Seed Snatchin' XVIII - The Seeds Are Sproutin'

Weez, yep we're 8 inches away from flooding here in Eadsville, but you know the last few inches take quite a bit since it's so spread out by then. All the house leeks separated nicely and are growing well. (A flat I forgot in the greenhouse got big and juicy and very green as opposed to the ones out in the sun and wind which grew very tight and red.)
We got back from our yearly hunting trip on the 26th of Sept., bagging 240 birds of which 73 were ptarmigan and the rest spruce hens ,135 grayling, only 2 rainbow trout, 6 gallons of mossberries, 2 gallons of highbush cranberries, 2 gallons of blueberries and I dug up half the countryside for my garden. LOL There were: myself, my dad, Mac, son, John, sister, Ava, daughter, Tonya and dad's girlfriend Rita Selden. We stayed 10 days and covered the Lake Louise area, the Denali Highway and the McCarthy road (camping just outside Chitina.) We took 2 motor homes and three 4 wheel drive vehicles for hunting. The six of us had a great time with few breakdowns or repairs. (mostly to the older model motor homes) I collected what I think were lapland diapensia and alpine azalea which had been dislodged by fourwheelers on sideroads on the Denali Hiway. Those off-roaders sure don't look before they spin their wheels! I can't wait till spring when the specimens bloom to really identify them! When we went north on the 10th, we got into another weather system which came in from the north and was drier and little cooler, although we only had a couple of nights of frost on the Denali. Right past the Matanuska Glacier and Caribou Creek about the Gunsight Mountain area we passed this weather front.
Just finished the mossberry jelly... going to play some pinball with son, John... bye bye ... Carol

Sounds like a great trip, Carol! I really envy you all those little specimens! If you can get them growing, we can get seed, and in the long run, we're saving plants, not snatching them! There's real virtue in rescuing plants and breeding them in captivity, rather than digging indiscriminently in the wild. If I'd have been up there, I'd have been snapping pictures like crazy! Too bad I'm so old & fat, or I'd be climbing around our mountain sides collecting seeds and taking photos! We live in a really verdent state.

The old Tomcat and I are not hunters or gatherers, I'm afraid. Instead, we sniff the chill in the air, look at the termination dust (snowcaps) on the mountains, and buy more canned goods. I told Dennis he was in big trouble if he bought one more can of vegetables for a couple months! The freezer is stuffed, the oil tank is almost full, and I've already put away the summer clothes and unpacked the parkas and pack boots. I guess we're city folk these days.

As you know, our son Steve lives up in Caswell, outside Willow. We visited there one October. It was really lovely up there... a lot more color changes. We drove around, fished a bit and I fell out of the canoe twice. The only got one ptarmigan, and that one was lying on the porch of Sheep Creek Lodge with a broken neck, having tried to fly through the window. Some mighty hunters we are!

Hiya Weezin, the hyssops are Coronado and Sunset plants. I haven't tried anise yet, but hope to grow some in my wintersowing experiments.

Carol, what an awesome sounding trip! I'll have to look up mossberries, as I've never heard of those before (actually I'm looking up a lot of what you wrote about...LOL) I bet your jellies are delicious. I've always wanted to go visit Alaska (DH has actually talked about moving there) but haven't been able to afford it yet. Both you and Weezin make it sound like a wonderful placed (despite the near-flooding). Do either of you have photos online? I'd love to see where you all live.

~Sunny

Sunny,
I had only one of my anise hyssop bloom and it smells just like licorice when you rub the flower, your fringers smells like it too :o)

Connie

Sunny, I hope you make it up to Alaska one day. It's well worth the trip. I promise it isn't always raining here! Now that you've mentioned the fragrance of hyssop, I'll have to sniff some of mine! Anise hyssop doesn't usually winter over here, but some of mine did last winter. Unfortunately, the summer temps seldom got above 55 degrees, and they are late bloomers here, so I won't see any blooms this fall.

The one that smells the best is a bright purply-magenta color - it was labeled Sunset but I think it was mis-tagged as Sunset is peachy/yellow and this definitely isn't that color!

Weezin, I hope we'll make it up there some day too. There are so many places up North that I've never been - we've covered out West from Cali to Washington, and been to Montana, Wyoming, Colorado - and I went to Minnesota once as a kid.

