tcs1366 picture (Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #17

Mornign Fairy. It gonan be listed in the seed trading forum to get going and we gonan wait til it opens to list. As coversations have been coming up a few things have been saved for each other but it not the big trade. : )

Gemini... I love the mexican Heathers, a friend is gonna be working on a big reserach project in th espring of all the different types of mexican Heathers to see which ones are really the best. Some of those hybrid cultivars do good and some don't.

It doesn't over winter here. I have tried many times. Funny thing is I had our of about 60 clumps of it only one poor scraggly thing made it back to life and it just now blooming. But even as an annual it so pretty and delicate.

I had given some of the white mexicna heather to a friend and now his grew big and beautiful. His wife just loved it.

starlight - your "n" key seems to stick ^_^

Here's is the article I think you all were talking about?

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/725/

I just took a break from planting a bit lol We have a beautiful day here today it's getting to 70 WaHooo lol I needed this LOL

Lovely day here too, been doing the same thing. Just finished planting those lovely little penstemons and columbine :-) Also got some bearded iris from a trade planted and some mums I've had languishing in pots all summer. The mums came out of their cell packs in transit, so I didn't know what color many of them would be, so I've waited till they bloomed in the pots to plant them. Then its been such a dry fall, I didn't want to have to lug the hose around to keep them watered- easier in the pots, all in one place. Thankfully the ground is still moist in most places from that good rain last week.

About to finish up cleaning and packing seeds, and its already getting me excited for spring!

Seandor. LOL I have lots of keys that stick, especially th enumebred ones. too many crumbs under the keys. The biggest problem is I am a dyslexic typer. That why I havign somebody else do the set up for the seed frenzy trade. I have to many errors.

I have to have somebody proof read my research papers too and even though I swear I type and print them in black ink they come all back bleeding red. LOL

Had a bit of warmth today and make sya think of spring being right aroudn the corner. Can't get here fast enough for me. I just wish all these darn oak trees would drop all their leaves at once.

Ah . . . well regarding reports etc. A professor of communication once told me that it is very difficult for us to see our own mistakes - we KNOW what we INTENDED to write - so that's what we read.

I always have fresh eyes read my work - and yes, it always comes back dripping in red ink, even though I would have sworn it was perfect. ^_^

I once had a computer that had an "F" key stick

When is this swap getting started, and who's in charge of it? I'm in!

PrSue.... closer to December and Starlight.

what ya all think of this, been looking at the calender. We have Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December.

Was thinking about maybe starting around the 10th of November and runnign til the 15th of December. and folks try and get stuff here by the 20 th or so. That way I have evrything and evrybody can have Christmas and can get all the boxes ready and shipped out so folks get them aroudn the first of January. Folks wil be able to start off especially storm victims with somethign to ring in the new Yaer with and hope. That will leave southern folks with the 12 weeks for things that need to be wintered sowed and sprouted and out before the heat comes. Also, if Suzy does another one than we won't be right on top of her.

Ya? Nah? We all in this together so don't be afraid to speak. ; )

sounds GREAT star. I like that time frame.

I've got a lot of my seeds gathered... i will just have to do the individual bag thing....

got some more Silky Milkweeds today... thought they were toast due to the cold... but saw some fluff blowing and went out to find more seeds.

Fine with me!

Okay - I had to cut the corkscrew vine seed pods (temps dipped to 25 degrees). Do I remove the seeds from the pods? Or do I just let the pods dry (will they dry - or just rot).

Meanwhile, I have 5 pouches of itty-bitty gladiola corms (each pouch contains 100+ corms, each corm about the size of a morning glory seed). Anyway, if you have an extra row in the veggie garden, or spots in your border where a "grassy" effect would work, you might want one of these.

I would just plant them like you are growing beans - not too deep, and when the soil is warm. Let the baby corms grow all summer, then in the fall dig them up, dry them, and put them in an old pantyhose leg or an old onion mesh bag and hang them up in the basement (or other cool, dark place). The following summer, you are very likely to get some blooms - and by the third year - OMG - they will look fabulous. You might want to still be growing them in the veggie garden for cut flowers. Anyway, once the corms get large enough, they start making corms of their own!

Once we get a seed list thread, I will make sure I list these and the other seeds I will offer.

Cheers,
Michaela

Seandor,
You can leave them in the pods and let them dry like this.......

I guess that time frame will be alright with me if I have seeds left to be cleaned, which I will, I'll just keep them for the swap that Suzy has if she has one :)

Last night I was rushing doing seeds and mixed two seeds together that are so hard to tell apart that I just kept them together and it took forever to clean them too, the Victoria Blue and Monarch's Velvet :( It takes forever to clean each one of those I just can't believe I did that!

My yard is looking so strange lol One side of the front yard has leaves covering it and the other side has none lol It's the way the wind blows the neighbor's leaves in our yard :) If I have time today I plan on getting them up with the grass catcher and putting them on my beds! I need to call some people today too and see if I can get some of those people that get the leaves for other people out of their yards and get them in mine, like the mowing people that collect leaves.

Thanks, Tuink!

I was out gathering seeds today, and got some of the Red Flax. I knew I saw that someone wanted them [though someone else has them -- OH, that's LeBug]

so I went back to past threads, and it's Critter and Fairy that wanted seeds.

do you both still have them on your "Wants" list??

lemme know... i have some, but not a ton - like i do other seeds.

