kl- Love the Torenia - Very Pretty! Mimulus are easy to kill - if you don't keep them moist at all times they die. (at least the cardinalis) don't feel too bad! I had a loss on some myself already, thank goodness more sprouted though.
Gardening: Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #33
That's what happens to me every year my tomatoes get taller than my stands, mine are about 17" tall with the lights and still the tomatoes and peppers get caught in the light, I'm getting a later start this year so maybe they will be just right. They're too hard to get out and water from the bottom that way!
Last year was really bad I'll blame it on the piggy swap people lol Everyone was planting mad and I got caught up in it and planted my tomatoes even earlier LOL It was a mess trying to keep the leaves out of the lights lol My other plants were getting large for the big ones too, sure making up for it planting them so late this year :)
Love the blue on those Torenia! I ordered some orange/yellow ones for this year and haven't even started those and the ones from the swap this year yet but at least they do bloom a long time. I'm planting them tonite :)
did you know that if you trim your tomato plant it will give off side shoots and get bushier and more tomatoes
scicciarella
By 'trim' do you mean pinch your Tomato plant? And when would you do this ... what height? Ive never heard of this before.
I do mine when they reach about 8 or more inches
it forces the plant to put the strenght back into the root to feed
then it will give out three or four really strong stems off the stock
which means so many more tomatoes
I'm guessing this is for determinate plants only, right?
Thanks for the infor. :o)
if by determinate you mean bush plant then yes but I have done it on others and it does work also just not as well one stem will give you two to three only
one year I started my plant way to early and they got so big I planted them early by like a month and would just put plastic on them overnight well one night it got windy and the plastic blew off and of course with the wind it froze lol my luck right
so most of the plants froze almost to the grown
I just cut off all that was frozen so mushy and they still grew like crazy and produced amazing tomatoes since by cutting them the strenght went into the roots, since all the plant wants is to survive to produce seed to guarantee survival of the specie
some of those plants the eating varieties then mesured over seven feet tall by the end of august, I have to give away so many that year it was nuts
Kelly I just did that with a tray of marigolds too. It's become a circus here trying to remember where everything is and I'm afraid that every once in awhile there are casualties. Especially with things that germinate in darkness and cooler temps. I do pretty good with the trays on the mat, but when I stick something 'out of the way' to germinate I sometimes forget about them or even lose them. Just last night I was puzzling over where I'd put the coriander and finally found the tray on the floor under the computer desk. LOL!
Speaking of marigolds I've been a little disappointed this year. I really wanted to try a lot of different varieties, but my success has been limited. I suppose they're just like anything else in that the seed must be harvested at the proper time but I even had some failures with some commercial seed. The Whopper's came on like gangbusters though Neal. I think every single one of them came up.
I use the calender in my email im with yahoo and I just set an appointment in the calender in the note section I say something like bring in columbine tray aned it then reminds me on the right date so nothing is forgotten since I no longer have a memory
that is reliable for these things lol
yesterday I found buds on my japanese morning glories that I started in mid january it is so exiting to see buds lol I feel like a little kid at xmas
now today I found buds on three other plants cant wait to see the blooms open since I have never grown JMG before
hi
i have to date started tomatoes, eggplants and peppers plus some abutilon seeds indoors. i have only seen the tomatoes sprout thus far. i will be adding annual flowers to the tray later. i am using one tray size heat mat right now til i clear off space to use the two tray size that i have. i can get three going at one time. Once these babies sprout i put them outside in a sunny protected spot to green up in a clear rubbermaid container.. aka mini greenhouse ..i do not have a light setup so i do it this way... I will bring the babies indoors at night since it still is freezing at night.
it has been cold outdoors...even tho it is spring..the wind is cold.
i have not started the daylily seeds yet that i got from you guys...i plan to once i feel that it is warm enough outside..possibly april as seeing how the weather is like here. it looks like i will get daylilies to bloom in year 3 i have some that are coming up that are three years old and they are growing good. i hope they bloom this year..it is a long wait and i cannot wait to see the blooms..they will all be surprises as none will be the same as the parent.
pam sue
I just planted some trays of marigolds too.
Our first indoor seedlings are coming up! Some really germinated super fast, like sunflowers and Salvia viridis ‘marble arch rose’ (chelesgarden).
It got chilly again here. We got snow flurries the first day of Spring!
For daylilies, I wintersowed some seeds from maozamom and these have sprouted so far; 'indian giver', 'hint of blue' and either 'lord chamberlain' or bella lagosi' (can't remember which right at the moment). Hopefully some of those are in the 50% that bloom the second year!
I heard yesterday that you can eat daylilies. It was recommended that you stuff the bloom with cheese, bread it and fry it. Has anyone ever eaten daylilies?
Tonya
Sure have. You eat the blooms when they buds or ya can eat the flowers. The buds I think it better and they all have differnt range of tastes too.
When I get a chance wil gather the recipes for Dayililies up fo rya there quite a bit of them. : )
Now the green pods, they not good. I have trie d them to and didn't liek em. yuck. pituuuuuuuuey : )
Ella, you make me laugh out loud! I did hear that the buds kind of taste like asparagus. I bet they vary depending on the kind of daylily. Recipes would be great, when you have a few minutes, thanks!
Tonya
Tonya, I don't know any recipes for daylilies, that will be interesting! But when I was a teenager at Girlscout Camp we would go on nature walks ... which I just loved! I still remember the first time the naturalist picked a Daylily bloom that was just about to open and she ate it. What a shock! Most of us adventurous girls tried one. Not a lot of taste, but some. I've taught both of my kids to eat the old orange ones ... not my pretty ones in the garden. lol
I remember reading an article (I think it was here on DG in fact...was it Critter's?) about eating Daylily blooms. I think there was a warning though with the orange ones that grow along side the road that are exposed to exhaust and other nasties that don't readily come to mind.
