Maybe because I'm zone 5/6, but my balsam (touch me nots) grows very well in my south/west facing bed, full sun. But grows and blooms in my part shade north facing bed also.
Gardening: Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #31
Found a picture of a few Balsam volunteers in the full sun bed, light purple and red in the front of the bed.
Maybe more sun is OK with balsam impatiens, as long as they have enough water...
Definitely OK with sun. I looked at multiple places on the web and all say, Sun to partial Shade, but do need water wether in shade or sun. :o)
Twofew,
Thanks to your photo, I know just the spot. Will get morning sun and afternoon shade, sort of, and watered regularly. More beautiful than I expected. Thanks Critter and Star, always appreciate your advice. Good the photo loaded today. I've been having some probs today loading the photos.
WIB,
SW
SW, I think I may have sent you the Balsam. I remember just one or 2 people asked for them. Yep, they can take the sun if they get plenty of moisture, but I find afternoon shade beneficial to them.
Ya lookign at where you all to me and I way too hot for them for full sun and boy yes they do need the water. They are so pretty though even though they pop seeds all over the place. LOL
Toofew.. what a pretty bed!
SW. Ya got babies! : )
Kl. Finally remembere d the word for the brushing thing.
Thigmotropism
Google it and you wil find all kinds of info about it. : )
Edited to add that even them cheaper dollar little wisk brooms that ya sweep your cars out with works good too.
This message was edited Mar 7, 2009 7:38 AM
Happy Weekend All! Ok, so Monday, we had our first snow of winter, around 6". So much fun...
My wintersown containers got a nice blanket to keep them cozy. The snow even stuck around for a couple of days, unusual for us.
Now it's 75 or so, scorching hot on the deck pictured in previous photo, and I've had to open up all those cozy containers for fear of roasting the seedlings (There are 28 well up, 7 a little up, and 18 not doing anything yet. Pretty exciting for my first go!)
Inside, well, Fairy here is a grandflower for you :)
The petunias from Lebug and LynnWeidman are doing smashingly, and here is the Coral petunia I just had to have from the SummerHill coop... ready to put on a show tomorrow or sooner!
Kelly, your babies are grown to nursery perfection, Kudos!!!
:) Only problem is, they're still in the 72 cell tray... and I'll need to by another set of lights, pots and trays to pot them up... wondering how long they can get away with staying in those... already have to water them about every other day! The weather sure is trying to convince me that spring is here this week though!
Has anyone had luck WS'ing grasses?
I;ve got some stalks from one of my neighbors Zebra grass... a HUGE bag full and really have no idea what to do.
I thought of just snipping off pieces and lightly covering them with potting soil.
any thoughts.....
[cross posted in one of the WS htreads]
Those look great Kelly! I started my first wave of petunias the middle of January and they're no where near as mature as yours. Have you got any window space? I'd bet that your sun's strong enough now that you could probably get by with natural light. I'm also betting that you're probably getting close to planting out so it wouldn't be for long anyway.
My 2 biggest coups so far this year are the gerberas (there are now 13 of them!) and the burgundy gaillardia. This is my 3rd year trying those darn things and I've finally got them to germination. Oddly it's from the same seed that failed the last 2 years. LOL. Go figure.
It was 72° here today! I could kick myself for not getting outside sooner, but I did spend the entire afternoon (until darkness drove me back in) cleaning up dead limbs from all the wind storms we had this winter. I'm sitting here now with my windows wide open. Oh man I love it! Too bad it's supposed to get back down in the 30's in a couple of days. :-(
Therese I have WSd zebra grass and it did quite well.
Lala... that is the weather we had yesterday... just gorgeous i tell ya. yicky cold and rainy all today today.
thanks -- i'll just cover some with soil.
Lala isn't it great when something germinates that you've tried a few times with no luck! I have had stuff germinate really well from older seeds, when they didn't germinate in the past. I think some seeds germinate better when they are older. It's like they know it's now or never lol. : )It was gorgeous here yesterday too, and it is supposed to be gorgeous today too! Yay : )
i....am.....out.....of.....room..........AHHHHHH!!!!!! And to make matters more annoying one of the plastic panes of the roof of my gh blew off in the last big storm, so I have to take the top apart to be able to slide that back into place. Which, I guess, isn't such a bad thing since Nora accidentally fell against one of the side panels last year and knocked it out of whack. So the GH isn't really worth trying to heat, at best it's good for hardening off and storing things that are hardened off - but what am I going to do with my 6" high dahlias??? AHHHHHH!!!!!!!
