people I'd have a million of them if I could afford it! lol

Meredith I wish you could come here too I wish everyone from here could come!

I just tried to get Sophera (my cat that goes out for a few hours a day) away from a baby blue tail lizzard on my steps out front she is laying there waiting for that little baby to come out again! We used to have so many of those little thangs running around the garages and I don't see that many anymore I've piled rocks up for them out back of one of the garages but never see any there they like the garage in the middle for some reason I was putting some big 3 gal. pots away yesterday and one was in the bottom of one of them when I took them apart to see how many spider eggs were in there lol With as many wrens as I have in my garages I can't believe there are any spiders but I have all kinds of them!

I haven't gone barefoot for years because of all the wasp I have seen in the grass but this year just couldn't resist anymore and besides I don't see the wasp this year as much as in the past :) But there are spots I don't travel still lol

I think I'm off to clean my car every time I get outside with one thing in mind I end up doing something else it's so easy to get side tracked out there there's so much to do lol

Lea, I can't see us having the time (already planning next year's trips with the grandparents), but I would love to come! Google says it's a 7-8hr drive, I bet it would be a pretty one. Let me know when you're doing it, just in case I'm feeling crazy and having a weekend on my hands!

Really I'm happy that you would even consider it lol I'll let you know for sure!

We are getting pop up showers every where but here :(

I saw a Monarch laying eggs on my poor little, very little not even a foot tall baby milkweeds I just planted lol I'll have to move them to the other side yard bed on my Cinderellas and Bloodflower when I can see them lol Guess I screwed up again! I'm so mad at myself and not sure how I did it but my orange milkweed the perennial one that I planted looks to be Bloodflower so far I can't wait to see it bloom all the way and see which one it really is :( I'm having a time trying to get more of that orange perennial one planted somewhere LOL

KL are you sure that it's cats pooping in the lawn? That sounds odd to me because my kitties have never pooped right on the lawn, they like to find a spot that is bare and dig a hole and then bury it. I would be suspecting skunks or racoons if it were just sitting right in the middle of grass not covered up.. My kitties do like to occasionally, poop in my gardens unfortunately. That's the other reason I discovered this year that no mulch does not work for me. It seems Scrappy (sadly Simba is no longer here) hasn't been doing it as much, since the mulch has been down, except in one spot, where it was really bare. It reminds me of an article here on DG I once read.... how the women thought perhaps her cat knew something she didn't when it dug up a plant she just planted or dug a hole next to things and pooped right next to them! lol I thought that was a fun way to look at the little annoyances from having kitties and gardens mixing. : ) Sorry for the run ons :)

Lea I am not having good luck with Monarchs this year. I saw one or two in late June and they had laid eggs (it might have been the same one, both times) And for some reason I have not found 1 cat yet! We went for a walk in the trails behind our house and I did find 2 cats out there. But even that seems very low because there's a field of milkweed out there. The funny thing was is the ones I did find were on the two that were the most exposed. People ride dirt bikes and Quads out there all the time and the spot these two plants were in was in a perfect spot to get run over! I wish the Monarchs were a little choosier in where they decide to stay! lol Dh said I should take them back, but I said I didn't want to disrupt nature, I feel like they might not be in my yard for a reason.... maybe there are too many parasitic wasps here or something.

I've only seen three Monarch cats on the Cinderella but they disapeared they were probably ready to go make butterflies though they were so big before I did see them I think I only have a couple of Monarchs and they are doing all the work to get the population up ;p I haven't checked the one milkweed in the back of the house that came up this year on it's own or I pitched seeds out there one. It was a red/dark pink milkweed I'm wondering what kind it is it's full of seeds now but not sure if I should keep them or not I have showy milkweed about 50-75' from it...

It's still early in your zone Meredith you have time for the Monarchs did you mark down when you started seeing more of them last year?

About bare feet ... I love to go barefoot, always have. When we were young we had a tarred road which would get very hot in the summer. The neighborhood kids would have contests to see who could walk the farthest on the hot road barefoot. I love my caluses, would never pumice them off ... I can walk over stoned driveways ... lol. Hubby doesn't care, my friends think its a little off the wall, but who cares.

About cats pooping in the yard ... my cat was normal once upon a time, pooping in dirt or sand and covering it. But ever since we babysat a dog for 2 years, he now poops right into the grass like the dog did and doesn't try to cover it. I think he thinks he's a dog now. lol

lebug, 6hours to your place.

Lea, please do save some seeds from your red/dark pink milkweed. I'm practicing my oinking early this year.
Wonder how far you are from Boston, except I wasn't on the invited list!

toofew, I used to have those caluses on my feet too they came in mighty handy a few times but since the last few years here I had wasp in the ground every where here so I quit going barefoot and missed it lol I haven't seen any of those wasp this year for some reason just in the garage they are all over my garage because it has a dirt floor it's open with lattice on the sides just made cheap cause it was the third garage for my car :) Dad had two vehicles so two garages next to it.