And to keep on topic, I had a marvelous seed snatchin' night last night on my walk with DH - lots of black-eyed Susan, which I had no seeds for :)

~Sunny

Weez, 8:09 am Monday, flooding in Eadsville. Went wading and collecting floating stuff. Got the dip net, some firewood etc. Might park the vehicles up on the mound... will update... Carol

Weez, mine didn't bloom til late season either, Matter fact it would still be blooming if I wouldn't have broke it checking to see if there were seeds lol

Sunny, I wish I knew you didn't have seed for that, I could have sent you some..

Connie

Carol... yes, woke at 5:30am to the rain on the roof and figured we were in for it! We've got a couple of inches of water in our basement. Dennis has headed to town for whiskey and cigarettes... his idea of emergency supplies. He called on his cell phone to say the road was flooding across Salmon Creek by your place. I'll try calling you, but if you are still outside picking up stuff, give me a call when you come in. If you need anything from town, Dennis can pick it up. If you need to get out of there, come on down here. Does your house float?

Everyone be safe please! (my house does not float). Yell if you need anything, If I can't get it to you in a timely maner maybe sis can.

ohhh Dear, you Alaskans stay safe.. Weezins, I had to laugh at the emergency supplies. :) I guess mine would be tea, creamer and splenda. :)

I did buy viola seeds.. gee wiz they were expensive.... 1000 seeds sure sounds like lots more until you see the tiny little packet. I counted out 100 just to measure and hubby and I agreed I didn't get jipped... Just use to pulling seeds off myself. Weezins, do you snatch these seeds? i was wondering If i should sow these in an area where I can let them go to seed and collect so that I will have several thousand for the following year to direct broadcast and hope for the best??

Cute story about when i was buying seeds:
I asked my 3 year old son to please go get my wallet for me so that I could pay for the viola seeds I was ordering from Johnny's.. He gave it too me and then asked me when the seeds would be getting here. I told him I didn't know exactly when and they would send them soon. He sat there as I did my business online and kept bugging me about the seeds. I finally realized he was expecting them to come through the computer!!!!!!!!!! Like a vending machine!!!!!!!!! How sweet is that! ?? If only we could get seeds that easy... I'd be breaking the machine apart to get at them!!

Susan

This message was edited Oct 10, 2006 7:34 AM

I love that age (3). Kids at that age come up eith some very cute things to say... They are just amazing and so so innocent... Just gotta love em :o)

Great story, Susan! Yes, I grow lots of pansies and violas. I have to say, the little violas are my favorites. The reseed like crazy, and they cross pollinate, so you never know what you're going to get, but it's always beautiful. They pop up in the strangest places, and I find myself protecting them in the driveway because they are just too pretty to step on or run over, even if they did decide to grow in the gravel!

As for the flooding, it could have been worse, I guess, but we did lose a couple bridges in the area, and our basement has 4" of water in it, even with the sump pump going. The rain has let up a bit, but could start pouring again any time. We seem to have a big flood about every 10 years.

Having said that, I should mention that Ceeads lives next to the river, so the water was about knee high down there this morning. I think she finally headed into town. Her house sits pretty high off the ground, but I don't know about her greenhouse and chicken coup. I haven't heard from her yet.

ohhhhhhh no, hope she is not flooded. :(

Thanks for the info Weezins! I wll sow in a protected area and take bunches of seeds for next year.. So glad they love to reseed!! Goodnesss knows I paid bunches for those seeds and I need a return on my investment!! :)

Yaknow... it makes me realize how lazy I am about collecting seeds sometimes and the amount they cost!! I am going to do a better job of collecting impatients and others this year!!

Susan

Weezin, glad to hear that you guys are relatively unscathed (if 4" of water in the basement falls into that category!) and I do hope you'll drop a post in here when you hear from Ceeads if she's unable to get to a computer. I hope everyone is alright and that the livestock and the plants make it through also. Thank you for keeping us updated.

Susan, how adorable that must have been with your son...(grin) Cherish those moments and lock them away in your mind for when they become teens (pulls out hair)!!!

Speaking of impatiens seeds, since this is my first year gardening and first time really collecting seeds, I had no idea that regular impatiens seed pods exploded! I thought that was just too cool. Of course, now everyday I'm checking the paper bags to see who 'popped' while I was busy doing other things and DH peeks in and tries to thump them to see if he can make them explode...LOL!

