Winter Sowing Seed Swap

Bluspiral: Thank you so much for the seeds you are including! I don't have the plants you mentioned that you would include, and I am so excited because they sound wonderful and you are practically in my back yard, so I am expecting they will survive here too!

alice..id be interested in the mixed lily seeds..can they be wintersown..i need to get busy on these packs to send in!
is the number still at 20 ? and postage still at 2 stamps?

pamsue

Thanks, Hineni. Sometimes, I can't think of any garden I can't get smitten over for one reason or another (Watts Towers are an example of aesthetics so unusual that you are taken outside of whatever definitions you may have had as to what, actually, is beautiful). Anyhoo, the internet has let me explore Asian art and gardens in ways the public library certainly could not. Following are links about the lost gardens of Yuan Ming Yuan:

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/wang/

Scroll down to the picture and caption "The Garden", click, and this comes up:

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/wang/ymy/whole-map.html

Y'all are welcome - the only one I'm waiting on now is Japanese anemone - pods are starting to burgeon into that cotton fluff - I'll need a few more days to dry it before sending it on.

Edited to add more about Yuan Ming Yuan:

A source of inspiration for the making of Yuan Ming Yuan was a garden next door: http://www.pku.edu.cn/eothers/advertisement/sy.html

A scroll illustrating the next door garden: http://www.pku.edu.cn/others/advertisement/xiuxi.jpg

Yuan Ming Yuan was also painted by the Jesuit Priest Giuseppe Castiglione: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Giuseppe+Castiglione%22+%2B+%22Yuan+Ming+Yuan%22&btnG=Google+Search


This message was edited Oct 23, 2006 2:00 PM

Pamsue,
Yes, still the numbers are still the same.
I winter sowed some unknown lily seeds in a large flat in winter 2004-2005, when spring came and they had all sprouted I planted them in clumps in various placed. They all bloomed this year, little patches of lilies popped up everywhere. I'll include some in your envelope.
Alice

Alicewho -- What kind of lily plants? I know you don't know the cultivar, but were they asiatic? Or what? I didn't know they could be grown from seed!

Happy, This seeds are from pods that I collect from all my lilies, and I grow everything from Tiger to trumpet to everything else in between. So, you could wind up with just about anything.
Alice

Wow! I love adventures!

Alice~ I mailed the WS seeds today! WOOOHOOOOO! This was fun and I look forward to enjoying WSing . ;0)

I was at the Post Office today mailing bubble envelopes of seed here and there. The guy working the counter told me that there was a new rule about envelopes. He said, if they are busy, they will only take ten bubble envelopes at one time. Fortunately, I only had seven. The clerk working next to him asked what we were talking about and my guy said "seeds". The other guy rolled his eyes and said "Oh, yeah, seeds. My fav." I just laughed.

About the lilies (my fav!), I bet WSing asiatics would work great, but I bet trumpets and orientals would be dicey in my zone. Think I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Alice, did you cover the seed or do they need light to germinate.

beaker, As I recall I planted them in a large aluminum pan that I had used from Thanksgiving....you know the disposable type with the clear plastic top? I remember this because it was one of the easiest to pop it out as plugs. And I did 'dust' them lightly with soil.
Alice

Alice,
My seeds went out in this morning's mail. Can't wait til the solstice! I'm raring to get started on wintersowing.

The 6 mil plasting sheeting on my hoophouse only lasted through one season and the wind tore it apart a couple of weeks ago. The heat was so intense this summer it just baked the plastic to a crisp. It literally flaked apart. So now I'm going to use plastic milk containers for my WSing. I have a bunch I've been saving up and I can get more from the recycling center. I tried about a dozen last winter and loved the ease of not having to worry about them until it was time to transplant the seedlings. WSing is the way to go!

JoAnn

Okay JoAnn, I'll be on the look out for them. And I agree, it was very hot this summer and very little rain....made my water bill triple! I like using the milk jugs, especially for seeds that I like to plant in clumps but getting my hands on enough of them can be difficult.
I do use a lot of the 2 liter soda bottles and don't ask me why but all seeds planted in the green tinted bottles do better then the ones planted in the clear bottles.
Alice

There must be something to that... The "Wall-O-Waters" that I use for my early tomatoes are green, and I've also seen green protectors used on young "whip" saplings.

I wonder if anybody on my block drinks a lot of Sprite.... ;-)

Please do not use a Metered Mail label as your return postage. I'm not sure that everyone is aware of this but it can only be used to mail from the location it was purchased.

This is from the Trading Primer.....
http://davesgarden.com/trading/primer/3/
IMPORTANT: DON'T SEND A PRE-PAID METERED LABEL in lieu of stamps - it is a violation of postal rules for someone else to use your metered label ...........

