Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #35

and this one its darker

Do Morning Glories generally take a while to get going? Mine came up, got one set of true leaves, and seem to be hanging out at that height. I wonder if I've got it in too much shade, or they just take a while to get moving. Actually, the one outside in a pot is a little shady, but the ones that are still inside under lights are behaving the same way. Maybe they need fertilizing?

The Thunbergia on the other hand... wow. They move fast!

did you put a stick for it to climb if not it will die off since they are vines

Oh yes, but it's no where needing it yet!

also found this one

Hi all, Guess I misse d the jump , somebody forget to drag me along, but the tornadoe s through her e Sunday sur e did a good job of that. Nothign like havign them come through aroudn midnight when everybody sleeping.

Thanking Abov e that it just misse d my place by not too far. Got the big jitters thoguh today cuz two years ago today is when we had bright sunyn day and hot outside and then in a heart beat thigns changed and freak torndoes and grapefruit hail that killed all oru birds and critters and damage d all our hoems and vechiles.

If ever I do go a missing. Carolyn. MsDreams has my phoen numer and Lotsalily has it too and think it also up on Dg watchdog for representativ e of company.

Thansk for caring. Hugs to ya all,

Glad you are alright Star, didn't think of you living alone like tcs did and didn't know the tarnados were going thru there, hope there isn't too much of a mess to pick up sounds like there might be.

Gosh hail big enough to kill the birds! That's pretty wild, never though about the critters when people have hail that big, heck can't even imagine hail that big, they alway threaten with hail here but where I live we never get much and it's small if we do thank goodness!

Ella, so glad you are okay. I just read a long but riveting account in an e-mail about a guy in Mefreesborough, TN that was outside and lived through the tornado that hit there on Good Friday (a week and a half ago). It was amazing that he survived it. It was an F4. If anyone is interested in reading it, d-mail me and I will send it to you. All that said to say it made me even more grateful that you were not in the one that was so close to you. PTL.

Thanks for the compliments on the flowers. I have backed off on mentioning and showing too much, just because we can grow so much earlier in the year than lots of you, that it began to feel like bragging "look what we can you that you can't do yet" kind of thing. It sure has been fun seeing other's success with their plants now that spring is touching more of the country!

Tonya

Oh Tonya, brag away! Here, its like proudly showing pics of your kids, and we all think they're cute, LOL! And remember, those of us still dealing with cold weather LOVE pics of growth and blooms. Don't hold back, post those pics.

That kinda reminds me of some ladies I used to do decorating and floral designs for. They were all really good friends, and when one would find a good deal on an antique or piece of jewelry and show it off to the others, they'd say "We hate her", totally in jest. It always made me crack up.

So Tonya, go ahead, make us hate you, LOL!
Neal

Thanks Neal =)

I'll get my camera back out!

Tonya

I found a Bronze Fennel plant coming up from last year, from the original plant! I didn't think to oink for any of them this year, and I'm thrilled to find it! Did they overwinter for any one else? Perhaps that's normal and I was in the dark, LOL.

Neal -- mine poked thru back in March some time. [i do think it's pretty cold hardy]
plus i have 2 baby seedlings.

Neal, the bronze fennel is perennial for me mine is three years old this year and about five inches high right now, they will reseed too. Just wanted to tell you my asters are looking soo nice wish I could take pictures of them, I can't wait to see those blooms my neighbor has talked me out of a couple of them lol And of course I'll have to share with a couple more neighbors. Should I pinch those, seems like you all have talked about it but I lost my notes, I lost my word document I had them in :( All of Suzy's quotes were in there too!

nbgard, get that camera back out I want to see your flowers too, just wish I could take pictures of mine, you're just lucky to live in a warmer zone :) I want to live in a warmer zone!

Happy Earth Day! Sorry, I haven't been keeping up with the conversation - but it's the end of term and lots of grading etc. to do.

Regarding pruning mums - these are the easiest things to propagate by cuttings! Trim your mums in June, dip the cuttings in rooting hormone - and place in potting soil and water. I made more than a dozen plants last year this way.