I liked Lala's idea of moving the more established plants to a window. My DH might not, as I was supposed to get all the stuff from in front of the windows when I got my light set-up, but it will only be for a little over a month :) Beats having to get another set of lights and figure out a way of protecting the lowest shelf from my cats!
kl-nice mimilus-already blooming this year?? WOWO!!
I finally got some jugs sown yesterday. :)
Thank you for the idea of using twisty ties to keep them closed! That worked out so much better than duck tape like I did the year before last! I didn't do any last year but with all the great ideas everyone tossed around here I am giving it another go. I put them in a different spot this year too. It's the east side of my house- they shouldn't get too much sun. : )
Kelly, wow, nice babies! Your having spring under lights. lol I just planted my wave petunia seeds last weed. The ones I got from Lala took all of 4 days to germinate.
dryad57 you have 6 inch high dahlias also? Mine aren't from seed, but the bulbs were growing in their plastic, so I planted them. I only have a couple of those. Right now I have one section of lights for those and Christmas Cactus cuttings. The lights are set high, so I will have to move them soon so I have room for seedlings. I do have 3 dahlias from seed that are about 3 inches high.
Tons of rain all weekend here. Creeks are flooding. I actually took the dog for a walk in the rain yesterday, I needed to get outside that badly. lol
toofew
we are getting A LOT of rain too... it's like... when will it end? or can i send it to Texas or Calif
Meredith -- you should take those lil red caps off. that's one way they get water and air.
It's SO pretty! I've grown mimilus before, where the flowers were kind of small I thought. This one is huge! Are they hard to save the seed from?
This morning I had a surprise, not only were the coral petunias opening, but one of the red ones is showing off too! So pretty! I'm really itching to get them outside, but I know the weather's just fooling around. We'll have freezes again before it's all over. Of course, can't go outside much today, got a little over-excited yesterday, and went charging out without my sunscreen... ouch. Need a few days to recover now :(
tcs-I wasn't sure about that - thanks for the help. I had just watered them and it was supposed to rain so I thought they might get flooded out. But I will go remove them soon. : ) Do you just leave yours off all the time?
No-they weren't hard to save seeds from-did that one come from me?? And I still have a mimilus that I think might be coming back this year-it was 1 plant that ended up being about 2' X2' and when all the snow had melted it had green on it!! I about fell over!!
KL stuart I meant to say how great your babies looked - I got so excited about actually getting some jugs done I forgot! Sorry but they do look great!! I remember the mimulus being the first to bloom for me last year too! My petunias are just wee seedlings still but I have a good two months before I will be able to put them out so it is probably for the best. : )
I updated my journal again today here is a link - lots ofpics. : )
http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/vbc/Meredith79/72467/
You know those little seed bags that were so cute from LynnWeidman, I'm going to make some like that to put over my mimulus seeds this year those were so cool and I liked the wire around the top it's just right to tie around the plant, thanks LynnWeidman :) I made some seed bags last year but the weave is larger than the one that Lynn sent.
When we get way too much rain here I keep my lids just for that I don't like my seedlings or seeds getting drowned lol When I think they have had enough I go around and put the lids back on :) Last year drove me nuts because it rained so much! All that rain was probably good for them because everything reseeded last year but I wasn't taking any chances with my babies lol
Fairy or anybody :) How do you sow the Maskflower-Apricot Bright Sparks, I looked it up in my seeds to bloom book but didn't see them, thought I had instruction off of the thread somewhere but couldn't find it :)
Tonya, nice pictures of your seedlings, I haven't even started my petunias yet :)
I had no idea that you could WS Zebra grass, I'll have to save some seeds for you all next year :) I didn't think they would come up.
I've got a bed by my neighbor's drive that I planted some seeds in the other day and they just drove over it trying to get a moving truck sideways in their drive! What are these people thinking??? They have left groves from the tires in my yard too! I had to tell them to put their darn moving truck at the fron of their house like everyone else had done that lives there, that's so rude to come into someone elses yard and mess it up as wet as it is!!! DUH!