~Sunny

Yes, it is fun.. and no getting them before they are good and ready either :)

Susan

Weez, yep, flooded pretty bad. Just got back home from town on second avenue by Uncle Bob's where Ava and I evacuated to on Monday morning. Water didn't get into the chicken house. Flooded Dad's and Charlie's shops. Floated away Dad's 300 gallon propane tank, buried lots of vehicles. Just finished shoveling 5 inches of mud out of the woodshed and path to the steps. Of course my house is way up above everything so Sammy and the four dogs rode out the flood well with power and water so not so bad in that respect. Flooded inside my greenhouse over the beds. Everything was topsy turvy in there so I straighted that out. Some plants I mentioned saving from the Denali were floating in those blue flat Japanese roe trays like little boats in there! What a sight to see... gray ugly water and mud all over and those bright, clean, blue trays floating like jewels in that mess! I'm pretty tired from all that and muddy and dirty. I'm going to shower and look at it with new eyes.... later... Carol

Carol, Sorry to hear about the mess, but very GLAD to hear you are all right...

Connie

Carol, so glad to hear that you and family are safe and that the losses were simply property items; although I know they were valuable, I just mean in comparison :) REST!

Thanks for letting us know, I've been thinking about you.

~Sunny

Hi, Carol. I'll give you a call and see if I can help in some way. We got through this without much trouble. The basement had about a foot of water in it, with three sumps pumping. It's down to about an inch. The fact that they re-did the railroad tressles across the river saved our bacon. In the 1986 flood, the tressles were choked with debris (logs, branches, etc) and dammed up the water. This time it went on through...right into your neck of the woods!

Carole, hope all's well for you from here on out :) I finally saw the reports about your weather conditions this morning on GMA.

Susan

bumpididty

Hi, Dyson. Boy, I'm a long way from having all those seedlings, but I've already started to plant lobelia, and I'll begin planting in earnest soon.

Tonight I went through my seed collection of vegetable seeds, to figure out what I need to buy - (just celery) - but most are a year old, I hope they are still viable as I have not cared for them properly. (BAD Dyson!). I think I will test germinate a few before my planned indoor start date for each.

Once again I will leave the flowers to the wife to take care of. Last year she planted quite a few then never touched the beds again. I was not going to weed both so I just did the veggie beds. Somehow I predict the same for this year.

Hope everyone there has "dried out" after the flooding.

Gee wiz, I just placed my order on valueseeds and I was thinkin of yall here on this thread!! :) Good to be back! Expecting some ice maybe here tonight :( We'll see.

Susan

It's pretty warm for us here lately...mid to upper 30'sF. It's really slushy out there. I've ordered from Value Seeds, Burpee and Stokes. That should just about do it for me. Dyson, I have some very old veggie seeds that seem to do fine. Maybe the germination rate isn't as good, but for the average gardener, who needs 100 plants!

good for you.. I've only ordered from value but have eyes on other seeds as well.. I love johnnys catalog and ... bunches of others..

Oh, and by the way............

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y W E E Z I N !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you delight in the joys of your greenhouse today, as it would make an gardeners day a good one :)

Susan

Happy belated B-day Weezie!
Sidney

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lobelia - grow me some!!! :)

Hey Sidney!! I was just thinking about you the other day!! :)

Nicole

Thanks, Garden Buddies! Yes, lobelia is fun to grow. You transplant it in small bunches, and it is tedious, but it's one of my favorites, for some reason. Of course, I guess you have to be crazy to enjoy transplanting in the first place! Had a great birthday. My first lunch at the Senior Center... I turned 60!

LOL, Weezingreens! But I hear those meals at the senior centers aren't as good as they used to be (mashed potatoes and ground sirloin with canned peas). I hope you weren't disappointed now that you have "arrived". Happy Birthday!

I have three envelopes of snatched seed to start this weekend. ..the "Yellow flower by tusseemussee's driveway", the "pink fuzzy" one, or "mystery flower at the back gate"? LOL! I have no idea what these are, nor how to sow them. I don't remember how big they were or anything about them except there is a rather crude drawing of the "pink fuzzy". I'm just going to throw them injugs and hope for thebest.

I think I went out to my favorite ladygardener's place -- think Avant Gardens in Indianapolis -- to snag some seed -- on the same day I joined DG and saw this thread!

Suzy

That's great, Suzy. I have packets like that myself, though I have usually figured out what they are. I have a quart bag of 'mystery seeds', and when I plant them and figure out what they are, I go back and label the rest of the seeds... if I remember! I'm glad this thread has become a landmark in your seed snatchin' history!

bump - where is weeze?

in her greenhouse I'm guessing! :)

Weezzeee need a new thread!! LOL!! :)

Nicole

Ok, I'm here. Climb on the bus, and head on over to the new thread... hey, wait til I stop, you guys... you aren't hoppin' a freight train! http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/693430/