Happy Earth Day! A beautiful day to get outside and work in the beds here :)

I've got to rig up a place to pitch my calendulas and put some bird netting over it so the birds don't get the seeds and ten seed trays to sow for this morning.

I think I may go ahead and plant some of my petunias today too out front and just put some pepsi bottles over them at night the temps in the day are getting in the 80's this week but in the 40's and 50's at night. They may grow kind of slow but they won't die.

I started the first batch on january fifteen and then I started the second bach with now has buds on february fifteen and then the last ones at the end of march those are just about nine inches tall so should start to bud soon I have found that they take about 65 to 70 days from germination to open flower
my first moon flower they take longer is about to open will post a pic of the bloom when it does its thing

mona

planted out my Micro Chip Dianthus today.

I have a few more things to plant out... i just sorta ran out of time today.... thankfully we have really warm temps coming... before MORE rain.

which is exactly what we need so we will have make sure and plant everything before the next rains

Ah, its finally planting time! I've gotten Snapdragons and Pansies in the ground (and have a few more to go), and today I get to start on some wintersown babies. Calendula, Lupines, Lunaria, Feverfew, and perhaps a some Rudbeckias are on my plant out list. A perfect day for it too, sunny and in the 70s :-)

Do any of you fertilize wintersown containers? I've been thinking I should fertilize some of the smaller, slower growing seedlings.

Last fall I got some Blue scabiosas. had them in small pots and they up and bloomign and need totransplant them, but some of them where the leave s died over the winter and i remove d now have this big I call it bare stem down there that make s th egreenon the top look funky. when I transplant can I plant the stem back down to the top where the leave s ar enow or wil the stem s rot on me. Anybody happen to know?

Star - with the Blue Scabiosa... Mine have yet to germinate. I was thinging they would be easy/one of the first to germinate, but I was wrong. Oh well, i'm hoping to get at least ONE this year.

hardwood vines, bushes, and tree seeds are always hard to germinate and they can take up to a year
but I will try and see what happens I am going to chip away at the coating of the seed so water can soak in warm water for a day or so then plant it and see what happens

I can't recall where i posted about my Butterfly seedlings being left out on a cold weekend...

i thought they were toast, but was trying to nurse them anyways... the other day i was going to give up and pull the dead/dried seedlings out of the soil and add more seeds [it's a 4" square pot, so room for more] and low and behold, there was growth at the bottom of the stem!! YAY. i added more seeds anyways... but at least they added more growth... i have to wonder if that wasn't from the SuperTHRIVE i was spritzing them with.

no that is what perennials do with cold they may go dormant till it warms up or they regrow at the bottom of the stem or the root its almost imposible to kill perennials with cold

tcs, I tried to grow some yellow scabiosas and only got one and had some healthy looking seeds :( Congrads on the milkweeds! That's good to know they made it.

Star, what is your secret to getting more than one scabiosa to germinate, I've tried to keep them on the dry side is that what they need I'm sure it is :) Is yours perennial, if they are perennial I'm sure you could plant them all the way down. Not sure about the annual ones.

I'm going to town today, one of the schools grows herbs and some plants and they have them for sale now, prices are pretty good but the plants from what I've seen before don't look all that but they make it after you plant them I've bought from them before. Maybe I can get me some salvias there I still haven't started my salvias!

I'm going to start putting my petunias out to harden off today, I have two colors, the white and red that's ready, the purple and lavender need to wait a while.

We're not getting any more rain until next week about Tuesday I have calendula and bells of ireland that I want to pitch out.

Lea ,
You nobetter never pitch a seed unless you can watch where you pitch for your surprise,
Okay back to pitching!!!!
Carolyn

yep my scabiosa are perennial. These are some I picked up last year.

I knwo the seed s i planted took a good coupel of weeks to come up. and they grew real slow . I just small sed tray and baggy method on mine but just barely had any moistrue in the soil cuz i knew they kinda liek dry and woudl take a bti to germinate and didnt want the moisture in the baggy to build up to high.

