Propagation: First Time Winter Sowing #6 : There's still time! , 1 by Potagere

Potagere wrote:
Hi all,

Back from my Madrid holiday, and SO MUCH to catch up on, and, while I was gone, 1 jug of Wallla Walla Sweet Onions; 1 of Campillo (a red onion); 1 of Thai Silk "Apricot" California Poppies; and 1 smaller container of Torrey's Four-Nerve Daisies have germinated. Hooray!!

~Lissa : I do tend to be a bit obsessive/compulsive, but here's an idea. As I have planted each of my WS seeds (100 and counting), not only have I recorded it in my DG Journal (which is open access, if you want to look at it), but I also entered it into an WS-Excel spreadsheet. On the spreadsheet I have recorded the Plant name (2 columns : 1 for scientific name and the other for popular); the preferred light conditions (I chose this first, because light is the dominating factor in my garden); the preferred soil conditions; water requirements; fertilizing requirements; height;, spacing; flowering time; flowering colour; and "other things" I thought were important to me about each. I can sort on any of these features (and sub-sort on 2 others), so, I can for instance, find flowers that like full-sun, further sorted by height and flowering season. I am hoping that this will help me "lay out" my beds, especially since so much of what I have WS this year are perennials. It will also help mje select some annuals to inter-plant to ensure some good flowers this 1st year while waiting for the perennials to mature (one of the "other things" I noted was which perennials might flower in their 1st year). This is easy to set up, but if you want, I could email you the basic format I used and you could then just put in your plants.

~Anita : I think you will have both great delight and some sad disappointment from your saved zinnias. These are truly marvelous plants whose entire possibilities, I think, have not yet been truly explored. That said, I suppose you know that if you had only 1 kind of zinnia in your garden last year (and if it was not a hybrid), if you planted those seeds you would get the same flowers; if it was a hybrid, you could get flowers that look like it or like either of its parents, or even something new if one or more of the parents were themselves hybrids. If you planted a whole bunch of different zinnias, who knows what you'll get : maybe something totally new and different. Zinnias are just so much fun (and beauty) in the garden. (By the way gemini_sage(is that Neal?), the zinnias come on pretty late, so they are an interesting counterpoint to the lower dahlias and the chrysanthemes).
This is the first time I have WS zinnias (or will have, because I am still waiting on them). In the past, I have always just sown them in place like my Gramma did or sowed them indoors.
and Karen, I know we do agree on many things, but the colour of those zinnias could be another point of dissension. "Butt-ugly"? I'd call it "pumpkin" and be very happy to have it in my garden because I am real partial to orangey shades.

~Angie : great photos! Great success! Seems like nearly everything you are showing also even has it's 1st real leaves! But what is : "Codonopsis"? I've never heard of it.

~tcs & Angie : We have beautiful Scarce Swallowtail butterflies (Iphiclides podalirius) here that love to gather nectar from the lavender, but I have never seen the caterpillars. I wonder if I planted the bronze fennel if they would use it as a host plant?

~Karen : That's a great hibiscus bush! I've never seen them like that. In fact, I had never seen these hardy hibiscus at all until we moved to France, where they are used as hedges. That bush looks so much prettier than when I see them crowded together to make a hedge!

~Phyl & dlw28 : i'd say that "MOSTLY" anything that has sprouted now will make it through your weather changes. BASIL? No way! Show basil just a sniff of frost and it's likely to be gone. If we could only get a frost tolerant basil (a frost resistant one would be even better), we could be on our way to fame and fortune, as well as early and late pesto!

In the time it's taken me to type this, I'll bet I'm even further behind!
C'est la vie!

Potagere/Jim