Ah Illoquin, . . . .mine marigold seeds are all collected - and received in trade. I will go and buy some today. :-)
I need LOTS for the south garden and for a circular garden around a tree (both these gardens are on the terrace.)
Join Us! Seed Swap Seed Starting & Conversation #10
Good point, Tuink... I know the 'Lemon Gem' marigold seed I sent out was a combination of mature and immature seeds, but I figured people would see that and sow thickly (sorry, but not separating those!). I've sent out zinnia seed (my first year of trading) that included chaff, too, but I sent it by the handful so everybody got plenty of actual viable seeds.
I just don't want anyone I sent seeds to, to think I did it on purpose:( I like the peeps here too darn much for that :)
Of course we don't think so, Fairy!
Hey, it was my first year collecting seeds, too. And I'm hoping I didn't make any BIG mistakes. (I figure I will be forgiven for all the little ones) I sowed all the marigolds very thickly because most of the seeds were sent VERY generously. So no prob here :0)
Now, will anybody who has luck with starting lavender from seed please stand up? And tell me exactly what you do? I have the darn things volunteering outside in the cracks in my patio, but I can't get a seedling past the 1/2" stage to save my soul. And this is bought seed, not collected. I tried last year and figured it was damp off, so this year I used H2O2... same results. On both 'Rosea' and 'Lady'. I'm thinking maybe I have them too wet? I know the big plants like it on the dry side with good drainage. When I realized this, I took the 4 tiny seedlings I had left of 'Lady' and repotted them in cactus mix. 3 have already succumbed. Help! I really want some for my rose garden.
grampapa, I don't have much luck with lavender either, I sowed a bunch of seed and only got one of 'true' lavender, sorry can't help you.
Tuink, on the marigolds that is the only ones that I usually sow is the black ones, I just think some of them aren't viable :)
I'm still worn out from yesterday going up and down the steps all day lol Got a lot of my plants outside though and hardening off my tomatoes the bigest ones anyway that were fighting the lights don't want to get too may out there to bring in incase of bad weather not that much room in the house lol Now it's back to planting seeds and transplanting :)
Everybody have a great day!
Ok, I know this is touched on somewhere on here in one of these threads but I can't find it lol Where do I pinch the coleus at? I'm loving my coleus this year! The colors are soo cool!
After they have several pairs of true (colored) leaves, just pinch the tops off. You'll probably see pairs of leaflets starting to emerge in some of the places where lower leaves meet the stem. It's a lot like pinching basil... take a look at my first DG article "Pinch, Pinch, Pinch!" for photos marked "pinch here." :-)
Critter you have an article for just about everything I should have just looked it up lol Thank you! The haven't started shooting up around the sides so that was why I was wondering, I knew they needed to be pinched, pinching makes me soo nervous LOL I've never pinched my coleus before and some types really need it I had the carefree mix last year and they sure could have used it so I'm doing it this year, Thanks!
well, that article is about herbs... but really, pinching basil and pinching coleus are pretty much identical operations! Don't forget, if you pinch longer tips off your coleus (with at least one node where you can strip off leaves and put the stem in the water), they root easily.
I pinched all my basil today, probably over 100 plants. (I hope somebody who comes by will want some LOL). What a fun job that is because they smell so good! and they're all so pretty. I pinched all my coleus earlier this week. I'm looking forward to the 'Kong' coleus. I don't know how many different colors I ended up with. the majority are red, and look really nice.
LOL Critter I don't need to root any I think I have plenty :) I haven't done it yet I think I'll wait for another row of leaves first or little shoots coming out of the sides.
The kitty had her kittens and we finally found them, she had four, of course I picked one out :) If she is a she I'm going to call her flower :)
grampapa, what in the world are you going to do with all of that basil lol
Suzy do you have any blooms on your prunella yet, I have one that is really small and getting a bloom! I looked the correct spelling up for it on my spreadsheet and I must have forgotten to put it in lol
Hey everyone-Gosh is it good to be outside! My body is adjusting for sure. This is my first year growing coleus from seed. My colors have just started showing-I can't wait to see what they reveal.
It was in the 70's today-a lot of snow has melted-yay!!!!!!!!!
Lea-I'm a cat person-and I like your name choice! We have a kitty named Lily. We got her from the humane society and she came with that fitting name!
