Gardening: Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #32

Lala, wow, great picture! Now you go get some sleep while I go to work. :o)
I already had to pot up a couple of my Dahlia's, they were sprouting like mad.
I'm really trying to wait till I get my greenhouse set up outside till I pot up the rest of the overwintering bulbs.

Just thought I'd mention a great sale on Siberian Iris if anyone is interested.
http://www.ensata.com/

toofew

La_La that really very pretty and a great idea. Wish I had room in here for a coupel of aquariums, would make terrariums out of them too.

I got two Dahlia bulbs that have two small sprout sup on them now, so got alarn how to root them properly too. Over in the Dahlia forum them folsk are a greta help with links and pics andstuff on how to do it.

The rian we wa susppose dot get the past coupel of days has finally come now for today and tommorrow. So been up for a coupel of hours now it so loud I can't sleep, so gonan work some on plants and stuff and hope I can fall back to sleep at some point.

Pretty picture lala! You are probably sleeping now - at least I hope so. ; )

Star, one of my dusty miller's have germinated for me you sent me seeds for keep your fingers crossed I get more than one lol

La, love your picture!

That's great Lea!
Too few thanks for sharing that sale - they have wonderful prices!

toofew, that sale is awesome! Darn you! LOL...this place is full of enablers!

Meredith, is it normal for those Mimulus cardinalis to grow slowly? My seedlings are developing true leaves, but they are still soooo tiny. I'm giving them dilute liquid fertilizer now, but they still look too small to transplant.

gemini- I don't have any records on them but from memory~
I remember them being very small for a while. I probably started them the second week of Feb.
I do remember them needing to be potted up before plantingout time, so they do grow eventually. I think it's like all of a sudden they grow fast.
I started some too - just to see if the little leftovers stuck inside the original pack would germinate and they did! lol Mine are still super tiny too. :)

I gotta look up who I got the Dusty Miller from, but those babies are not only sprouting, some of the leaves are a nice fluffy silver :-) It annoys the fertilizer out of me that I can get those to sprout, but not my peppers.....

Do you w/s the 4 o'clocks? I was going to start them in the GH, but if they will W/S, that will be easier.
I am getting sprouts, 18 containers now. I am SO happy. Thanks everyone for the great Piggy Swap!

Lynn -- I have found if i WS 4-O'c's ... they do not like their roots being disturbed.

I've done them in Peat pots too.... [ws'ing them] each time, i find their growth is stunted.

they are best direct sown... at least that has been my experience with them.

once the soil warms up, they sprout and just keep growing.

so - needless to say, i have not done any yet.

and -- actually -- they did horribly for me last year. [except for where they have been growing for 6 yrs]
all the seeds i was able to collect were from my neighbors plants.

Thanks for the advice! I would have made them really upset with me to put them in an unfriendly environment and then disturb their little roots. No flowers for me!

I recall chatting with someone in NC where he said he can transplant when they are about 3" tall and they do just fine.

you can try it both ways to see what works best.

I WS some four of clocks last year and they did beautifully. I did transplant them fairly small though, probably about 3-4".

I have given upon 4'oclocks I don't think the growing season islong enough or hot enough for them here. They have never flowered more than a week or two before the last frost. Even planting a large tuber. That gave me the best results. I saved my own the year before last and planted them last year and they didn't flower! See why I've given upon them? lol

I did about 3 hrs of 'bed' clean up this afternoon... it's gorgeous out... upper 50's ... but felt low 60's

I have A LOT of stuff poppin up in the garden. Most of my Agastaches have come to live. Blue Flax, as i mentioned before. my 1 HH looks good. and some other stuff. also, while digging around in the soil, i found a few "Nasty" seeds, which i pushed into the soil.

I basically was cleaning up old stuff from last year, cutting some things back, loosening the soil with that "fork rake" tool [i have no idea what it is called] so that i could pull out grass that was growing and weeds.

It's lookin' good. I did not take out the camera... maybe tomorrow.

but -- BOY did that feel good.

It was warm enough to start clean up but still some snow so will wait till next weekend but I have to trip my apple trees tomorrow so out will come the big boots hahahah

Same here - still snow but my front border had enough melted to cut back my Agastaches and Sedum - I can see my new crocus I planted have tips popping thru. : ) Some bulb tips in the warm spot near the dryer vent and Iris reticulatas too. 5 days til spring - yay! : )

tomorrow i am going to trim the apple tree it has gone wild and huge so I plan on taking at half of the branches off and see what happens

I just came in from an afternoon of yard cleaning too. I barely put a dent on what needs to be done, but the mental benefits from a day in the sun is what counts at this point.