I have tried them many times and got nothing will try again when the rain season is over and I am going to just plant them outside and see if that works

The white scabiossa columbaria (?) seeds that I got from Therese in the swap germinated well in their WS container and are now about 4-5" tall in the bed. Do some kinds (colors) germinate better than others?

I WS some of my seeds and have had very good results so far. Here are some of new babies

When I sowed these Miribilis seeds, I accidentally sprayed them with a degreaser instead of my Superthrive mix. I thought for sure they were goners. Well, surprise, surprise, some of them lived!

Way to go, Lynn!

Here are some of my gourds and Indian corn from Singing Wolf. I started them the deno method.

Oh Lynn, your seedlings look good and I'm so glad your four o clocks made it I remember you saying that about the drgreeser I figured they would be goners too. So many WS plants!

Neal, should I pinch these asters? They don't have any shoots coming in on the sides.

Star, those red dianthus, are they perennials? I think one is getting ready to bloom :)

I'm putting most of my babies out in the little greenhouses here shortly if I can get past the wind (25 mh) it's blowing like crazy! I'll be lucky to hold onto the covers while I try and get them on lol

I got some purple salvias at the plant sale yesterday and some very pretty coleus! Bought a bunch of plants to make up for my procrastinating this year :) They call it an herb sale but they didn't even have any tyme! All I got was some flat leaf parsley no curly???

Lynn -- lookin good on the 4-O'Clocks. the only ones i have not had luck in germinating is Lime Light. 2 yrs running - zip.

I also can not remember getting any "whites" -- though my neighbor did ... and i can not find any seeds for them. Oh well.

I really wanted the "desert" 4-O'C's this year, and i have 3 seedlings.... so that is cool.

Lea, I'm not sure, but I think it would be fine to pinch the Asters. They branch and have lots of blooms, so I'd think they'd be a good candidate for pinching.

four o clocks are hard for me to germinate, I have the lime light ones soaking now from Maozamom :) I let them soak a couple of days then they still take forever to germinate.

Thanks Neal, if you don't pinch yours I'm not going to pinch mine they are doing fine guess they will get little side shoots soon :)

OMGosh you guys I potted up 80+ 4'oclocks earlier this week. Isn't it odd how some things that are so 'easy' for one person are difficult for the next?... and visa versa? For example I swear I'm about to give up on torenia. The seeds you all sent me came up fine, but the seedlings just dwindled away and I now only have about a dozen left (out of 3 full trays.) And I wanted some yellow ones so badly this year that I bought some seeds off Ebay. Twice. LOL I only got 1 to germinate and it too has bit the dust.

You southern folk mustn't feel badly about posting your early blooms. We love seeing them! That's what gives us inspiration and hope of colorful days to come. Of course I feel a twinge of envy, but showing your pictures lets us know that it's right around the corner for us too. In fact I have buds forming on my Phlox of Sheep! Woooohoooo!

Star - believe it or not my Cerinth made a complete recovery. I think planting them deeper was what did the trick and to be honest I planted them MUCH deeper.

I spent today in the yard dividing perennials including ornamental grasses. Let me take yet another poll. What is the most back-breaking landscaping chore in the world? In case you didn't see this one coming, I'd like to stuff the ballot box with 100 votes for grass division. After several hours of making virtually no headway I went to my neighbor and asked to borrow an axe. Bless his heart he took pity on me and finished the chore for me. Boy do I owe him big time!

I thing every muscle in my body is aching and I'd like nothing better than a hot bath and bed. But I still have to water...and pot up some seedlings....and......

Uggh, 12 hours of cake baking, icing making and decorating? I'm a wimp. My back and legs are killing me! But it's a cute cake. I'll get pictures tomorrow when I put it all together. Lego girls.

Maybe after my DD's birthday tomorrow, maybe I can get back to the really important stuff like planting! ;-)

my daughters birthday was yesterday and I still didnt get anything done today lol she says its birthday weekend hahahahah