When I was a teen I walked down town barefoot and the tarred road was so hot I'm sure you can understand what I'm saying lol By the time I got back my feet were covered in blisters! They were calused before so didn't think anything of it learned a good lesson that day!

Funny about your cat :)

I have room for tents :) Plenty of room!

Did you see when I mentioned my Cinderellas are blooming they are pretty blooms I love them! Do you have blooms yet?

There are two younger boys next door 'real boys' lol This one the youngest is about 7 maybe, I caught him out at my butterfly bush smacking at the butterflies lol This boy goes after anything flying thru the air to kill it so probably on the ground too! Little squirt!

Get outta here Sharon you know you would be more than welcome I'm not a traveler so I wouldn't expect to have someone here travel so long to get here :) I would love it if you would come you know that I would love to meet everyone on here! You silly girl!

I just chased that boy away from my butterfly bush again! And he was eyeing my other plants I'm gonna get me a boy this evening lol

Lea, Oh man, if I had a kid like that around I'd go bonkers ;) So this year the Monarchs were here about 2 weeks earlier than normal. They usually show up between the first and second week of July ~they were here about the third week of June. We usually see at least a couple a day for a few weeks, not just one or two a couple days, like this year. Usually we don't get tons of Monarchs until the migration period (so when all the new generation hatch) however last year we had very few, and since I heard that a lot of Monarchs were lost due to weather in Mexico where they hibernate, I am worried we won't have as many since not as many have arrived here this summer :(

Toofew you'll have to call the kitty CatDog that's what we call our scrappy, but only cuz he'll go for walks with us. It's the funniest thing! : ) He follows us the whole way, people do double takes to see if it's a dog or a cat! lol

Lea, just pulling your leg about the non-invite. Not about the milkweed seeds, though.
Actually, you're farther than I thought. Just looked it up. 879 miles by roads. Just under 700 as the crow flies.

Meredith, that's so sweet about CatDog going for walks with you.


Geez, you guys. Had to edit because your misspelling is starting to rub off on me! I'll have to start giving myself grammar lessons too.



This message was edited Jul 28, 2010 7:29 PM

So, LeBug, am I invited to the RU??! )-: I see my name's not on the list!!

Very few caterpillers on my milkweeds or dill and other host plants. Don't know why since we have loads of butterlfies this year (but just a few monarchs so far).

My cinderella milkweed bloomed a long time ago and is now full of aphids and turning yellow~~what's with that??

Hot here. Have been spending all my time watering. Will hate to see my water bill this summer. At least the flowers are pretty~~ although they are about bloomed out for the season.

Must go water some more. Signing off now. t.

Meredith eveyone laughs at my cat here too because she follows me everywhere I go I just went down a couple of houses and watched her to see if she was going to follow usually if I go out of the yard I'll put her in the house, she came out to the end of the sidewalk and I told her no and she just went to chase butterflies in my bed I don't want her in lol But she was being good when I came back she was just laying there I've got a good kitty SOMETIMES! I think she was being good cause she finally got out today it's been too hot for her but it seems to be cooling off a bit out there now but getting ready to storm we've had thunder and clouds several times today and a sprinkle of rain but none to speak of really. She is on the front porch now waiting for me to come back out ;)

I lost my bronze fennel out in the middle bed last year from all the weeds it may be out there but haven't seen it that reminds me t need to plant more next year now thanks the dill reminded me of it I don't grow dill can't stand the smell of it same with the fennel but I think it is prettier lol

I hope my flowers aren't bloomed out for the season someone else said that the other day summer is just getting started and winter isn't going to come this year! Speaking of bloomed out for the season I need to get a couple more ruds in the ground!

Blast those suckers off with the hose on your Cinderella t I had a bunch of those aphids on my seedlings I put in the ground just last week? Gave them a blast and haven't seen any since, they might be your problem. Maybe a pinch of epson salts seems to work on my hosta two totally different plants though but might be worth a try.

I really really hate to see my water bill this year too!!! It's time for some rain I get tired of carrying the watering can to the plants from my rain buckets and it only lasts for so long. My neighbor was suppose to bring me two big cans to use for rain barrels haven't seen them yet so I'm still dealing with the five gal. buckets and they are starting to dry out and crack from the sun so now I'm using cat litter containers to replace the ones that are cracked and I think they are starting to go green and put the litter in cardboard or at least my last brand did. Green is good but I recycle lol

The temp Fri. & Sat. is suppose to be 88 with low humidity and of course I have to go into town Fri. there goes about four hrs. wasted!

Oh yes Sharon need to go get those seeds! I'll do it now :) They looked like nice healthy seeds couldn't hardly find them from the weeds lol I'm bad here all my time goes into the flowers and haven't used the weed eater but one time this year Bad Girl but it's been so hot wish I could talk Tony into doing the weed eating along with the grass but I wouldn't trust him around some parts anyway :) If we would just get a cool day I'd take four hours and weed eat!

OK t I'll put you on the list then you HAVE to show up LOL No excuses ;P