Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #22

A friend's brother got one of those cloners, or something similar, but I haven't heard anything about the cuttings I sent home for him this fall...

Neal, thanks for the feedback on the Sweet Pea seedlings. I got my MIL a couple "fancy" varieties that have just 5 or 10 seeds per pack, so I want to maximize her chance of success (it's been decades since she's had sweet peas). It sounds like either way should work, so if she really doesn't want to direct-sow them, I'll start them for her (in cow pots) and send them along.

Thanks bluespiral and pam sue for coming to my rescue! I just had to say it, it rhymes. : )
WIB,
SW

I am soooo itching to start some seeds. I've been dragging my feet taking down the Christmas lights so I decided that starting a few seeds from the Summer Hill co-op will be my reward once I have them down. Bribery works every time....even with myself. I got some seeds that are really unique to me and I believe some of them take quite awhile to bloom, so those are first on my list.

I never did start the violas from the Stokes swa-op last as I have always been intimidated by them (and pansies.) I guess it's time to give them a go following Neal's time table. Start them within the next couple of weeks and put them outside in March? That just freaks me out. It's freezing in March! I'm a little further north, I wonder if I should wait a little longer.

(Another great post bluespiral....very informative as usual.)

La, do you see them planted in fall in your zone? Last spring I saw blooms with snow on them, they're quite tough. But they do need to be gradually hardened off after starting indoors. I use those little zipper greenhouse thingies for that.

Well, here is a post I made on the previous thread - obviously I am even further behind than I imagined and will probably never get all the posts read, but I wanted to make sure everyone saw my apology.....

"Hello everyone - sorry to have "disappeared" on you - I haven't read any of the posts for the past couple of weeks so I have a lot to catch up on. I wanted to apologize to everyone because I am the one holding up the swap...so sorry!! I have been dealing with my son's serious back problems, trying to take him to different doctors, the holidays, and a tremendous load at work when I am there...I have my seeds sorted and ready to go to Star in the mail today. Hopefully, she will have them by Wednesday or Thursday since we aren't too terribly far apart...

I am so sorry - I wouldn't have offered my little selection of seeds had I known all this was going to take place. Just wanted to offer my apologies - and maybe sometime in the next week, I will have time to read at least part of the posts. "

Thanks!
Genna

Lala, which seeds from the Summer Hill co-op are you going to start?
toofew

OK, I just have to rant a bit. The dogs went berserk about 9:15 am - turns out it was the water company going door to door to let people know they're turning our water off today for about 8 hours - at 8:30 am.....sheesh....I want a job where I can let people know what to expect after the fact....

Oh I woudl nto be a happy camper if they didn't tel me and let me get water for my coffee for sure. I would have to get ugly big time.

Gen.. You take care of yoru son and let us know if ya need anything. Your not the last and onc eya get your son taken care of you'll be gla dto have yoru seed s to plant and unwind in yoru garden. gardenign soothes the soul.

Fairy.. Haven't heard from you if yopurs are maile dor not, but if they ain't in the mail to be here by the weekend, you gonan have to mail al yours out seperate, cuz on Monday morning I goign to post office and all the Piggie s are gettign mailed. So hopefully sometime next week everybody should have all their seeds.

Lynn. Jungle soil professional grower mix is cheaper than miracle grow and same stuff. Has fertilizer in and is great for small growers who can't affor d to buy big pallets of pottign soil at one time. You cna get a 3 cubic bag for about 11 bucks. it a big grey and black bag and it also helps support wildlife foundation. They have smaller bags but it cheaper to get the bigge rone and use wheelbarrol to haul in if ya have too. One big bag will fil up a wheelbarrow and a little left over .

I buy the Jungle Growth Pro Mix too and I think is is superior to Miracle grow mix. It has a much better fluffy texture. It's the closest thing I've found to Hyponex Pro Mix which is what both greenhouses I've worked with have used. Like Star said, the price is better too. Sometimes I can even get damaged bags for 50% off. :)

Ya Danita.. Ain't it great!!!!!! : ) I look for them too.

Mail lady just came and

RatherBDigging, yoru box arrived today. : )

Soon .. vey soon.. ya all be tearign them boxes open like a bunch of piggies. hehehehehhehe

I'm ready for some dirt therapy here myself! Trying to get started on some seeds. Personally, I'll be using the divide into appropriate piles and plant whatever comes first method I suspect. Can't seem to find time for a spreadsheet...