Morning all!
First seedlings are starting to flower already. Think of tomato's, impatiens, bush MG. Weathers seems to finally warm up next week, so these can then be planted out! Yay!
Darn!!! I got that Kong Coleus seed in a swap or trade and didn't save any for me! I thought it would take too long and be too much trouble from seed, and that it would be ugly. LOL! Lea, Can you pinch those little seedlings right before we come and put the little pinchings in a papertowel, then in a zip loc for me, would ya? :))
Flower, OMG! I am in the same boat...I come in looking worse than my 92 year old mother, all hunched over and limping. :) Some days I am in serious pain!
Gram, 100 Basil Plants? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Lavender is really difficult -- I had tried it years ago with the same results as you're getting and decided it would be one plant I would purchase (killed them all -- Indiana must be inhospitiblel for Lavender. And you're not the only one, either, the boards are filled with people wondering what they did wrong. I think commercially, they are usually grown from cuttings, so seed might not be easy for the commercial guys, either. The whole trick to Lavender is to have water passing by it, but the soil never staying moist, and lots of buring hot sun, isn't it? I had a blue Nasturtium (Tropaeolum azureum) seed with the same requirements, and some directions I read said to use a combination of sand and unmilled spagnum moss (this is used in flower arranging and comes in a pitifully small bag for sort of a lot of money...it is green, but it is not sheet moss, which is also used in flower arranging). It worked on the Tropaeolum, so maybe on the Lavender? I just don't think a dry soil lime-lover will want anything to do with a peat based seed mix. Maybe that chick grit would be of use?
Fairy, LOL! No one is gong to think you sent in bad seed on purpose. Go to the Annuals forum and read the Zinnia posts by the resident Zinnia expert, Maineman. In one of them, he talks about the low-germination he's getting on his own seed and ruminating on not being able to tell the viable seed form the non-viable. seed. One trick on Zinnias is to winnow them: Take the dried flower heads and a large bowl outside on a windy day in the fall and hold them about 12-18" above the bowl and slowly keep "crumbling them" in your hand. The chaff will fly away and the heavier seeds will hit the bowl with a little clink sound. Rubbery seeds or seeds you can bend are not viable.
Marigolds (to name one) are in the Aster (composite) family and they are notorious for being feast or famine on seeds. Partly because each petal is its own flower and has to be pollinated, and partly because so many in the family might be partially sterile triploids. Not all the seed in any flower will be fertile. Marigolds have gigantic seeds compared to some of the little daisies, and at least you can see if they are black, firm and heavy before you sow, but some of the little Calliopsis seeds are just a handful of who-knows-what? (I sowed some Calliopsis 'Tiger Stripe' really have thinking it was 90% chaff, and it wasn't! ooops! Marigold Lemon Gem (all the Gems) that Critter is referring to has very small and lightweight viable seed and it is very hard to clean, and as I said above, really not worth the effort. They are also notorious for being terribly difficult to clean (and frankly some on the Aster family are not worth the effort; just add a lot extra to the pack and call it a day).
Lea, I don't have any flowers even close to forming on the Prunella! No fair!
Regarding the seeds that don't germinate... I have been thinking about this since the swap, actually. I know I mentioned before, and Tuink has mentioned it indirectly, that some of the seeds of named varieties were going to be iffy in one of two ways: either they fail to germinate or the resultant seedlings are just "wrong". They might be malformed, don't bloom, don't look anything like the parent, or are otherwise inferior. (They could also be much better, or fine for your use in the garden.)
I think that we *do* need to know if the seeds we sent it fail to germinate so we don't duplicate the error year after year, and this could be done one of two ways. If you have something from me, like Agrostemma 'Milas' that failed to germinate, you could d-mail me and tell me. Or you could post here that you got no germination on the Agrostemma 'Milas' (without mentioning my name). No one is perfect at germinating seeds, and just because it failed for one person obviously doesnt mean it was bad seed, but if a couple people didn't get a certain seed to germinate, then either the seed was bad, or it needs a set of directions attached to the seed pack.
