I need help! Where's the seed?

Hi everybody!!!!

I feel like the countdown has started somehow, with all the trade offers and all the people emptying out their old seed. And the funny thing is that the more common it is, the more I want it. I am having a field day with rudbeckia, marigolds, hollyhocks and poppies!

Something funny happened last Saturday when my husband got the mail. He brought it to me in the backyard and sort of hung around to see what was inthe bubble envelopes and it just happened to be Moretz's SASBE offer and Trudy's wintersown.org 6 pack.

It was so funny -- out spilled all these packages of seeds. Must have been 30 packages from moretz and then Trudy's 6pack plus my husband's favorite: tomotoes! He knows I'm putting flowers in a big bed I had previously soley devoted to daffodil bulbs and was so very happy that "cottage garden"meant he could have a couple of tomatoes.

He wants to know who you people are, and why you're sending me seeds that have obviously been cleaned and individually packaged in exchange for an envelope & $1.00 postage (which you don't even get to keep.) He didn't understand the *why* of it, so I explained it all to him, and now he *does* understand. The good news is, he must have been reeeeeeely impressed because I lost track of time today and when he came home from work, the kitchen was a mess --seeds everywhere and every dish was out and had seeds in it. OOOPS! And he didn't blink an eye.

Anyway, now I am starting to collect seed, but I have two plants where I can't figure out where the seed *is*..not where, but what the seed is. Aw, heck, I'm not explainig it right.

I have filipendula -- the fuzzy pink Queen of the Prairie. It is like an Astilbe on steroids havin a bad hair day with the frizzies. I got the dried heads and put them in a bag and have been putting them through a series of collanders and strainers. There are two things that could be seeds: Flat disks with a little hair or two coming out of them, similar to a spirea seed, but I also got little bitty round seed about the size and shape of foxglove seed (see how much I've learned through all the SASBE seeds I've gotten???) I want to trade it, because no matter which is the seed, I have a load of it! BUT I'd like to look like I know what I'm doing and actually send the CLEAN SEED and not "other".

The other thing is Blue Salvia farinacea Queen Victoria or Victoria Blue -- you know blue salvia you get from the garden center in spring -------- hahaha! I mean you *used* to get from the garden center. WHERE is the seed??? Nothing is dropping out of the soft dead flowers! How can I be missing it?

Well, thanks to all, and also help with my question, willyou? I asked in the Seed Savers Exchange, but didn't get any answers.

Suzy

this should take you to the salvia page, its a great site.
http://theseedsite.co.uk/db19.html
Connie
http://theseedsite.co.uk

Connie - that site is awesome, and I use that word in its correct sense. That should be put on the sticky at the top of the forum. Do you want to do it? He has a lot of info in there about Wintersowing.

Yes, Connie, that site is awesome. I checked it before posting though, under Salvia, not Sage (or visa versa) and didn't see anything. I also looked under filipendula and aquillegia, maybe I ought to try columbine. Didn't think of that :))

I am getting very excited about this whole growing from seed/winter sowing thing. I think it has just occurred to me how dependent my garden has been on the whims of the garden centers and what they decide to order (or not order)

I could decide I was going to go all apricot and coral, but if the garden center didn't order many of those colors, I was SOL. I feel like I have a million percent better chance of having things I like next year for free, or nearly free, here on DG than going to the 3 or 4 garden centers in the spring trying to find the right color of impatiens to match the dianthus I didn't even like (but that's all they had).

Suzy

Suzy - did you follow the first link she gave? It comes up right at the salvia seeds.

Oh, yes, I followed the link - - thanks, Connie -- and I found it.

I visited the site before posting for help, but I was explaining why I was unable to find it myself without having to post for help. I had used the wrong search word.

But I could not find either astilbe *or* filipendula on that site to see how to find seeds of those fuzzy flowers.

Suzy

Will the Victoria Blue come true from seed?

Suzy - somewhere in hazy memory I remember reading that most people propagate astilbe by division. I leave the flower heads but have never noticed seed either. The filipendula - don't know.

Astilbe seeds are so tiny, you need a microscope. Most folks just sow the crumbled seed head ....

The seedlings are teeny-tiny too.

PV

I tried winter sowing astilbe last winter. The seedlings are tiny, they disappeared after a very short time. I haven't a clue why because I had close to 100% germination on the rest. I had purchased the seed. I am going for divisions from now on.

How long before you gave up on the container Zenpotter? I had a few containers [of different plants] that didn't germinate until late June. I had almost thrown them out.

Guess I didn't explain that very well. The seeds germinated, there were tiny seedlings and poof they were gone in a couple of days. They just all went a once it was very strange.

I did have some, hosta, foam flower and some iris that I had given up on and put aside until I had the time to dump them out and clean the containers up. Before I got around to it they appeared. Fortunately I had left the clean up for more than a few days. Out of sight out of mind.

Thanks PV!

Suzy