Star I'm trying an experiment with some of the cerinthe. I planted some of them into a bigger pot and sunk them a bit deeper than they'd previously been. I even pinched the top off one of them to see what would happen. Mind you I don't really expect a miraculous recovery, but at the rate they were dwindling I really didn't have much to lose. I'll keep you posted.
ok I cant wait to see pics of daylillies in bloom for 2009 hahahah nice pics up there
Well, it will be awhile before I eat any of my own daylilies. I just got my first dl plant last fall (Happy Returns) and it was very small (still is). Not sure if it will bloom this year. My only other ones are those that started from maozamom's seeds. Still interested in the recipes though!
Tonya
I have lots of them and I would not eat them I love horses and I would not eat one of those either hahahahha
Still waiting on that lupine seed. DH informed me we have it growing all over, as a wildflower. It is incredibly tiny. Sending photo, taken with the macro. This is a tiny wildflower.
My kids loved the sheep/lamp light clip too. They agree those guys have waay too much time on their hands.
LOL!
WIB,
SW
Here ya go , here is oen threa d I foudn right off hand, wil have to find some of the others.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/402734/
munch away folks. : )
Lala. I am pitchign mine and gonna start again. Mien look so sick and pathetic and doubt they gonna recover at all. I have a few seed s yet , so gonna just redo em.
SW, here's a pic of the Lupines our seed came from:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5947445
...not the same flower at all. No macro needed to photograph these babies, LOL.
I really like the russel lupins they are tall spikes and such bright colors also more uniformed
they grow wild in eastern canada july is so great because of them in the fields millions of them everwhere
I got seed from Summer Hill for Vinca Mediterranean Punch, and it's gorgeous. The blooms are such a pretty color. I'm messing around with hand pollinating some of my precocious blooms since they're right in front of my nose inside, but the Vinca doesn't appear to have pollen or stamens, or anything!
So, dumb question, but how do hybrids work? They have to get the seed from somewhere. I guess they must have to hand pollinate the two plants that something is a hybrid of every season? That would certainly explain why some are so expensive I guess...
Gorgeous lupines all! That's one I'm pretty sure I can't grow :( Too hot/humid here.
well with lupins the first thing is that they are not really perennials but reseeding bi annuals but I have found that sometimes the mother plant will last two or three years but if you cut all the spent spikes and do not keep adding some seeds you will eventually not have any that is what happened to both of my sisters
so when I went home to new brunswick last summer I collected many seeds off the plants there and we started them so they will bloom this summer such a beautifull plants and flowers I also love the foliage
Ok, now I looked at photos of other Vinca, and they all look like this. I'm feeling dumb. Can anyone explain the anatomy of a Vinca blossom? :-)
lupins will grow everywhere but can spread and be invasive like it did on the east coast of canada so if you are going to grow them remove most of the spend spike and keep one of each color for the seeds to keep growing them
they want the bee to crawl inside so you have to carefully open it and way in the back you will find what you are looking for I would use a q-tip and stick in there and turn and do the same to the next and next
and polination is always interesting since you wont know if it worked till the flowers are spent to see if seeds form
Kelly - would love to see some of your other bloomers. I could use a little inspiration.
;-)
(Sorry no help on the pollinating thing. That's something I've never gotten into. Yet.)
I finally have a bloom forming on one of my seedlings! Kinda surprising to me that its a Salvia viridis.
Here you go Lala, this is what I've got going :) From top left to right, Abutilon from Summerhill, Torenia from rljones, Red Petunia from LeBug, Mimilus from Fairy, Torenia from rljones, Begonia from Lebug, Lobelia, Vinca, Coral Petunia and Geranium from Summerhill, and White Ruffled Petunia from LynnWeidman! Lots of others growing well from piggie seeds, these are just the early bloomers.
OMGoodness beautiful blooms, beautiful pictures, and a beautiful collage. I'm going to have to really concentrate to keep be inspired and not envious. OK, there's no rule that says I can't be both is there?
:-P
And congrats to you on your salvia bloom Neal!
I can't wait to see the Salvia bloom! Pictures Neal!
This will be my first year with them. Do they need to wait, or are they slightly cold hardy? Can you tell I'm just itching to start getting something outside! I've put my hummingbird feeder out this week, spring fever is here...
you should put the feeder if you want them to stop by on there way to my house since they are here end of april till end of september
gold finches and robbins are here in numbers now and the geese and malards also
they are usually three to four feeks behind
I cleaned my feeder real good last weekend
The collage was really cool. Thanks for posting the picture. Also, I am rather proud of my firstborn White Ruffled Petunia. I will have to print out that picture and carry it in my wallet.
Kelly, this is my first time growing them (Salvia viridis) too. I've been planning to put all the Salvias out about the same time, sometime in May, since I'm not sure which ones can take some chill. I've been contemplating removing the flower bud from this one; its still rather small to be blooming. Anyone have any advice on that?
I'm itching to plant things out too. Been working on getting beds ready and finding all kinds of Lilies sprouting and perennials waking up. Should be able to get some Pansies in the ground in the next few days!
why not enjoy the flower and then clip it back if you want I would not cut off the bloom
Still haven't done much but pull weeds, but I went on a wildflower safari today. On a certain road, there used to be the most beautiful patch of Lupine. Since they've started "Developing" our area, we only found three plants left today. Will try to get photo tomorrow.
But while hiking in the hills, I did find this one. I think it's some type of lupine.
So far behind on the garden. ACK!
WIB,
SW
