Just general conversation and hints and tips on starting from seed, featuring the seed swap piggies and friends.
We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/815113/
Join Us! Seed Swap Seed Starting & Conversation #4
Thank you Suzy, this is much better.
And we have our piggy back, too!
YEAH-QUEEN PIGGY-how I have missed you so.....
Yay! for the Queen Piggy!
Lea, I have a bunch of different monarda (We call them beebalm herb) including the jacob kline and other reds and I see no difference really that makes jacob more fabulous. They all spread so readily you should be able to easily snag a division or cuttings. It is definitely a plant to keep in check though, it can overspread its bounds. I've never had the luck or patience to find seeds either!
Oh yeah, I had an illegible pack of seeds and when someone asked about the asirina it struck a chord. I think that is it, but I'm not sure about the next two words. I think it says Jean Lorraine, but I couldn't make it make sense because I don't know any jean lorraine's, so if anyone knows... I was just going to try my luck at it, but with the asarina talk I thought light may be shed????
Quick???
I wanted to collect seeds for my coleus last year, but couldn't figure it out-does anyone know??
PS-where did you all go on the order thread???? Some of you were on the interest thread & I just wanted to make sure if you did still want to order, that you knew it was up is all.......
Fairy, I spent all my money, and the Echinaceas were the big draw.
Flowerhead, The name is Joan Lorraine on the Asarina....Seandor warned me that my writing was illegible, but I figured it was because she was a foreigner. Ooops, guess not. LOL!
Hey Stacey, I am interested, but I'm trying to decide how interested. My waning interest comes purely from the birthday thing. (my boys 16 tomorrow and 12 Sunday next) I suddenly realize that I'm dropping a few hundred bucks this week and I'm thinking timing is not on my side. I ordered from the yahoo bluestone group before this one came up, but I want to order more still. I just think that it may be closing before I will have the cash. So there's my dilemma! BUmmer, eh? That octopuse campanula is coooool. My hubby is VERY selective about campanula though and I'm not sure if it will pass his muster. THere are a few that like to entangle around other plant roots. I know he likes peach-leaf and the clips-they pass, but I'll have to show him that one.
LOL Suzy LOL Robin will be getting you and she knows where you live! LOL
Fairy I wanted to collect seed from some of my coleus last year too and couldn't figure it out! Besides when I finally let it go to seed that's when the rains started coming! You should have seen me trying to collect veronica seed I was pulling the stems and just letting them dry in the house lol
So Fairy is that the Kong coleus you have out front?
I have some of the smaller campanula clips I think it is, but it just stays small and I water and feed it, just don't understand? I watch it closely too! I don't feed a lot of my plants so that's a big deal when I do lol NO TIME, lucky to get them all watered! LOL Esp. with a summer like we had last year and I hear it's going to be the same this year I don't know if I can do it again this year and plant too, that took a lot out of me I'm getting too old for this LOL
Yay! Thanks Suzy! I'm glad I asked. And you ALWAYS have great printed labels anyway. I have a friend that came to see me on a bus once when we were quite young. We both had our babies at the tender age of 20. Her first was 1 year old and she rode that bus for, I think, 14 hours-somewhere around there AND she was 7 months pregnant. She now has three kids and is an IRS agent, busy-buy and I see her once a year when I visit my folks, so there's no big pressure to come see me, but she WANTS to and can never find time. I always tell her when she says she wants to come and it falls through that for that first trip pregnant, with a toddler, on a long bus ride that she has a lifelong excuse to not come, She's PAID her dues, you know? So...Suzy you have a lifelong excuse to write as many illegible plant tags as you want, because you are the Queen of Swaps!!
Oh yeah, and I have a gift of making a short story long, just in case anyone is wondering!
Double oh yeah-I'm glad it is asarina-I emember looking at that at some point and thinking it was VERY pretty!! YAY!
Lea, the clips like to be in well-drained soil-perhaps that is an issue?
