Hi everyone! I'm looking for a few different rudbeckia seeds to winter sow. Wanting Cherry Brandy, Cherokee Sunset, and Cappuccino, and/or Bright Star. I will have hardy hibiscus (noid), gaillardia "goblin", shasta daisy "Becky", and Crazy Daisy, some blue delphinium (noid) and possibly some acquilegia "songbird robin" if any one is interested in trading. If you don't want or need any of these, let me know, and I may have something else you want.
Looking for a few rudbeckia seeds
Hello
I have seeds of R. Cherokee sunset and R. Cappuccino. I also have the following seeds of your want list: Geranium Johnson blue, Geranium macrorrhizum and Geranium phaeum.
The things you offer I already have, so please let me know what other things you have.
You can have a look at my wish list here http://www.seedsite.eu/wishes.htm
I don't want seeds of cultivars, unless they come true. I prefer wild plants.
My wish list is just a guide, so if you think you have seeds of plants that might interest me, please let me know. I'm highly interested in seeds of native plants of your zone.
Kind regards,
Jonna
Hi Jonna! Heavens, you have every kind of hybrid flower there is already don't you, lol! I check your site all the time and am so amazed with all the things you grow. Let me have a couple of days and I'll go for a drive and see what I can find for real native wild plants for you. I'll see what all might have seeds and such and do some harvesting if I can. :-)
Please, take your time. I'll be happy with any seeds I didn't grow already.
Jonna
Jonna, I was going thru my seed stash, and I do have some wild iris seeds that grow in the mountains here. Would you be interested in some of them?
Would you want either of these?
Rudbeckia "Dazzler"
Rudbeckia "Goldsturm" (Rudbeckia fulgida)
Corey
Hi Corey! I have a big bunch of allium seeds for you and I'm adding to it also, going thru my stash of extras and such. Hopefully, I will get them out to you either tomorrow or Monday. I have the Goldsturm, but don't have the Dazzler, so would love some of those. What do you want me to include for you?
Thanks!
I added Rudbeckia "Dazzler" and your address to my "send" list.
I'll also look around other Rudbeckias and Coneflowers /Echinacea but ask before sending.
I think I have some kinds of lavender but decided they looked too hard to start from seed. If I have English Lavender 'Munstead' it's yours.
Do any of these penstemon sound interssting? If so I'll check to see how much if any of that one I have left:
Penstemon calycosus "Calico Beardtongue" (white / pale blue / Violet / Lavender rain-tolerant)
Penstemon cobaea "Showy Beardstongue"
Penstemon smallii (Beardtongue) "Violet Dusk"
Penstemon digitalis "Husker's Red" (red foliage & white bloom)
Penstemon eatonii "Firecracker" (propagated from US West native wildflowers for Botanical Interests)
P digitalis Foxglove "Mystica" (Violet/Lavender)
P. x Mexicali "Red Rocks" (rose / mauve)
Penstemon x mexicali purple/pink
Penstemon serrulatus
Penstemon strictus "Rocky Mt. Blue"
Do you have Golden Alyssum or Wild Iris seed to spare? If you're getting low, hold onto them because I've got plenty of white annual alysum and have found iris difficult from seed..
Got:
Alyssum "Carpet of Snow" and
Alyssum "Wonderland White" Lobularia maritima (pelleted Syngenta Seeds 2009) and
(collected from mix / looks like) Lobularia maritima Looks most like 'Snow Crystals'
Corey
Yep, got some gold allysum and wild iris both, so will stick some of those in too. I'll copy some great info I have on starting iris from seed and send it along too. I'll check out the penstemon and let you know on them, along with the other stuff you have listed.. I'm kinda new at all this, so am not always familiar with all the names and varieties. Have always grown stuff, just didn't know what I was growing! LOL!
I'd love some of the lavender seed! And if you have enough of the Firecracker and Huskers Red penstemon that would be great too. I'll go out and browse around the yard tomorrow and see if there is anything else I can find too.
I'll let you know if my lavender is English and 'Munstead' , but you're welcome to try what I have.
Huskers Red, I'm almost sure of.
The P. "Fircracker" seed packet photo thrilled me so much that I bought another pkt each time I failed to get germination. (I should have seed left.) It looks a little like "Lady in Red" Salvia coccinea. Would you like some Salvia coccinea (sage) seed? Out of these, I will have at least 1-2 kinds left: "Lady In Red" , 'Forest Fire', 'Bonfire' or "Coral Nymph". Now that I look, I don't think ANY of them would be anywhere near cold-hardy in Zone 3, but some say "[A] or [P]".
So far my best method of germinating P. Firecracker was to first winter sow, and then wait another 3 months, and then still need a magnifying glass. The seedlings are still only 1/4" tall from Winter Sowing last January. I hope it will be hardy for you, or reseed easier than my indoor attempts! The packet says Zones 4-9.
Botanical Interests has some nice info about it.
http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/1809/Penstemon-Firecracker-Seed/srch:Penstemon%20Firecracker%20Seed
It's native to the Western US, and I found out from them that their seed is reproduced from wild seed - it's OP & stable. It's part of their "Botanic Gardens Series" and they make a small contribution to some botanic gardens for each packet sold. I like BI a lot!
