Look what's up in 5 days :)

Guess I am going to have to start thinning some seedlings soon. LOL So far in this plug tray, coming up is Viola 'Celestial', 'Rheingold' and 'Orange', Centranthus ruber, Bellis perennis, mixed Abutilon, mixed Convulvulous tricolor, Convulvulous 'Blue Enchantment', Leonurus leonitis, Ratibida pinnata, Gallardia 'Portola Giants', Dianthus 'Sooty', Centratherum, Petunia 'Purple Wave' and Rudbeckia 'Iris Eyes'. Some of these seeds are from plants I lost last year so I was thrilled to find I still had seeds. :)

Looks good! Is it indoors,or do you have a greenhouse?

Um, that would be my bedroom! LOL Last year I kept them in my babies room since she was a newborn and slept with me. This year she is a combination monkey/octopus and I am sure she would love to dig in there! LOL

Ooooh! Oooooh! Just noticed my Fybigia is up too!! That was my most sought after plant for like six years! LOL Thanks S!! You know who you are. Must have been the other seeds just weren't fresh. :)

Wow that was fast.Do I get to start my wish list now? lol I am glad to see you excited about seeds again. Fybigia no way!

Is it time to start Convolvulus already? Hmm... what's Fybigia?

It is time for me to start Convolvulus if I want to see it bloom before the end of summer! LOL Fybigia is me spelling wrong in my excitement! It is Fibigia clypeata. See here: http://www.tsflowers.com/html/fibigia.html

Badseed I dont want to put a downer on the exciting news but I see a few problems.

The seedlings are bent very badly towards the light and many are stretched too high. This may lead to bad plants but they are more than likely to damp off. Tecause they are in very shallow modulues you will have to increase the water levels which may attract Botrytis.

Thanks for the always welcome advice Mark. They were only up one day and were leaning toward the window. Each has already been transplanted to it's own plug and the lights are now right on top of them. They were watered in with fungicide as recommmended by one of our professional growers and are being watered with water with a small percentage of peroxide. This is my eighth or ninth year with seed growing and last year I suffered my only fatalities because of bad seed mix. All is well in seedville. :) Want to tell me the best type/strength lights to use?

I dont know about strength but I would leave them on for as long as possible.

Generally 14-16 hours a day at first. :)

I never set seeds before the start of April so they can be grown in the greenhouse

I have already started almost 60 kinds, you see, because of our climate. But I've got good lights, and none of the seedlings is too tall like usually happens without growing lights. Have you got growing lights Badseed?

Well Mark, I had to pick between a house full of kids OR a greenhouse. Guess which I have? LOL Seriously I did not garden back then. They are the reason I do now. I still would have picked the kids though. :) I'll get my greenhouse someday.
Evert since most seeds need a 6-8 week headstart, I am starting them on time, maybe a bit early for some, but I like to put stuff out when they are ready to flower, rather than wait a month or more. Oh, and yes I have grow lights up. I have two four foot fixtures per flat (two side by side on both) with 40 watt fluoros and 40 watt grow lights-one each per fixture. All the little seedlings are standing at attention and ready to grow. :)

These are all my seedlings hardening off in my little hoopster last spring.

I see. So you have a cool greenhouse outside where they're growing? We have snow and cold outside (getting warmer every week though), I have to keep all mine inside. Maybe we respect summer more then, it feels like you've "earned" it by waiting all the cold Winter.. ;)

Evert, that is just a little contraption I made for hardening off the seedlings. I can't use it until March or April. Right now we are still covered in snow. We got a fresh four inches yesterday. I usually move it to a new spot each year and fill the bottom with fresh top soil so I can grow out the perennials for a year before I plant them. I guess I could grow cool weather stuff in it but never really think about it. LOL

Oh, I see.. :}

Cool weather stuff - doesn't it get pretty warm in the grenhouse during summer ;)

I took another pic of my seedlings a week or two ago:

And I took another pic this morning. They have been outside for a couple of days. The sort of naked looking trays in the front are caladiums and cannas with about 3-4 inch sprouts.

Looking great. Your garden is going to be fabulous this year.

Things are really looking good and healthy. I'd love to be there to watch when you start planting it all in the ground. Oh my aching back!! I don't even want to think about getting started.

Wow :) I didn't grow any seeds indoors at all this year. I was out of town and missed the window of opporunity. Plus, I really don't have the setup to raise things indoors. I end up killing them with too much water or something. So I prefer to sow directly into the ground when I can. Someone sent seeds to me last fall...and they're coming up right now :) Looked at them outside this evening.

LOL and thanks! Now Shirley, didn't I just read about you hoisting around 1500 pounds of dirt? LOL I only started about 1/4 of what I wanted to. I still have a whole box of throw and grows. I intend to trade out or give away at least half of them. We won't even talk about the ones that never got out of the box. :)

Yeah, but for me it is the bent over position that kills me and those new hips. I can't get down on my knees because they are bad too. So, I just do a little at a time until it makes me happy with the way it looks and then I call in the neighbor, relatives, and friends to take what is left. Michele, I have seeds that I'll never use and I just cleaned my seed box out two years ago. I think I'll start an 'I wonder what it is' garden and do some tossing.

that's what I'm going to do too. Take out the specials and toss the rest and hope for tons of flowers that I have to have ID'd:)

Here's what I have set up. This is 3 of the big lots units in my sewing/painting/come greenhouse. Most of this is outside now.

Another pic

ecobioAngie, are you using your biglots stands this year too?

Sho'nuf! :) I cut it back to only 1 expanded stand this year though because I had WAY too many seedlings last year. lol
And that one in the window stayed there to overwinter plants like my plumeria and adenium. It's a permenant plant stand now. :)