Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #18

Cool! Here's my test:

pavonia rock rose http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57756/

Yeah! that was easy. Obviously a link to any other page on the web would work the same way. "ya larn sumpin new everday!"

You did good girl, wasn't that easy!

I'm signing off for a bit to get these darn seeds done talk at you later :)

Andrea --

Hey LaLa_

I just got a D-mail back from Terry. It was 5 edits per 24 hour period, rolling. The first edit, 24 hrs later, you could edit one time again, then the second edit, at its 24 hour mark, you could edit again. and so on. She D-mailed back and asked Dave to bump it up to 10. So, she said, we shouldn't bump our heads for a while :-) Yea! Thanks to Terry and Dave. I gotta go edit now! :-)

LOL...Thanks Terry & Dave.

if ya all know of other storm victims and flood victims on the other threads feel free to ask them to jump in. If I not here and somebody wants in, wil somebody giv thme a cup of coffee and a trough. tryign to help my son get his last things doen he needs done too before he ships back out for another 2 years.

wasnt that one that flooded Iowa and other parts of the midwest... wasnt that Gustov?

yep, yoru right . Gustuva did alot of damage. Took out home afte rhome after home in one part. Ike did damage too and then moved up and floode dunder water alot of northern communities all the way up into parts of Ohio.

The Gustuv people are still trying to get cleaned up and aid and are waiting on them trailer from fema to live in.

Question! My tricyrtis seed pods have just started opening, but there seems to be only a few teeny weenie practically microscopic round specks in them. Does this mean that seeds didn't develop or are some of their seeds practically microscopic?

Sorry -- i cant help you on the seeds.

Did you notice that there were larger seeds before, and these many be under developed?
or you are just wondering if the seeds were indeed, tiny ?

hopefully someone who knows for sure will pop in.

Perennial, Tricyrtis are shiny black papery kind of seeds. If I remember well.....
They seldomly set seeds, so don't be disappointed!

TCS, about the difference between the Echinacea Coneflower and the Rudbeckia Coneflower. They may have the same common name and have the some outward appearance, but are two entirely different species! You can see this best when comparing the seeds of both. The leaves are different too.

Thanks Tuinkabouter. Well I'm disappointed as I have tons of seed pods on my several different tricyrtis, but so far seemingly no seeds. As I hadn't known about this piggy frenzy beforehand, I gave away a lot of seeds, and others I didn't bother to collect, so I was hoping for these tricyrtis seeds to come through for me. Still a chance for a few seeds I guess. Will keep checking out the pods. I would have thought they seeded more easily as my mom had tons of self-starters in pathways and such in NC. (Brought some home and will be available for trade next year - probably miyazaki).

OK... now regarding this APHI paperwork thing....

i was reading in that confiscation thread ... and it was said that you [the seed sender] can get a 3 yr permit for the sending of seeds.

In last years swap, it looks like Suzy did the paperwork ... when i went to the site
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/plant_imports/smalllots_seed.shtml
looks like the permits are here -- http://www.aphis.usda.gov/permits/ppq_epermits.shtml

and 'account' has to be set up to fill out the paperwork.

I dont know.... I just dont get it....

anyone ???

I don't know about the permit but I also just recently pulled a seed pod off my Trycyrtis and it cracked open since and released off white colored dust like stuff - so I thought this was the seed? No? Bummer if not. : (

Meredith, those seeds are really small and dk.brown/blackish doesn't sound good for your seeds, sorry :) I had seeds out there but they are probably ruined by now never did get to collect them and was really looking forward to it, there were a bunch of them I only have two kinds though, the white and the purple spotted one, the other seeds just took priorty while I was waiting on them then just forgot by the time they were done :(

tcs, all that stuff is beyond me :( I just fill the paper work out at the post office, it's a little green card that goes on top of the envelope.

Well, Lea, you may have absolutely natural winter sowing on those tricyrtis seeds with no effort on your part at all.

Okay Lea thank you - I think there is one seed in there then lol.