I ordered some new "bio-domes" from Park Seed back in November as a treat, and now they're telling me they won't ship until next week! Too bad, so sad :( The irony is, my sister didn't know how annoyed I've become with them, and she got me a gift cert. for Christmas, soooo I'll be giving them more business anyway! (not that the ordering won't be fun, just the waiting and follow-up calls that I dread)

Sorry, had to gripe a minute :O It's in the high 60s here today, and I haven't gotten outside at all! By the time I have time, it will probably be in the 20s :)

>>Jungle Growth Pro Mix

where do you get it?
I googled it, and didnt see a web site for it... i saw a comment that someone gets it from Lowes ??

Yep, Lowe's is the only place that carries it. Make sure ya get the professional growers. They have regular jungle soil which works in a pinch, but prefer the professional growers soil.

And since it winter months, if they don't have any on the groudn floor look up in the rafters for it. And fi they don't have any of the big bags, then get the store manager to sel ya three bags of the small professional growers for the same price as the big one. The small ones are 1 cubic and are like 6 bucks. So buy buyign the small siz e you lose a whole cubic foot over the big size and costs ya abotu 7 bucks more to use the small ones .

I just had them sell me 9 small bags for the same price as 3 big ones cuz they was out. Ya may have to wait for manager to arrive , but hey 7 or 8 bucks is 7 or 8 bucks.

I should venture out to Lowes one day. there are 2 in my area... both about 20 min away... though HD is only 5 min, as is Sams.

I am going to try that jungle mix from Lowe's. My mom recently started working there so I can get her to buy it with her employee discount : )

Meridith. I used to work at Lowe's garden center. At night the broken bags are either bagged or stacked. Have her go out to garden center and get the busted bags. Ya get 50% off plus ten percent discount.

Just gets messy some tiems in the car so best to have heavy duty plastic down and a rol of packign tape to help plug holes.

tcs. Home depot closer to me too, have to drive to Ga for Lowe's but worth it for the soil.

Ok, anybody aroudn can help me??????

Is cardinal vine the same as cypress vine so I know what I pitching into troughs if the same or different?????????

I believe i have seeds for both of them and while they are similar, they are not the same...

Cypress Vine http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/93/

OH -- this is Cardinal CLIMBER http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/662/

this may help

The biological name is Ipomoea quamoclit for Cypress Vine.
The biological name for Cardinal flower is Ipomoea x multifida.

but then i foudn this = http://www.easternoklahomacounty.com/flowers/hummingbird.htm
HUMMINGBIRD VINE
aka Cardinal Vine, Cardinal Climber, Cypress Vine and Star Glory Vine

i bet that just added to the confusion... but i do think they are 2 different vines.

Thanks Star that's a good idea! Tcs has some good info there for you on those cardinal vines. If they only have them listed as a common name they could be the same - because if they are like me, they can't keep the common name straight with the species name on those cypress cardinal star vines lol. I know I have one that is a hybrid or at least a cross of two and I can't tell you off the top of my head which common name it is but I know it is ipom***? sloteri I think ? lol They are all very similar anyway.

Toofew - I haven't decided which seeds I'm starting first. I'm keeping my nose out of the envie until the lights are all down, LOL. I got about 1/2 of them down last night (the easiest ones of course) and had to run errands all day today. So hopefully tomorrow I can tackle the rest of them. Did you get seeds from the co-op as well? Too tell the truth I only remember about 1/2 of what I got because I selected quite a few that were totally foreign to me.

Neal - I guess I have seen the violas early around here, but never really paid attention to HOW early. It would be sweet if they can indeed go outside that soon as it would allow me turn-around space in my propagation area.

Edited to ask if anyone's heard from Lea?

This message was edited Jan 5, 2009 6:58 PM

regarding those vines... I bet those folks in the Morning Glory Forum would know... that Ron knows just about everything where Ipomoeas are concerned.

Star and tcs, Ipomoea quamoclit is a parent of Ipomoea sloteri - see Ron's comment on that here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4256411

And Ipomoea multifida is a synonym for Ipomoea sloteri, so those two are the same vine.

Without the Latin name, the best we can do is guess, and I agree with Teresa that the more feathery-leaved Cypress Vine is probably I. quamoclit, and that the Cardinal Climber, which has less divided leaves, is probably the I. sloteria which is the same as I. multifida. If we guess wrong, the hummers will never know the difference.

---------------------------

Robin, if you are soaking the large-seed, hard-coat type of Japanese morning glory, and it does not swell within 4 hours, then - for best results - that is the time to nick it anywhere except where the eye is. Then, soak again for another 4 hours. Sometimes, I have to repeat this a couple of times.

A lot of other types of MGs, especially the smaller seeded ones, don't do well with this type of forced treatment - see my answer to you earlier here - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=5964078

There's more comprehensive information on this subject in the GERMINATION section of the MG sticky index.