Le Bug-to be honest I was a newbie so i don't remeber what the package said:( Sorry, if it isn't Knog then what would that look like-bigger than my house!!LOL Suzy & flower-it is no big deal, just wanted to make sure ya know that's all.....I am about to add 4 echie and I am sure it will be a frenzy!!!LOL I already had 1 person tell me they wanted 2 of each-didn't care waht var. I was offering!!!LOL
I am trying to get some seeds doen today too.....is has been slow-I just can't seem to tear myslef form the computer!!!!
fairy, just love that coleus!! I had seen it before off to the side in one of your posts and meant to ask you about it.
critter, thanks....I know I must have asked you before but I couldn't remember what you had said. I'll note it in my journal this time :)
Fairy-you should throw the order link here again, in case anyone can't find it.
Kath, it must be well drained soil if it's dry all of the time you think? It's clay, all of my other ones do fine there, sedums, lynches, maltese cross, campanula cherry bells, calendula to name a few :) I dumped some pro mix like and put a plant of the clips there I'll see how they do there it's mounded about a foot and a half. I've tried this plant a few times and it never makes it.
I winter sowed Campanula 'Blue Clips' last year and got good germination... probably didn't pot them up in a timely fashion, but maybe I'll see a few blooms this year.
Suzy, thanks for the advice on the Asarina... they're already sown, in just an inch or so of potting mix, so I'll put them next to rather than on top of the heat mat. Sounds like I may have a tangled "situation" later on, as with my JMG's last year.
I've discovered a use for some flimsy "food service" gloves that turned out to be too thin to be useful when working with hot peppers and the like... cut the tips of the fingers off, and pop it over a little pot of seeds! It fits nicely.
Yeah!
(Not that it's of any huge interest to anyone other than myself and possibly Suzy, but) one of my mystery plants still had a seed head in place. I'm 99% sure it IS the bupleurum. Very weedy-looking beginnings for such a pretty plant.
Yay, the piggy is back!
I have a question, what NEEDS to be started inside, and what can be direct sowed in the spring?
We have a very bad kitty who is the death of all that is green in the house, and I am not sure how much i can baby inside before he either sneaks in and knocks it over or eats it.
hahaha critter...very creative on using the gloves! I would have NEVER thought of doing that :)
reminds me of those pom pom hats you see the kids wearing on the ski slopes with all the jester points bopping around. Your seedlings are going to be quite fashionable!
Yay!!!
artemiss, might be a little easier if you send us a list of what you are wanting to grow :) I'd say impatiens, coleus, petunias off hand but then I'm not sure what seeds you are asking about :)
Artemiss, How hard will it be for you to type up the questionable seeds you have and those of us who have sown them can sort of help better? Otherwise, you are stuck looking them up one by one.
Suzy
Artemiss, I made a list of all my seeds I'm starting inside and all that I'm direct sowing but frankly, many of the seeds I'm starting inside could be direct sown and vice versa.
I have found that when I direct sow I loose track, forget to water, critters eat the seeds or whatever so I'm starting many inside first. But that is limited to the amount of space I have. We have the cat problem too.
I'll gladly send you a copy of my list if you want to see it? it is very long (oink) and it might be better for you to post what it is you have :)
When is everyone sowing their salvias?
I am sowing my salvias in 2 weeks!!! I'm not sure when to sow my lantana and poppies-any help??
Also-echies are up now!!!
I direct sow my poppies. I started doing them in late November. I have 2 more areas left to sow on those then all will be done as much as I can for now.
Here is the link to Fairy1004's perennial coop.... these are all things you'll see for sale at your expensive garden centers for $12.95-19.95 a pot THIS SPRING!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/816414/
Keep in mind that this is just what I do....I do not consider it a personal afront if anybody lse want to chime in with a different or better method they have found.
Salvia - I'm not sure. I need to look up Salvia guar. Black and Blue and probably sow it inside soon. I did sow a special perennial one about a month ago and it's in a 3" pot inside. Looks like it will be garden center size by set out. The blue Salvia Victoria style ones get sown now. I don't kow about the red Salvia splendons.