Meredith I started my 4'o'clocks inside last year. It was the first time I'd grown them and I was pretty clueless. I remember some one saying, "I didn't know you could start 4'oclocks indoors," and I said, "I didn't know you weren't supposed to." LOL. They did beautifully BTW. I don't remember when they started blooming but I know I had blooms most of the summer.

It is so weird that they don't do good for me! I thinkit has something to do with not enough heat here. Last year wasn't a very hot summer so I think that matterd. You knowe I think OH has about 2 more months of nofreeze than I. Even though we both get down to -15 F you warm up a month sooner and cool off a month later. I remember that fromlast year. Trying to follow suzy's and everyone'snotes was tough - I had to start stuff an average of amonth after everyone.

This message was edited Mar 15, 2009 8:00 PM

Sorry but my spacebar is on the fritz!

Im a zone 5 but I still start early so the plants have really strong roots so when I plant them outside they go nuts and grow really fast since our growing season are so short

I spent some time in the yard today, too. Planted out some more of my ws'ed plants. Let's see, today it was wheatstraw celosia 'flaming feathers', echies 'merlot', 'twilight' and white swan, miniature HH 'party girl', agastache cana, Salvia sylvestris 'Rose Queen', penstemon hartwegii. Prior to today I have planted out HH's 'the watchman', creme de cassis, mixed singles pink/rose/peach, and Stokroos mix; poppies like 'Lauren's grape', cleome, geranium 'Bill Wallis', allysum, borage, tomatoes: wild cherry, yellow pear, sweet bite, red alert; cinnamon basil, stevia, purple hyacinth bean, MGs: 'Scarlett O'Hara and Grandpa Ott's, Malva sylvestris 'zebrina', malva moschata, two kinds of stock, Kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate, scabiosa, alpine catchfly, and soybeans. It will be interesting to see how many of these will handle our summer heat. I figured I should get them in the ground as soon as I could after they had their first set of real leaves to give them a fighting chance! 99% of these plants came from the swap and I still have many more to plant out. Thanks again to all of you generous swappers! I have to say, I sure do love winter sowing!

I still have tons of seeds to start before the end of the month lol but running out of room
I NEED a big green house soon lol like last year

>>I just came in from an afternoon of yard cleaning too. I barely put a dent on what needs to be done, but the mental benefits from a day in the sun is what counts at this point.


Lala.... i had a lot to do too... but i also started a few weeks ago... adn i'll usually spend a few hrs a day working.

I'm probably 50% done with cleaning the beds... though there are other areas that need massive cleaning... places i would just toss weeds and other debris - that i want cleaned up... trimming shrubs/trees too.

but -- i'd rather be outside ... keeps me out of the kitchen.

I planted my four o'clocls in those cow pots last year and even planted them late but they did fine in them until they got in the ground, I still have some cow pots left for this year. I'm getting ready to soak my Limelight Rose from Maozamom :) I'm just wondering if my four o'clocks will reseed from last year those were so pretty they were the marbled red and yellow.

Meredith, my space bar is messed up too, I have to go thru my typing and fix it all, I took it off to clean it and still it isn't on right, don't take a key off of a lap top to clean under it! lol

My Dianthus select red is coming up Star :) I need something to plant in the afternoon sun out front I wonder if I can plant those out there. They will get a little morning sun too just more afternoon sun. This is such a hard spot to plant..

I have four beds to clean yet, three are a pretty good size. One is my orange garden to be and it's a pretty good size too. Then there is my daylily bed but I think I'm moving it this year out front and putting hibiscus in it instead if I get them started this year, I have a few in pots waiting to be planted from last year.

I still have a lot of seeds to plant not sure if I'm going to make it or not, now I'm working on trying to get that schedule D plan for dad for his drugs in the nursing home, does it ever end :)

Terese, you just reminded me of something I did a couple of years ago. I had stripped sod in some areas where I needed immediate bed space, and ended up with a patch the size of the bed that was a pile of sod and weeds that were pulled along the way. I ended up covering the pile with cardboard and mulch, and the next year planted in it. Everything grew amazingly! Its one of the few times laziness paid off, LOL. It ended up doubling the size of the bed too.

I planted some 4oclocks last year found them ok hardy more green than bloom
I think I prefer lavetera

Lea I have a tough spot like that too LMK what plants do good there. I still haven't found any- except Rose Campion - I think that stuff will grow anywhere! lol

Neal -- when i go out today to work, i'll take the camera with me. this "stuff" i dont think i can do much with it, except move it.