One has nothing to apologize for if your seed didn't germinate, and there is no need to offer a different seed in replacement! Just make a mental note that there is a question about the viabiliy of the seed, and see if you can improve your collection of it by waiting until they are more fully ripe, and make sure you know what the seed actually is, look it up in Plant Files, and maybe do a little research on the viability. ...stuff like that.
How does that sound?
The second thing, about the plants or flowers being somehow "wrong", then that would be discussed in photos, I think, with an accompanying comment like this: "I got this as Silver Princess" Shasta Daisy and it looks like a daisy but the plants are all different sizes." This would be of interest, I think, to all growers. Since so many plants are perennials, we won't even know until 2009.
I tried to sow a lot of my own seed this year, from packs just like I sent to the swaps, but I didn't get to even 1/8 of them before giving up in favor of new things I wanted to try. :)
Suzy
Morning Tuink! Yay!!! What is flowering?
Suzy
Wow, Suzy,
Great info...
As far as the seeds that I've tried that haven't done anything, In my case, I'm assuming that I've had a fair degree of "operator error" on the seeds that didn't germinate. I'm not counting on the Aquilegia for a while yet, but some of the other stuff has probably failed due to my own inexperience. These threads have been tremendously helpful, but I've still messed up a few things.
It's been really interesting so far, and a surprising number of things have germinated for me (some of all your pro advice must've sunk in!) but everything is kind of late because I started it late-good thing, actually, with our icky cold spring. Got to thank everyone for everything that I'm learning or absorbing for next year! :)
Suzy,
first tomato's, impatiens, bush MG, courgettes are in bud now and Oxalis is already flowering.....
My brain seems to be very partial in remembering things. I'm quite good at remembering (latin) names of plants or what they look like but remembering who sent me what seeds and in what condition they were? Oh, I do have a problem there!
There's always seeds that don't work for particular persons, without an obvious reason. And this can differ per year. I remember a year that I couldn't get any snap to germinate while this year they do absolutely fine! Same goes for basil, violets, geranium and some others.
That's wonderful on the bloom! Dryad had Petunias & Salvia, and I had geraniums, so looks like we're mostly all rolling along.
Yes, I agree about the seeds, but talking about what did and didn't germinate will be so educational. And you don't need to know where the seeds came from, just that your double Impatiens, for example, didn't germinate, then say from traded seed or commercial, is enough.
Our daffodil show was very small -- a lot of early flowers, not so many mid season, and no late flowers at all, even from the folks in Cinty and southern Indiana. My own offerings were not so good, but I managed to have the best collection of 5 stems in the show.
Wow! We just had an earthquake here right while I was typing. Lasted only a short while, but kind of an odd sensation!
Suzy
This message was edited Apr 18, 2008 5:49 AM
Hey suzy,
still shaking? Strange feeling, isn't it?
Congratulations on your five-stem daffodil. Did they come from one bulb? That would be amazing!
Yes, that would be amazing! LOL! Sorry for the confusion; it was a collection of 5 stems -- 5 different daffodils in 5 separate test tube style vases stuck in a single base - the flowers were varieties I grow that were hybridized by Kiwis (New Zealanders).
Just imagine you managed to make a five-stemmed hybrid. That would get you loaded.....
WOW Suzy-what a post!!
That is a good idea to post what doesn't germinate for us as an educational tool-funny thing-I have no clue what seeds came from whoe except 2 that flower sent me because they were high on my want list & I didn't think I was getting them-almost made me cry at the surprise and thoughtfulness!! I would LOVE to know which of the seeds I have sent are giving peeps trouble so I can see if i did anything wrong or if they were just not viable...
Morning All
Illoquin I got on just to see who had felt the quake. It woke me up and shook my bed I heard a pop, took a couple of seconds to tell what was going on. I have felt earthquakes 4 times in my life(and no I was not alive in 1905 when the big one hit this part of the US lol)and this was the strongest. The others could be described as a wave.
Back to business. I have a variety of daffodils that never open good for me. I believe the term is blasting. I am aboout ready to dig and pitch them. This year I had hopes as the buds filled out and I got maybe one flower. I know they would be beautiful if they would do their thing. I wonder if you have any words of wisdom for me. Have had them a few years and no luck.