Lantana - soak 24 hours in really warm-hot water and sow now.
Poppies - I wait until March and look at the extended forecast for a snow and toss them out right before the snow. Last year they came up so nicely with no need to thin because I sowed in the wind.
Suzy
That looks like a winner to me Suzy, I'm going to start some tomorrow.
Just planted my Lantana and evening primrose. Now if I can get my 4th of july rose to germinate I will be a happy camper.
The trouble I'm worrying about with sowing the poppies in the snow my beds are leaf beds, I can't do that with leaf beds can I Suzy? If I pull the leaves up I'm afraid I'll get that darn crab grass and the robins stir my leafs up in the spring too so what leaves I would pull back for a section the robins would probably push the leaves back lol, I'm surprised they aren't out there now guess this winter has been too cold for them they're usually here all winter and why not when they have so many worms in the leaf beds lol Almost every spring I'm still fighting crabgrass in my beds because the robins have thrown my leaves everywhere, they are such a trip to watch LOL
Well, I had planned on starting my petunias..I want to do a whole flat of them..they are so easy to tuck here n' there...I am just not sure WHEN..
And some other things I am considering but don't know if they can (or should) be direct sown:
Hollyhocks?
Cypress vine
tithonia
tobacco (just cause the seeds are so tiny, and the plants huge I want them well-placed)
Amaranth (ditto above)
gomphrena
mini snapdragons
I have already put out the poppies and campanula with the last snow..is there anything else I am forgetting that NEEDS the cold?
I am direct sowing the migonette, night phlox, zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers, hummingbird sage, coreopsis, larkspur, 4 oclocks, nasturtuims, bachelors buttons and zinnias.
I prolly missed something, but that is the bulk of it (for now anyways, hehe)
Hollyhocks? -- you can direct sow in April, May, June or July. They do really well germinating in the heat of summer, even through the plants them selves are not real heat lovers.
Cypress vine - don't know on this one, but it will reseed, so I figure wintersowingis fine.
tithonia - Wintersow in April. Heat Lover.
tobacco (just cause the seeds are so tiny, and the plants huge I want them well-placed) Wintersow April Heat Lover.
Amaranth (ditto above) ditto above LOL Heat Lover.
gomphrena - wnterswed this one, too, late like April Heat Lover.
mini snapdragons - the directions shoud be on them -- on April 1 sow them insdie and as SOON as they germinate, throw them outisde to fend for themselves. Or for the more chicken hearted, sow them outside with a nice clear plastic cover over them. Not a real heat lover -- prefers spring and fall... short shirtsleeve weather.
Suzy
Starlight/Ella has a Classified Ad up for Echinaceas - the new ones.
Pink Double Delight
Green Jewel (not Green Envy, be sure to look it up before you buy)
Fragrant Angel
Hope
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/816565/
YAAAAAAAAAA I can start my Dahlias!!!!!!!!! Happy as a new pair of sneakers being taken out for their first walk : ) Sorry Dryad, ya got to wait a week yet or so. : ( ( tee-hees behind hand that I can go ahead and start and don't have to wait) LOL
Thought I read where somebody was tryign to start Black -n Blue Salvia seeds. If I wrong, ignore this post. If not. First them seeds probably aren't gonna coem true, but wil feed the butterflies anyways. Just make sure that when ya put those seedlings out that ya put them in the shade. B&B seedlings don't like it hot when they first tryign to get going. Also keep good eyes on the water for them. They cna get to be real thirtsy drinkers.
I just can't imagine how ya just go out and scatter seeds in the snow. The whoel idea trips me out, cuz I have never seen such a site. Haven't seen real snow for about 15 years either for that matter. : )
that's OK Star - go ahead and giggle :) I'll just think of you when I'm enjoying those clusiana tulips in the spring - hehehehe.....
Artemiss-I got some info off the net-our last frost date is 3 weeks behind Suzy's so keeo that in mind when sowing:)
Thanks guys!
(and that later frost date is what keeps getting me....)
Suzy-I may need some pimping help-LOL!!!!!