Propagation: 2014 Seed Starting, Part 3, 2 by Pfg

Pfg wrote:
Helloooooo Texas! Welcome, Rookerie!

Yes, this thread has been going on for a while... For my zone, all the action has moved outside now. I still have lots of seedlings in pots. The annuals are easy, they do their while life cycle in one season so they go right into the garden.

But the perennials are a different story. I have to decide whether to pot them up, plant them in a holding bed, or put them out in the garden. Platycodons, for instance: last year, I had a bunch of P Perlmutterschale, a lovely , soft silvery pink. They were started in late December, and by April were blooming under the lights. I put them out in the garden where I wanted them to end up, and inter-planted lightly with annuals. They never bloomed again, and never got more than a few inches tall. For the entire season, I had to make sure the annuals didn't smother them, kept pruning, pulling out, etc, so I had a huge blank in the middle of the bed. This spring, they all made it. I hope they make a better showing!

This year I have a new batch... Hmmmmmm. Platys have the rep of being difficult to move, which is why I put the babies in place last year. But I've moved other Platy plants a lot, especially young, always careful to dig deep around the taproot and add a rooting aid when planting, and have gotten away with it. I'm thinking bigger pots, or a holding bed for this year's newbies.

On the other hand, I have a bunch of Campanulas I think should go directly into their places. The Clips series, I have both blue and white, supposedly blooms the first year from seed. I hope that's true! And C Pyramidalis is short-lived but a prolific self-seeder, I'd like to get that going.

Most of the other perennial seedlings are already planted out, even the Linum, scrawny little things. They looked so much more substantial in pots on the shelf, but in the garden...puny. Amazing how that is!