Oh Fairy I hope my mimilus comes back from last year, I'm getting ready to sow those from you today too :) I'm soo far behind this year lol
You all are going to love those red petunias that I sent in they are so dark red and pretty! I can't wait to see the ones I got from Lynn I think they are ruffled and are purple and white. By the way I kept those red ones away from the others I had planted so they should all be red :)
I'm rubbing my hands together ready to go see Meredith's pictures lol
Meredith.... yes, i always leave the caps off.
If i find they are getting too much water.... like today - i think we've been raining for well over 24 hrs with no let up in sight.... i may move them to a more sheltered area. the big container [rubbermaid] that i put out last night... well, that is in the shelter of my sun room now. [the top of the container has a bunch of holes, but the problem is, the water pours through those lil holes, dumping into one lil nursery pot... that is why i moved that one. the rest will stay where they are. ]
i think with the other containers, milk jugs etc, they dont get poured into... sorta comes in thru the cut in the side too, not like a faucet...
Alonsoa meridionalis
maskflower-Bright Sparks Apricot
Found them Fairy thanks :)
Meredith as always you have out done yourslef :)
Fairy, yep, that's your Mimilus showing off so pretty! I must have had a totally different version in the past, they never got that big! WOW!
Lebug, your red petunia is gorgeous! Rich, velvety deep red! One bloom so far, but quite a few others lined up and wanting to take a turn :)
On the Maskflower, I have barely cover, 65°, takes 14-21 days. I did this, and mine are all up! Took a while, but excellent germination! (thanks again to Fairy!)
The purple ones from Lynn aren't far behind. I'm going to have big, full baskets by the time I can finally plant them out!
So, petunias will cross? This will be interesting to keep them separate. How far apart would you say they should be to avoid crossing?
Here's Lebug's Red Petunia smiling pretty!
"Lala... that is the weather we had yesterday... just gorgeous i tell ya. yicky cold and rainy all today today." Who needs to turn the on The Weather Channel when I've got Therese here to predict my weather? Ugh!! Yicky, Cold. Rainy. Yep, that pretty well describes it.
Now I want to know who would break into my house just to steal some seedlings? LOL! It just occurred to me last night when I was watering the babies that I didn't know where the Abutilon seedlings had gone. And the more I thought about it I realized I had no recall of seeing them in quite some time. So I went through all the flats and even checked the window overflows. No abutilon. What the heck? No seedlings and no empty containers with tags that SAY abutilon. I was driving myself crazy last night trying to remember if I seperated them from the rest of the seedlings for some reason (and desperately hoping I hadn't 'cause if I had they were surely sitting dead somewhere by now) but I'm still completely baffled. And bummed out. I started them clear back in January because I was so excited about them. And now they've vanished. Should I file a missing plant report or just wait until the bodies show up and call in those CSI type people?
On wintersowing the grasses: I've done it several times and had luck with them about 50% of the time. I don't know enough about grasses to know why it works sometimes but not all the time....did I not collect them at the right state of maturity?..... is that particular grass sterile?....or was it a problem with my method? I'm not sure but it's definitely worth a shot.
Oh wow those ARE pretty!
After posting twice in a row it seems I still have more to say. LOL @ me being so chatty today.
Kelly petunias can cross but they don't always. This will be my 4th year with a strain of yellow petunia and unless they change this year they'll still be the same petunia they were when I bought them. However I used deep purple petunias as a ground cover in a bed a couple of years ago and last year I had volunteers of varying shades of purple and a few that were almost pink!
Robin don't forget you can pinch your dahlias if they get too tall to manage before you set them out.
I'm glad that the monkey flower seeds are easy to save. I only had 2 seedlings make it to bloom last year and after they bloomed they just sort of fizzled and died. I'm hoping I have better luck this year!
This message was edited Mar 8, 2009 3:11 PM
ooo, thank you Lala - I had forgot about pinching. Yep - 6" tall - cause I can't wait to start seeds and each year it's something different. You'd think I'd learn, cuz I run out of room for tall stuff each year......but then some of us just won't listen - LOL! It's going to have to be windowsills for a while for some of 'em. We've not had much rain, for which I'm thankful, but today is different so I've got the sump pump all hooked up to take care of our busted basement drain pipe. Guess it will be a good time for me to be in the basement repotting since I'll need to keep an eye on that pump.
Catching up . . . tcs1366 - Globe thistles look FABULOUS in flower arrangements. I particularly love them matched with white flowers.
I have two plants and I winter sowed more which I hope to plant out on the terrace.
BTW, anyone who received lavender from me - my winter-sowed seeds are now germinating!