Penstemon eatonii "Firecracker" [HP Z 4-9]
bloom late spr - early sum
2'-3' RED flower stalks
Hummingbird magnet
Drought & heat-tolerant
don't over-water
Botanical Interests 2011
stem cuttings or
Winter-Sow or outside late fall or
cold moist stratification indoors &
sow surface to ⅛" 6-8 wks B4 avg last frost
germn. 55ş best
emerge 14-21 days
full sun - part shade
thin to 8"-10" when 2" tall
Skellog:
what is the color of the wild Iris? or do you have a picture of it? or the botanical name? I do already have some wild Irises, so I would like to know what kind you have found.
Corey:
I really would like to get seed of the Penstemon eatonii if you have some left.
Please have a look at my website to see if there is anything on it that interests you to send you in return. ALL my seeds are available for trading.
Jonna
www.seedsite.eu
Jonna, sorry, I don't have a picture, but it is the Iris missouriensis, common in this part of the US is our mountain forested areas, if that helps. It is a lavender/purple color. Here is a link to it, if that helps: http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=IRMI
skellog:
I'll send you a d-mail
Jonna,
You've already given me so many things there's no need to send even more things in return.
However, I checked my seeds, and I only have 10-12 of those P. eatonii "Firecracker" left. I'll see if there are more at the place where I bought these.
I also double-checked the tiny Penstemon WS seedlings, and these were NOT one of the survivors. So I'll be trying to start them again next year (my third attempt).
Sorry!
Corey
Corey,
Thank you.
Do you know why your Penstemon WS seedlings died? Was it only the P. eatonii, or did you WS others that died too?
If so, please tell me what you did. I WS a lot of Penstemons with great success, so maybe I can help you with some advice.
Jonna
I think the problem was more like "first year WS" and not being fully set up for it.
I doubt if I did only one or two things wrong! I can think of at least 7 probable improvements to make.
I had three big tubs with around 12-15 3" square pots in each. At first it semed like "zero" germination, then when I was ready to toss the soil into my rasied beds, i saw little tiny green dots where some penstemeon has sprouted.
Many varieties of several things failed to germinate, but
1. tubs got very little sun for months (on my porch and an opaque lid at first
2. not much ventilation for the first month or two (always somewhat moitt, maybe too much or not enoguh)
3. it seldom snows here, so the tmeos cycked as much as the air did
4. it doesn't ever get very cold (don't know if that's good or bad)
5. spring was even longer, slower and colder than usual
6. next year, better-draining, more aerated mix.
7. next year, i'll try some easier plants, just so I know when I get "close" to the right balanace of air/water/cold/light
Corey
Corey,
May I introduce another way of winter sowing to you and others.
After a few experiments I winter sowed all my seeds in vermiculite last year.
The advantages are:
- cheaper (vermucilite cost less than potting mix)
- cleaner
- no way to look after the containers until seedlings sprout, so no watering at all.
- easier transplanting
Let me know if you're interested. In that case I will tell you more about it.
Jonna
>> another way of winter sowing
>> no watering at all.
I would be very curious. So far, all I know are the classic "milk jug" method, and my pots-in-a-tub.
The part about "no watering at all" sounds good, becuase our continuous rain menas that any slits in the lid assure constantly soggy soil.
I've been thinking of digging out my old, old "Garden Magic" book to re-discover the old-timey method of a seed bed in a cold frame. A cover to keep the rain off, warmth to turn the long cold spring into a growth season, as long as there is some way to keep the slugs out!
Corey
First of all you have to buy some containers, here is an example.
http://www.josy.be/default.asp?id=7&mnu=7&ta=trade&nr=0x0x0x0x5&click=1&cat=423&title=Rechth. Slagersbakjes PP 1&qck=
There are different sizes, but always choose the clear lids.It doesn't matter if the container is clear, white, black, etc.
I also use the containers of the chinese take-aways (they are bigger), but I don''t know if they are the same in the US. Here the containers are white and have a clear lid.
I sow about 300-400 new species a year. A lot of them will never germinate, because a lot of people don't know how to harvest ripe seeds or send me old seeds (some seeds stay only viable for a few months, others for 100 years).
This costs me about $ 40 for the containers. That might seem a lot, but considering the number of seeds I sow, it's not much and if you can reuse packings it will cost nothing if you sow only a few species.
I always buy a big bag of vermiculite. It costs me about $ 14.00 and I can sow all my 300-400 species in it.
Here in Europe you can buy vermiculite in a store that sells isolation materials.
And now how it works:
Put the vermiculite in a bowl, pour water and put it in a sieve within 10 seconds, not longer!! The vermiculite will absorb the water.
After that put 1 inch of vermiculite in the containers for small seeds, 2 inches for big seeds and sow the seeds as indicated (some need light to germimate, some not), like you would do when you sow seeds in soil.
Close the containers with the lid. Make no holes in either the bottom or the lid!!
You won't have to water the seeds until you want to transplant them. The closed system will provide enough humidity.
