Confessions of a Wintersower - I bought some plants.

LOL well, I did (wait two years) for mine but some I still can't ID because I grew about 8 kinds of campanulas and they all look pretty much the same to me...LOL but they are all pretty! Same thing for digitalis, but they are beautiful and I am going to grow them again.

I confess, I went out roaming around the garden centers today to see what was in stock (and to see what the leaves of the perennials looked like so I could ID some of my plantlings coming up) and ended up purchasing a couple of new coneflowers (which I don't even like) for the (jump start of the) butterfly garden... and some red verbena guaranteed to attract butterflies (so the lady at the counter said).

I threw some seed into the garden two days ago and I've got something coming up. Will try some more tonight. You're right. It's just the price of a pack of seeds!

Beautiful evening here to be in the garden. Hope you are all enjoying your planting.

I am, I am, I am enjoying my planting! After a miserable weekend of mean rain on the Cape, today was blue and flawless and I was outside! I am eyeing my WS jugs--I DID mostly plant annuals in my innocence--and I'm just going to put the seedlings around my garden and see what happens. Trudi's WS site sent me some tomato seeds gratis and I have tiny but energetic seedlings growing in plastic cups. . . they're going to go out in the ground after the witching-hour of Memorial Day. (I've been told that you put things out at your peril before that, here on Cape Cod.)
And yes, at the garden centers there are some big, burly, gorgeous annuals in 4 -in. pots just waiting to be taken home with me. . . trying to resist them. They remind me of those big kids in Jr High School who developed 'way ahead of the rest of us, or at least, ahead of me. So jealous!

Well, CapeCodGardener, I have always bought those annuals - and found that the garden started to look pretty straggly by August.

I am hoping the late start with w-s annuals will mean fabulous gardens in September - when it is cool enough for me to enjoy them! (I spend most of July and August inside trying to beat the heat and humidity).

Miatablu and I went to a local garden center yesterday, as much for the joy of walking through their gardens and greenhouses as anything else. We walked through a greenhouse filled with blooming annuals ($4 for a 4 inch pot!), and we were soooo good, saying, oh, we can grow this and we can grow that and I already have a whole flat of this other at home... and then I saw a trailing Torenia. I didn't even know trailing Torenias existed. (I have a whole flat of nontrailing ones that I grew under lights at home). It was purple. It was big. It was beauuuutiful. It came home with me!

Now it's smaller, because I took half a dozen cuttings... we'll see if they root in water or if they want to be stuck in pots. I figured I could justify the $4 if I could manage to get several plants from the one I bought.... :-)

Great plan critterologist. I have ordered lots of plants to replace the ones that didn't grow for me. Bluestone Perennials is having their end-of-season sale until May 31 - so I got garden phlox, globe thistles - stuff I had bought from Michigan bulb that never thrived.

I must say everything I have ever bought from Bluestone continues to do fabulous in the gardens.

Ooooh, the Bluestone sale.... ;-)

They do have great plants -- smaller than some, but so are their prices, and they are so vigorous that they soon catch up to the larger plants I've picked up locally.

Michigan bulb deserves their poor rating on Garden Watchdog. Sorry you got stung by them.

For anyone considering the above, Bluestone's site says their offices are closed from noon Friday (today) through Monday... so I'd say ordering now gets you a better chance of finding out what's still in stock...

Thanks for the tip, critter. I've already started my first saved cart!

xxxx, Carrie

I saved a cart too... but I'm considering the wisdom of planting what I have before ordering more...

I succumbed to the Bluestone sale (just a bit). Bought some Japanese Anemones. But I wonder, can these be wintersown?

I did put some seeds into milk jugs this week and sowed some zinnias in pots. I am thrilled that the zinnias are coming up. (I've never been successful with them before).

I am pretty happy this spring with my Wintersown perennials from the winter of 2005 and have plenty of plants now, but I wish I would STOP being lured to the sales. Is there a pill for that?!!

I WS'd some anemone seeds, and I have 3 tiny sprouts... I sowed the seed pretty thickly, so that's not a high germination rate, but it seems to have worked at least a bit. :-)

Hey Carrie - Happy B.D.!

Joanne

Oh, yes Carrie - Happy Birthday - sorry, I have been gone all day, and only arrived home about an hour ago. Spent the last hour watering plants and deadheading the hanging baskets.

Hope you had a great day!

cheers,
Michaela

Thank you, my DH and my 2 DDs all made it very wonderful, and thank you for noticing! I just made a deal with my 16 y. o. DD: she'll help me garden and in exchange, I'll drive her to and pay for a manicure. Not manicure season for me!

xxxx, Carrie

This message was edited May 25, 2007 9:04 PM

Happy Birthday, Carrie! I'm sending wishes for a season of great weather and great gardening! Tamara

O, thank you, thank you, Tamara.

xxx, Carrie

I've bought some plants too - ones that I can't wintersow like gerber daisy. Others are about ready to bloom. All my California poppy have buds that will open any day now. Love-in-a-mist and Blue Pimpernel are just about ready too. The same goes for my borage. Even my tomatoes have flowers.

:>[ Nothing, nothing that I wintersowed has any buds. The nastursiums and sweetpeas are growing, but not blooming. The columbine I bought LAST YEAR are creeping but blooming. Also blooming are the geum, other columbines, wild strawberries, and apricot violas.

I'm not giving up on wintersowing, fear not.

xxxx, Carrie

sounds good, Anita. the only thing I have buds on is Sweet William, and those are still growing in a baggie LOL

Still waiting for my first blossoms - and still have a gazillion seedlings to plant or?