This message was edited Jan 5, 2009 10:35 PM

knicking the seeds.......that sound you hear is me banging my head on the table.... I KNEW I missed something.....

Robin, If I banged my head for every woopsie Magoo moment, I'll bet you and I could form our own percussive Regae band. Well, we better not soak our noggins too, or something might sprout we hadn't planned on

ROFLOL

Bluespiral, I get the biggest kick out of your posts! *hugs*

har har - g'night all

Ella-you should have the box on Thurs-left the DC @ home and I am @ work, will get it to you tonight....

Ok, I'll plan on them beign the same, for now . I don't grow many vines and cardinal vine is invasive here, so don't even think about growing it at all so have no idea really about it.

Thanks Fairy!

LOL.. I need to joing that hea dbanging group too and would except all ya would hear is an echo. Empty headed here and it has a tendency to do that.

Even though they aren't quite the same plant, I think Cardinal Climber, Cypress Vine, Hummingbird Vine, etc. all serve the same purpose, and probably nobody needs more than one "red flowering vine that hummingbirds love," so distributing them around rather than putting one of each in a trough makes sense.

Here Cypress vine tends to reseed more reliably than Cardinal vine. I don't know how typical that is, but if it holds true for others, that may help some to decide. Those concerned with too many volunteer seedlings may prefer Cardinal vine.

One of the strom surviors want red vines to go up the front of porch for hot climate, so which one should I put that will do the best do ya think.

I was just reading people's remarks about both of the vines on Plantfiles, and noticed lots of people in the south gave Cypress vines negative ratings due to being so invasive. There was 1 negative about Cardinal climber from someone in TX because of being invasive, but not much else from others with that issue:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/662/

Judging from the responses on both, I'd give the southerners Cardinal climber. Would hate to see storm survivors start anew with something weedy.

My experience is with the Cardinal Vine. It grows and runs up anything very quickly, especially in warm weather.

LOL - Bluespiral - I can just hear our heads shaking and rattling with the seeds inside! Brought back memories of The Triplets of Belleville, as there's a great percussive part of that movie. (And then there's the thought of us soaking our heads and ending up like Chia pets....)

Thanks everyone for the discussion/explanation between Cypress Vine and Cardinal Climber - I had sort of assumed they were the same due to the labeling I was reading.

Critter, I was thinking of your MIL yesterday and wondering how she's liking DG so far? I'd dmail her but am a goof and lost track of her welcome thread.

Robin, I meant to comment when you mentioned it earlier, I love 'The Triplets of Belleville'! Just had an animated image of y'all shaking your seedy heads to a rhythm, LOL. Hmmm...chia pet heads....I guess I do look good in green!

My head is feeling a little Chia-pet-ish this morning, Robin, now that you mention it. Not to worry, Ella - it's empty gourds that made the best precursors to what we now know as the cello - can't have music without that wonderful resonance. Casals once wrote that, although his dad started him on the piano, it was a group of wandering musicians with home-made instruments strolling through the dirt streets of his home town back in the 1800s when he was a kid that got him all fired up about the cello.

Critter, a link to your MIL's welcome thread would be very nice

All this talk about crimson-flowered hummingbird vines is making me avoid the windows more today - I have such an itch to see those blooming again - that and red pentas and sages make sure-fire attractants - I think I'll plant them closer to the windows next summer. Of course, red/purple leaves would be *de rigeur* companions...I grow quite a few already...Critter's red-leaved canna (thanks Critter)...what ideas do y'all have about this kind of garden?

ps Ella - empty headed, you ain't

Neal - hmmm - piggies in chia suits?

LOl Waitign to see if somebody come sup with pic of piggies in chi suits. If ya do giv eme fair warnign so I don't choke on my coffee heheheh

Good morning, everyone. Well, I sat today sorting out my seeds . . . gosh, I really want to get started playing in the dirt. Which of us is lucky enough to have a real greenhouse to play in?

Seandor - greenhouse - not this piggy

Ella - your coffee is safe - not posting chia-suited piggies

But - I just found a link I left in the MG forum that goes to a wonderful hummingbird and plant/flower host painter: Martin Johnson Heade

This particular one he did has the Ipomoea quamoclit in it - somehow I never look at the flowers he paints the same way after I've seen one of his paintings -

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=5833521

Aw, you folks are sweet! My MIL is still trying to adapt to the idea of getting online regularly, but we're together this week, so I'll be encouraging her to get on and explore around some more. She was online a lot over Thanksgiving when we were together, and she loved the warm welcome she received. Her DG name is "felidon," and her real name is Felicia... here's the thread in the Welcome Forum: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/927553/

I have seen chia pet piggies in the store...