Terese

tcs, I didn't get many seeds from the red flax either I'll probably only have one trade and it won't be a healthy one :( We'll have to split Fairy and Critter lol I had quite a few plants planted in one spot but didn't start saving the seeds until they mentioned they wanted some. If Karen doesn't mind, I could send mine in and she could add them to yours then we would have enough to give to two people maybe?

I have enough for 2 for sure ... but I've still got blooms. there are seed pods that are green, so i have hopes for those.
I never really counted to see how many seeds I have .... but enough. Plenty of Blue too.

I haven't finished cleaning my blue ones yet but I should have at least a couple there :) I should have started collecting them sooner but I did want the red ones to reseed for next year :) It takes a lot of those seeds to make a decent trade lol

I did take a peek at my seeds... i have enough for 2-3 trades, leaving some for me too.

I really love this plant.

If ya have enough after final harvest, I'd love to try the red flax too! Someone posted some pics of it in bloom and it was gorgeous!

YEAH RED FLAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!!! I am extited!!

Okay, I'm wondering about something. I've got lily seeds for pamsue and tomato seeds for Lea, ...and I think something for Meridith (hmmmm...need to look that up, lol); should I put their names on them and send with swap seeds, or just mail them privately? Either is fine with me, but I wasn't around for last year's swap and am not sure how y'all did it. I've got extras of those seed mentioned I thought I'd include in the swap too, especially some Formosa Lily seeds that I think a lot of y'all will enjoy. I've got seeds from lilies I sowed from seed last year! Its a gorgeous, slender, refined looking white trumpet that bloomed in August for me- very nice in a cottage garden!

I got seed for people too and just putting it al in the swap box. More goodies to look at and saves on postage.

I been really busy with exams and have done forgot who is gonan make the swap starting thread for me so it looks good. Are we gettign ready yet???????

I got few cool limited things I held off for the swap. Nope not telling ya what they are, but think a few of ya gonna enjoy tryign to get them. Are we gettign excited yet? If this old body could do a cartwheel it would.

Are we getting excited? You bet!

Gemini I can't remember what I asked for lol. But if you figure it out, just keep them for the swap I am in no rush : )

Meredith, I found it, the large decorative dahlias! I'm making notes this time, and going ahead and putting names on packs :-)

I'm finding sorting and packing seeds to be quite fun! Something about handling all that potential beauty just feels like good therapy.

Starlight --

tcs, do you harvest the red flax to eat the flax seeds too? I've never seen it grown before as a garden plant but have purchased flax seeds for culinary use. I have seen flax that blooms blue as a garden plant.

Would you believe our lilac petunias grown from swap seeds are still blooming away! I really love the large blooms but it doesn't seem to be making any seed pods.

wind -- i'm thinking it's a different flax ... but i'm not sure. I honestly never made the correlation between the two until i saw the seeds.

I saw a "thing" on flax seeds once... the kind that are 'good for you', and it showed the seeds coming from Canada. I get the Golden Flax.

I have both Red and Blue [blue being a perennial, where Red is an annual] and they are both very pretty -- light airy plants and flowers. I can not see having a "Cottage" type garden without them.

I know i have photos somewhere of them.

I actually have golden flax seeds in our freezer for culinary use. I wonder if they would grow? The golden flax gets red flowers then?

I have no idea.... I'll google it *wink*

**edited to add....

Looks like Blue flowers... but i'll keep snooping.

This message was edited Nov 6, 2008 7:51 AM

Yup ... looks like Blue flowers.

and i can not test your theory, as we get the "meal"

i used to get whole seeds, but DH found it a pain to grind daily... so now we get the meal, and just keep it in the freezer.

Thanks Therese, both on the flax and info! Awesome!

Since I've had one more request for the Red Flax, I am now considering myself OUT until further notice. If I am able to harvest more [i checked our weather, and it does not look like we will get freezing temps, just cold] the seeds should hold out for more pickin. I wonder if the green pods would dry just as well on my DR table as they would on the plant.....

Wind those petunias look soo pretty! Mine are still doing good too but the weather is turning nice and cold and rainy for the next week so I expect them to bite the dust and really hate to see them go, are those from Tuink? I had the same problem with the seeds but they don't come on until late, you'll probably find seeds real soon :) I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

As for the golden flax, check this out :)

http://www.tmseeds.com/product/1484.html

I've tried several times to grow these but no luck :(

Well, this is my last day to plant so that's what I'm doing today getting my LAST plants in the ground :) It's going to be in the 50's for next week :( I want summer back again lol

Yes -- i've seen the yellow before, but only on the internet.... Gorgeous, isn't' it?

anyone got seeds?? *wink*

Way to go, Lea! Did you think you'd ever be finished?

OH -- for those on Dial-Up ... i see we arequickly approaching 200 posts.... when you are having issues with the page loading... give a holler so a new thread can be started.

I usually good til we hit about 300 posts then it gets hard to pull up the thread.

Thanks for finding that for me. : ) Hopefulyl Karen wil pop in and see if she gonan do the starter post.

Then petunias look so pretty. Some wil not make seed unles s they have a pollinator or you cna go out and try and shake the plants and get some pollen maybe air borne. Some petunias wil make it through a light frost and some in you cover them wil die back some but if they haven't made seed will come up the same plants again when it gets warm. Dig a bunch up and put in pot and brign in to a sunny window . They will stil bloom for ya.

I had forgot about how did the send sheets at the end. That was cool, will learn this time to type as I go though.