I -- luckily have State property way behind me... that is where i am planting ... so i have lots of areas where i can dump old garden refuse.

Aphids...I found aphids on a tray inside this morning and NOTHING has gone out for hardening off yet. At least until this morning :-) Now I gotta sequester them and get me some Safers......this hasn't been a good year for me for starting seeds - LOL! Perhaps it's Mom Nature's way of telling me I was starting too many.....

Meredith, my whole front yard is like that just about, around my sidewalk and down to the mail box, I think lobelia caldinalis is going to work there I planted some year before last and more last year, I have daylilies by the sidewalk with candytuft in between and some of the candytuft stays around but it's patchy, the stella d ore daylilies aren't multiplying but they are still there from two years ago, close to where I'm making the daylily bed is where I plant my moon garden and it does pretty good except for leaning toward the sun lol and I hate it when they lean for the sun! I have fan blue lobelia there too, just planted some coral bells there last fall, peach flambe (sp) and burgu ndy, june hosta and patriot we 'll see how those do this year. I have all kinds of plants out there that are sun plants that make it but would do better in the full sun. I do have a few grasses there too, Texas Muly (I think), Blue Lyme (that stuff grows in the shade too), Dalas Blue not multiplying but it's happy so I'm happy lol, Adagio, Overdam.

I'm hoping baloon flower will do good there I planted some there last year.

Robin, hang in there, I did good for a few years with my seedlings then had a rough year you're just getting it out of the way for this year, next year will be better, we all have our bad years sorry to hear about it though :) Put you a glass of about two inches of vinegar out by your shelves and it will draw the knats :) Spray your soil with H202 to kill the eggs.

Lea.. Dianthus love the sun, they wil take ful sun and be so happy and thank you for it.

Dryad. Watch with the safers soap even if yoru seedlinsg are small, don't use to much of it, if ya can be best to just try and hose them down good or use a weak dish soap, leave o for a little bit them rinse good.

thanks Star, I hadn't thought about plain old soap and water - LOL! That will certainly be a lot easier - on me and the plants :-)

I'm sorry Robin I was thinking gnats lol Wrong varmit!

Newborns from today
Neal, I have one of you asters coming up, just is :))
and
Nicotiana, Perfume Lime from Chele :)) Little tiny tiny seedlings lol

:-)

I'm the one with gnats - their back - ugh. I have been using a spray but it isn't totally getting rid of them. I think it is just keeping their numbers down. I need to get some of those sticky yellow things star had mentioned.
Thanks for all the ideas Lea. So your daylilies minus the stellas do well there? I planted a couple in my spot last year and they did bloom-but they didn't seem super vigorous. They were red hot returns and pardon mes. I also tried a catmint walker's low - it was very floppy -don't know if I'll have to move that one yet.Or if it was just getting itself established. It is the west side of my house -the part closest to the house. There is a deck so that makes this one spot even worse it doesn't get sun til afternoon. But when it gets sun it gets the screamin hot sun. Not enough shade for shade lovers and not enough sun for sun lovers lol

A bunch more wintersown sprouts have shown up today! 3 different kinds of Toad Flax, L.vulgaris and the pink and blue/lavender ones from boonandall in New Zealand, Sidalcaea 'Party Girl', Hollyhocks, Clarkia, and a few varieties of Rudbeckia.

I've run out of potting soil yet again. Seems like its been a race since January to get everything sown! Now I'm looking at the pile of seeds to WS late (...which I realized is NOW), aaakkk!...gotta get a move on!

I lost one flat to bugs two weeks ago and nothing had been outside I think they came from the soil good thing I used it only for one flat and saw the little buggies and got rid of it to bad for the seeds but cant have bugs invading my seedlings

Robin, I've been meaning to ask you, how many kinds of seeds do you start per flat? I've never gotten into using flats because I like to have 1 species or variety per germinating container (so that when a few are up, the covering comes off the container, and I don't start that many of any one particular kind of seed). I used to use 6" pots, and this year I'm using 3"pots. These are working out beautifully. With most seeds, at least 20 seeds will fit well in one little pot, and that's usually more of any plant than I'll need. Very little potting soil wasted on failed attempts this way. I use little pieces of cling wrap secured with a rubber band around the pot as a covering. I've found 1 bowl of sterilized soil will fill several little seed pots as opposed to the 2 or 3- 6" pots.