Hi Indy,
Maybe I'm telling something you already know, but it's absolutely essential that the leaves of dafs aren't cut back untill they've turned yellow. Also the plants need to be fed. If you don't do this, the plants will not be able to store enough energy to properly flower in the next year..... In this case I thing it's better to get rid of these dafs and to start anew in autumn.
I read I think on the bulb forum about this-it is a thread near the top-something to do w/ levels in the soil....
BTW-R U sure you weren't alive in 1905-LOL-JK-you did have me crackin up w/ that 1!!
Ha! I'm hoping somebody will take some of these basils off my hands. I'm also planning on using critter's clump transplanting, too. makes it easier to pawn some off LOL
Indy, I had some daffs that didn't bloom. I fed them and they started blooming. simple as that. I have others that bloom in spite of my neglect. But I'm getting better about it.
I've never been in an earthquake. I'll pass, thank you very much.
Suzy, here's the current state of my Kong coleus. I think it's going to be pretty. I'm sorry you didn't save any seed.
Nice coleus seedlings!!
Add me to the list of folks who want to know if anybody has run into problems with seeds I've sent... I don't grow out all the varieties of stuff I save each year, so I may have no idea that a particular pepper seed is crossed and not growing out true or if germination is low on a certain variety of basil... and if I don't know, I'll keep sharing the extra seeds. If I know there's a problem with seeds I've sent out, I try to post (or Dmail if it's just a couple of folks who got the seeds and I can figure out who they were).
I think people don't want to complain, especially if I've sent seeds for postage, etc... but really, I'd rather know!
I was up about 4:30 checking the temps out but guess I passed out again didn’t feel a thing on the earthquake, I was just at the neighbors and she felt it, said all of her pictures were barely hanging afterwards but I don’t see any evidence here from it that I have noticed anyway. It’s about 10:20 and we just had a tremor :) I thought it was the dog scratching and just shaking the floor but it wasn't he was in the other room lol
Suzy, I’ll just wait to pinch the coleus and we can do it when you get here, how’s that sound? What do you use to feed daphs with, bone meal? I have some of that.
I have some of those pink Oxalis and they haven’t come up yet, George sent me a bunch last year, I’ve got my fingers crossed that there wasn’t too much rain for them they are one of my favorite flowers!
Well Kath, I figured you’d like that name choice :) I’m going to wait and see if the name fits though, but if this kitten is anything like her mother she will be right behind me when I’m digging holes for planting to fertilize them for me lol I just hope she catches voles like her mommy :)
I grew the ‘true’ and ‘lady lavender’ from seed a few years ago and they lasted a couple of years and then they were gone. I tried some from seed this year and only got one plant :(
I'm getting ready to sow these blanket flower seeds would it be better to put them in a jug or just sow them downstairs, I'm worried about the moisture, sounds like they don't like that much when they are sown, am I right or did I missunderstand? I really want these :) I have some for the burgundy and golden ones and another I can't think of right now...
Hello Troops! Looks like everyone has been extremely busy as have I. I've got a mystery seedling that I wonder if anyone recognizes. This came up in my pot labeled "Pretty Purple Pepper." Not! If this is a pepper plant I'm thinking it's going to win some kind of award at the state fair this year. LOL.
(Gram, remember me as the dunce who winter-sowed all her basils. If you're truly serious about unloading a few send me a Dmail.)
Lala, I'm at a loss... I was thinking of what seeds could've gotten mixed into my PPP packet, but I don't think I've seen anything like your little seedling here... See what it grows into! LOL The Pretty Purple Pepper seeds should have looked like regular pepper seeds, so hopefully your container has some of the "real thing" in it also.
What outstanding weather! I actually had to turn the sprinklers on, it's been so long since there has been a good rain. Oodles of stuff emerging in the garden.
Meanwhile, I used the day to start putting together containers.
I have sooo many petunias that are getting too big! Now I will either have to plant them all, or make larger paper pots and replant them.
remind me not to start so many plants next year . . . .
Critter, my guess is that seedling is one that I gave up on then planted something different in the container. I am notorious for doing that (hey that seed-starting soil is expensive!) and I kick myself every time for not labeling the current seed planted as well as the previous seed. Let's hope it was something I really, really wanted!
Lala, How about some sort of daisy, Cosmos, annual Chrysanthemum or something in the Aster/Composite family? Am I ringing any bells at all?