The only thing you have to watch is that you sow clean seeds, if there is chaff, the chaff may cause mold.
When the seedlings are big enough to handle, transplant them. After that it's the same as usual.
In my experience I have the same germination rate as I had with sowing in soil. Some seeds need real darkness to germinate, but those containers you can put on a dark place and you have to check them regular.
Also transplanting the seeds is in most cases easier. The vermiculite has hardly no weight, so for most seedlings it's easy to transplant. Never mind if some vermiculite stays on the roots, just transplant the seedlings with it.
This method can be used for winter sowing as well as for sowing indoors. I never use heat to germinate my seeds. I just keep the indoors sowed seeds out of the sun, unless it's an annual tropical plant.
If you want to winter sow in this manner, please be aware of the fact that the vermiculite hardly weighs. You must protect your container from being blown away. Just put them in boxes and aggravate the containers. You can also put the containers in a cold frame or a cold greenhouse..
About 90% of the seeds can be sowed this way. There will always be some special seeds that need another threatment.
I hope you understand my explanation. English is not my motherlanguage, so some things may be not clear. Please let me know if you want further explanation.
Jonna
That's cool! Thanks for typing it up. Have you considered making it into an 'article" or "blog post" so it's permanently findable by veryone?
I think the parts that are newest to me are:
- - - seal each individual tub without any vents or drainage
- - - use pure vermiculite instead of peat or bark mixed with perlite
The page you gave a link to had pretty small containers - I think they were 3.25 inches by 4.25 inches and 1.3" to 3.7" deep.
Personally, I like that better than one gallon milk jugs or chnese take-out tubs, because I wnat to start fairly small numbers of seeds per variety. I used square pots, 3.5" square (90 mm x 90 mm), but with a soggy bark-and-peat mix around 3-4 inches deep.
Coarse vermiculite, or fine? I am guessing coarse, like 3-5 mm .
>> Here in Europe you can buy vermiculite in a store that sells isolation materials.
Insulation supplies, like for keeping a house warm?
With no ventilation, I am guessing they should not be outside in full sun when the weather gets above freezing ... or is that OK?
Corey
Corey,
I never thought about making it to an article, but it might be a good idea.
Where should I publish it? In the 'Seed germination' or somewhere else. Do you (ore someone else) have any suggestions?
And please, do not forget that english is not my mother language (see the isolation/insulation, haha).
First of all I must tell you that the idea of vermiculite is not my own idea. I learned it from another DG member: Kim_M.
She uses the vermiculite in plastic baggies, but because I don't like that method I translated it to containers. After a few trials last year, I winter sowed and sowed indoors all my seeds in vermiculite this year in containers. I also learned that some professional growers use this system already for many years.
And yes, it's 'insulation' and not 'isolation'.
About being in sun or shade:
It depends on the kind of seeds and the climate zone. I'm in zone 6. All the seeds I winter sow are first in shade or half shade. Even the most indoors sowed seeds I only give morning sun. It's not good to sow seeds in full sun, unless you're in a tropical zone. Later I put the seeds in a more sunny place, but never south, so only half shade.
But, please be aware of the fact that I'm only experienced in sowing seeds in my zone. Zone 5 and 7 may profit from that, but in warmer or colder zones it might be different.
Jonna
I didn't realize it, but I never knew how to submit an article to DG. That actually looks like work!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/
But you can post it on your own "blog" if you want ... DG calls that "publishing" it.
"My Tools" tab
"Your Gardening Blog"
Actions: Add a new Entry or
Actions: Add a new tab (like folder containing Entries)
For example, create a tab named "Jonna's Gardening Tips"
Then create an "Entry" or article called "Starting Seeds in Vermiculite"
I tried to use the "Blog" feature to maintain a trading list, but didn't find it very convenient.
It was especially tricky to give people a link to my own blog, because the link that I found only worked for me!
Like this:
http://davesgarden.com/tools/blog/
(But that link MIGHT take you to YOUR Blog pages!)
P.S. Your English is better than some native speakers'!
Corey
Corey,
Thank you for your compliment about my English.
I'll send you a d-mail about the publishing.
Jonna
I found all my own Lavender seeds. I don't have any blue-violet "Munstead", although I have one trade pkt labelled
- "Lavender Purple No ID" almost certainly fresh.
also, I have available:
- fresh commercial hierloom Lavandula angustifolia (Lavandula vera) - violet-lavender / purple / pale purple / near white
- traded "English Lavender" no date
- traded Lavandula vera from Star, so it's bound to be viable
I ought to give away most of my Lavender seeds, since I realized how good their drainage would have to be in the Pacific NorthWet. I won't be able to grow it for years. I have to amend all my raised beds up to "adequate drainge" before I splurge on any "excellent drainage".
I would urge you to try the paler commercial hierloom Lavandula angustifolia (Lavandula vera), or maybe that plus the "Lavender Purple No ID", unless you have your heart set on "Munstead" and nothing but.
I just saw lots of huge (but pale) lavender in the high Oregon desert. That soil is nothing BUT drainage!
Corey
And Jonna, I'll be sending you some wild iris seeds too, along with some other things I think I can find that you might like :-)