OK -- speaking of Verbena .... i had thought that this was verbena bonariensis .... but in looking at various photos, including what the flowers are like... this is not it.

anyone have any idea?

It does have the 'feathery' foliage ... but it more lays on the ground than an upright plant and the flowers are more singular, not clustered.

i know ... crappy photo.. the sun was too harsh.

Definitely not V.bonariensis, but its wonderful! Gotta find out which verbena that is- I'd love some, by the way, LOL!

My V.bonariensis gets 3-4' tall, but is so airy you can grow it in front of shorter things and still see them. To me they look like a cloud of purple electrons surrounding the garden. When I saved seed last year from them, none germinated. They reseeded so profusely I didn't try to save any this year. Any ideas why those I saved weren't viable? I could probably still get some seed from them if there's need for them.

LOL Neal -- if i could figure out how to get some seeds.

I may still have some in my stash.. i'll have to check.

Uggggggggg -- i gotta get outta this chair and actually DO something today.

I did, btw - get a lot of seeds packed up last night while watching the boob-toob.

but today the sun is shining again... so i should be outside.

Not sure but it might be this moss verbena gemini http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/Wildseed/31/31.4.html or another one it might be is here http://www.highcountrygardens.com/catalog/product/96521/
I had good luck with Verbena bonariensis outside (still in pro-mix and a seed starting pack) but not inside - once it germinated (outside) I put one pack under lights and they did fine but the ones I left out in one of those zip up patio greenhouse deals grew better than the ones inside : )

This message was edited Nov 13, 2008 1:35 PM

Thanks Meredith, looks similar to the one at HCG. Love the lacy foliage.

The first time I started V.bonariensis, I used commercial seed and started indoors under lights and had great luck with them. When I collected seed, I compared them to some of the purchased seed to make sure those tiny things really were seeds. This spring I tried those under lights, and none germinated. Tons of seedlings volunteered, so there must have been viable seed there....hmmm....I wonder if I gathered them too early?

I gathered a couple pinches of early seed from my V. bonariensis, and I noticed that some of the seeds were pale in color while most were dark brown (almost black)... I figure the dark ones are the viable ones and that I should probably sow the seed pretty heavily. I love "verbena-on-a-stick!"

Ya know, the weird thing was my commercial seed were pale, kinda tan in color. Like you, I would have thought the dark ones viable. Hmmmm....?

I've sown swap seeds that were mostly pale colored and had poor germination, sowed others that seemed to be entirely dark seeds and they did great. That's not exactly hard evidence, as other things could have affected germination...

Neal,

i went out and took more photos.

here is a partial stem, with what i am assuming is the seed pod, but i could not find any 'brown' ones, only green.

here is also the link to the Plant ID forum post http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/923587/

I did find only 1 seed packet in my basket ... so i'm assuming that is where i got the seeds from.
Unless Suzy gave me some last year in the swap.

I was gonna check my spread sheet -- but i forgot I lost all my data this year.... i have a paper copy, but it's probably not as in depth .

Terese, thanks so much for all your effort! Those do look plump like there are seeds inside. I've had that problem with other verbenas- they seem to just stay green.

Critter, there's another one I've had trouble with too, thread leaved feverfew. I've never been able to identify it specifically. The seeds were given to me as whole, dried flower heads. I wintersowed them thickly, and had 3 germinate. Saved seed from them, and same thing, only maybe 5 this year germinated, however at least a dozen volunteered in the garden.

I found that in last years swap, i got these "Purpletop vervain, verbena bonariensis"
but obviously, that is not what these are.

in PF I found these http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/30721/
and aside from the color, that is what it looks like.

BUT -- if i google the scientific name, it comes up as a different looking plant [one that my neighbor loves] the creeping verbena.. so i dont think that is it either, since the foliage is different.

but - Neal, if you'd like some of the seeds i have, I'll give you half, and i'm going to try and grow them again to see what i get.