Thanks,
Alice

Just curious, how many containers do you have saved up already?
I have a box full of soda bottles and a few milk jugs.
Alice

I have a full garbage bag of milk jugs -- I don't know how many are in there.

I have 8 grocery bags of mixed soda bottles 16 to 24 oz. I'm concentrating on the larger size now. LOL, I always thought people who bought bottled water were insane. Now I'm buying it by the case! It just goes to prove that priorities do change.

Alice, may I have some lily seeds too? Many thanks.

Have y'all checked out the dollar store nearest you? I haven't looked closely yet, but everything's a dollar and there might be something adaptable to our wintersowing purposes like one of those disposable aluminum pans with clear top that Alice was talking about.

The anemones are fluffing up now, and some are drying indoors - won't be long, now.

Apologies to whoever read this before I edited this - I think Sheran would accept newcomers to her Christmas swap without my looking for a replacement there.

This message was edited Oct 31, 2006 11:18 AM

Alice, I would love some of your lily seeds also :o)

cg

bluespiral & cegoins, I'll add some mixed lily seeds to yours also.
Alice

oh thank you Alice :o)

much appreciated, Alice

Does anyone want to try tree peony seed? I have approximately 30 seeds - will divide into packs of 5 and send on to Alice to pass out. I've read that it takes about 10 years from seed to flower, and also that you need alternating temps at 70*F - 40*F - 70*F at varying lengths of time (average length of time at each temp being about 3 months). First the root develops by itself and then comes the top later. Following are some instructions to germinate peony seed by the American Peony Society.

http://www.americanpeonysociety.org/Intro_Info.htm

These are black, so guidelines #2 and #3 above may best apply.

This is such a gorgeous flower - don't make Alice send these back to me LOL

Oh I would love to try them :o) Thanks, been wanting some of them for a while now...

Connie

Connie, they're yours - will put with your other seeds in the box to Alice.

Thanks sooo much :o)

cg

Bluespiral~ thanks for the offer, I'll be glad to try some. ;0)

Connie and garden6, I'll close the offer of tree peony seeds with you two, since given the difficulty of germination, 15 seeds isn't that much. I like the way the American Peony Society above words its directions for germination, because it focuses you on what I think are 2 key criteria for tricky germination: 1) paying attention and 2) protecting the germinating seeds. Good luck, and let me know how things progress.

Thanks again Bluespiral, if I have to move before they flower, I'm taking them with me!! Be glad to keep you informed! ;0)

I have all my seed packaged for the swap. What I don't have are the little labels to stick inside. I'll work on that this week. I will be including 20 estra packets of annual Flanders Field Poppies, but I'm not going to include individual labels other than the name written on the packet. This seed was obtained commercially and contains vermiculate to aid in sowing.

bluespiral, if you're sending seeds for certain members and not everyone in general, please keep them separate...such as wrapping in a folded note, etc. And make sure that you mark the members number that they're intended for on the trade. For example, your member number is #19. From the member list in the first post of this thread.
It's fine to include them along with your WS Swap seeds, just need to make it easy for me to notice that they are not part of the swap seeds you send.
Alice

Hi Alice, everyone's group of seeds was already personalized and labeled with its respective DG moniker. Will go back & include the # - good thing the post office was closed by the time we got there today. I appreciate the standards and guidelines you've set for this seed swap.

karen

PS - Alice, I think your seed swap standards are very encouraging to us all to be generous in what we share here.

Also, I have a lot of seed to share - our garden is 31 years old and I designed it to have "a life of its own"; that is, to return every spring in spite of the years when work, night school, illness, vandalism, etc. kept me out of it. With the help of books by Henry Mitchell, Vita Sackville-West, Gertrude Jekyl (the concepts underpinning their ideas are so universal that their ideas translate very well to many types of garden situation), those dreams have now come to be, and I have so much seed looking for homes. Your seed swap has been a great opportunity for me to share.

Bluespiral: You are a wonder, and an inspiration to me.

hi all
i'm looking for Dame's rocket seeds, have many seeds to trade.I'm in MS

flowerlady, welcome to DG - glad ta meetcha. If no one on this thread has the seeds, maybe someone on the Seed Trading Forum might: http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/trading/all/

FYI - the USDA publishes a partial list of invasive plants for Mississippi, so can't tell if Dame's Rocket is considered invasive in MS or not, but if I'm correctly interpreting what I'm reading, then Dame's Rocket is considered invasive in 46 states.

karen

Winter Sowing Seed Swap .....part 2, is continued here
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/668131/

Alice

I have Dames Rocket seeds. I'll dmail you.

hi there im sending the envelope for the swap today..the seeds i wanted to send finally ripened and dried, have just enough to send 20 packets worth :)
and alice, id love some lily seeds..
this exchange sounds like it is going to be so fun!

pamsue

Hi! I sent my seeds in last week or the week before. Have you received them yet? Thanks, Lou