Today was glorious and I actually got the mess from last year cleaned up so I cn start over again!
Rain is on the way, and we are dry here, too. Weird because we've been really rainy here this spring!
Lea, I have no idea on the Gaillardia, but I have lost too many plants because of the rainy springs we have and started mine inside under lights. They are slow! (Maybe it's not hot enough or sunny enough under lights in my basement though,)
Suzy
Lea, I don't know which would be better for the gaillardia either. All I know is my own experience. I wintersowed 3 (Golden Goblin, Kobold, Fanfare) and all 3 germinated. I had them in my plastic bags, so they were reasonably wet. I was a little disappointed last year... I w/s G. 'Burgundy' and only got 1 plant. Well, I planted it and it's back this year (yay!), so hopefully it will bloom this season. the burgundy was from purchased seed, too.
La, I don't know how well those basils would travel. maybe when they get a little bigger. I'd be more than happy to send you a selection :0) or a collection ?
I have a flower on my Lilac Supercascade pets, but I'm way too tired to take a pic. you'll have to trust me lol
Fairy, I've had issue with pansies and violas in the past too. This time I started them last September (meant to sow them in August and forgot, but that would have been better) and set them out in fall. That's how I'm going to do them from now on. Oddly, the packets didn't say anything about putting them in darkness, but they did say to cover the seed. I sowed them in pots on the porch and had great germination without doing anything else to give them darkness besides covering the seed with soil.
Yesterday was so gorgeous, and I was too sore from digging the day before to get anything else planted, so I embarked on operation pretty porch, LOL. All the wintersown jugs are off the deck, the little greenhouses moved to the side of the house, and a bunch of stuff from the plant room is now on the deck (the stuff that stays there all summer). I moved plants all day long! Now different muscles are sore, LOL. Still have a bunch of pots in the basement full of tender bulbs to bring out, so hopefully I don't feel too crippled today to work on that!
A few things I'm wondering if I can go ahead and set out in the garden; cosmos, sunflowers, nasturtiums, and nicotiana are some I'd like to get out of the way.
good morning :)
I can't wait to get the seedlings out this morning...we are getting sun and warmth again today here in South Jersey.
I heard about that Midwest earthquake and thought about all of you in that region; glad all is ok.
some of my seeds seem like duds. I knew the sweet cicely might be because Weez mentioned she freezes hers, and mine have not germinated so far in the ws jug as expected. But it turns out my chive seeds may also be maybe too old or did not store well. Only one little chive sprig germinated out of many seeds sown. Also, so far I have no germination on my Pike's Peak penstemon seeds which were started inside.
I stopped at one of my fav garden centers on Thurs. and picked up a pineapple sage, polerium sanguisorba (salad burnet) and a beautiful Bletilla striata (hardy orchid).
Gram, your coleus seedlings are really nice, mine are still quite small!
our money plants are blooming away, here is a photo, I took yesterday, of a relatively new patch that self sowed
LeBug.... Don't give up. None of my Oxalis have come back up yet. I keep watering and checkign the pot, but so far nothing. Like you hope mine come back cuz I love the little pink flowers on them
Lala Jane. Hold on to that baby and keep it growing. I could be totally off base here but it look to be some type of mutant to me. The reason I say this is because you should have had one stem and the cotelydons on that stem. I see two stems and the slipt at that base and what looks to be a single cotyledon leaf on each one.
Unles s they already had cotelydons fall off or that were buried deep under the ground. Not very often that you come across a seed that its geneitics go crazy and it makes like a twin or a triplet.
I have a oak tree here that produces regular single stem trees like normal but wil also produce alots of triplet brancheing from the same seed right from the start of germination.
I love playign with mutants, so if ya don't want to grow it out, send it on to me. I'll grow it.
I happy as a new peach this morning. Through all the bad weather and storms and beign forgotten had a calla lilly send up a bloom and it opened up this morning. My first calla bloom. I a proud momma LOL
Here one of my garden buddies saying hello to ya all.
lea....good to hear that you have hibiscus growing from seed..i have luna rose and luna pink swirl growing..
it is snowing this am...everything is blanketed in white and it is still coming down...really gonna be cold this weekend....the apple trees are ready to bloom and the plums are shot this year because the blossoms froze
pam