**edited to add.. I wonder if these things "cross" ... and that is what i got. a cross between 2 different verbenas.

This message was edited Nov 13, 2008 3:06 PM

Well... i think i have figured it out ... Glandularia bipinnatifida Has anyone ever heard of this before?

Dakota Mock Vervain. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62648/

I think you got it! I'll be thrilled with whatever you come up with :-) Thanks!

LOL....guess i was on a mission today.

i did get a lil bit of other stuff done though.

I saw somebody oinking for Blue Lobilia an Sacrlet Monkey cuz they thought the color combination would be good. Well, I not good with color schemes, so I thinking, well if they want it maybe I do too. Yes, I be bad. : )

So what is a scarlet monkey and wil the two look and grow to gethre beautifully ?

Star you already the scarlet monkey coming to you from me and if you need it I can add the Blue Lobelia too or do you already have it? http://davesgarden.com/tools/blog/viewimage.php?did=55401 However it would look even better if I had planned it and the LObelia which is taller than the monkey flowers were behind it not on the side of it lol. I tried to fix that this ytear by putting LObelia seedlings all between the Jacob Kline and the monkey flowrr. I know I have typos but I'm on a mission and I don't wanyt to fix it!! LOL

Thanks Meridith. I runnign in so many directions for another week yet that I don't knwo if I coming or going. DAHHHH. Nope I got some blue Lobelia , but thanks, Will take up yoru suiggestion though of gettign them planted with the right height with the right one.

Hi all, just checking in briefly to oink acha. I'm not ready to list my seeds, yet, but I got to talking with Meredith about some Lobelia cardinalis that DH and I harvested seed from, in spite of it being hunting season in an area where we walk in summer. Y'all should have seen that meadow...everything growing all wild and woolley along a creek in a dip between the hills along a utility break. Wooded on the sides.

Anyhoo, anyone want some Lobelia cardinalis? I can do 5 packs for now. And I hope you'll dmail me, becasue I'm bad at keeping up with these threads.

These flowers like consistent moisture, preferably along a creek. Well, I have neither, so mine usually get to the point of blooming, and then disappear. Meredith's situation is worse than my dry clay-ey hill, because she's got sand and it's been dry where she lives. Sooooooo - here's an idea that just occurred to me for us. Don't know how it'll work. Love to hear if anyone tries it -

This is how to make a bog. You might like to do this on a tiny scale, with maybe a little mud puddle for butterflies to bathe in...curly parsley would make a pretty edging for the larval stage to munch on...I'd look up bog and butterfly gardens to see what else would do well here.

Dig down about 18" (I'd probably do 9 or 12" down). Take a piece of pond liner (I thought there was a thick, black plastic one but this one's rubber - http://www.lilypons.com/products.asp?dept=21 ) and punch a bunch of holes in it...maybe about 12" apart, staggered, and little pricks - no big holes. Lay the hole-y pond liner down, with the ends kinda elevated on the outside so that you have a shallow bowl. Next, dump the dirt back in with lots of added compost, peat, humusy stuff. When you sprinkle or dribble the water in this area, it won't run out very fast. The idea is to keep the area constantly moist.

I suspect this will be very much to Lobelia cardinalis' liking, but don't add water so much that you've got this plant's roots swimming.

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Neal, I did some serous drooling over those spidery asters - but I don't have enough sun, so better not waste any on me. But if I had more sun, that would be a 5-oink flower.

Hope someone dmails me about the Lobelia cardinalis.

Gemini - I think what I was getting at- but didn't get across right- lol - was that the Verbena bonariensis seemed to need oscillating temps - which only outside can provide. At least that's what I found. All the seeds I started looked like light ones to me and I thought I got a ton of germination. I think I got that idea from all the help in the piggy swap last year and from Tom Clothiers site.

Ah, yes, I see what you mean Meredith. The year I started them indoors it was in an unheated room that had a lot of temp fluctuation. I may have to gather some seed from the heads sticking out of the compost pile. OMG, I just realized they're in the compost pile- I'll have them everyplace!