Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #38

Mommy or I mean Critter ;-) I have been waiting for pods forever lol It is a trailing one so guess it won't make seeds but I'll keep watching just in case they are so beautiful guess I'll just have to buy another one next year but thanks! I've never grown Torenia before I think I'm in love! lol

Thanks Neal love your dahlias! Your sister is pretty too she fits right in there with the flowers.

Aren't those Dahlias fabo! I'm wondering if I should try saving some seed from them? I have every intention of digging every tuber up and storing for winter, but I don't know how much reverting back to single blooms to expect from saved seed. If any of you would like to try some, I'm happy to save some seed.

Thanks Neal, I don't want to ask for too many seeds this year.

Just today I found out I have to make a deposition out about my dad just wish I knew what they were going to ask me, I may not even have a place to plant everything next year, not a good day for me today :) Those were my dad's wishes in his Will and I'm paying for it, it isn't fair! Wasn't it enough I gave him eight years of my life!

Bless your heart. We wish you the best. Got to be tough.

Oh Lea. My heart goes out to you in this very challenging time of your life (as it continues to be challenging). I've prayed for your strength, peace and endurance. Hang in there girl and know that you're in our thoughts.

Hey Neal, any idea how the Zinnia's would do in a very hot Zone 8b? If you think they are worth a try, I'd love for you to put my name on some. Or just collect them and I'll pipe up for some during the swap. Sure enjoying your pics!

Tonya

(((Lea))), hang in there. You're in my thoughts and prayers.

Tonya, sure, happy to save seeds for ya- I'll collect plenty for anyone who may like some, but I'm not sure how fully double they'll be from saved seed. A couple of years ago I got tired of so many singles and semi doubles among my Zinnias, and started ordering seed from Pinetree and Swallowtail Gardens (as opposed to those I picked up at box stores). I've seen a huge difference, hardly any of those pine cones with a ring of petals. Zinnias take the heat well here. They tend to get mildew on the leaves if they're stressed for moisture, but even then they keep blooming. We've had plenty of rain this year, so no problems with mildew (which seems kinda the opposite of what I would have expected, but it does make sense that a stressed plant would be susceptable to disease).

Just went over to Critter's baby thread, and, oh, is she cute! And Mommy is beautiful, isn't she?! And so calm! So fun to read about new babies~~what a blessing!

And I love all the pretty photos of everyone's seed sowing successes! July and August bring out some of the pretties blooms for the garden. Our zinnias are blazing with color and I still have a few other summer annuals blooming~~tithonia, cleome, tropical milkweeds, etc. Nothing too elegant. We have had some nice afternoons of butterfly visiting lately. Several different species hanging around which keeps things interesting.

LeBug, so sorry to read about all the wrangling they are putting you through. That's just not how it's meant to be and I'm keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

Thanks you guys :) I'm just freaking here I'm sure but my house depends on if I can stand up to my sister and I'm just not very good at taking up for myself and afraid I won't get to say all that I want to say when the time comes about what dad wanted it's so scary to think I might lose the house and it's scary that I haven't found a job yet too if I do get to stay here for the bills! People like my sister always end up winning at anything they do.

t, I haven't seen that many butterflies this year and I blame that on the milkweeds all getting that wilt this year I just can't believe all the milkweeds I had last year and this year only very few :( Even in the spring I usually have a bunch of Fritillary on my knapweed and didn't see that many. I don't have that many hummers this year either it's a strange year this year.

I can see Critter now with that baby in a pouch on her back out collecting seeds this year LOL

Oh, I wanted to ask you all, I saw a wasp this morning on my back door it was half wasp with the back end encluding stinger and it was brown and yellow kind of thin with the light brown wings then the middle segment was very thin not much bigger than a pencil lead his head and front feet looked like a praying mantis had the legs to catch prey with, very odd at first I thought a spider had a hold of him then discovered it was all one insect. Has anyone seen one of those lol I've been searching on the net but haven't seen anything like it. The wings were very thin I don't think he could fly with the wings that he had I got tired of watching to see if he could. I just looked out and he is still there just walking along the back of the door. Must have been some sort of mutation.

Lea I am so sorry you have to go through all this. Isn't bad enough you lost your father? I don't agree with nor understand why your sister is being so cruel! Has she always been such a hard person toward you? I think I have seen the bug you are describing but I am not sure what it is either. I just saw what looked like a Giant Hummingbird moth. I have them in my yard all the time... but not like this one it was way bigger than the ones I usually see. It had markings that looked like a bumble bee. I couldn't get a really good look at it because when I walked near it - it flew up into the sky.

Lea, sending positive thoughts that things will either go as you want them to, or that an unforeseen opportunity will arise from all this hassle. I so wish you did not have to go through this - I agree with you and the others that it's not right. Y'all move over on the "hanging-in-there" perch, I'm joining Lea's support gallery.

Neal, am enjoying your summer flowers so much...maybe I should mooch the bulldozer that gave you so much new space to play with for a new canvass over here - KIDDING! lol

Critter - your new family has DG lit up like a Christmas tree :) I couldn't be happier for you.

Lea, nope - am not seeing any wasps like yours in the garden - just those little hover wasps that lay eggs on caterpillars. And they're not laying those eggs fast enough - ya can't step out the back door without getting decorated with tent caterpillars right now - gives new meaning to wondering what's in my topknot grrr.

Now, Ella could tell some great tall tales about sci-fi wasps and such - Ella are you going to let us go through the rest of this summer without one of your stories? Doncha have anything like Lea's wasp or my Invasion of the Tent Caterpillar going on where you are right now?

Meredith - love those hummingbird moths, too - I can still remember the first time I ever saw one without having any idea what it was

My favorite flower in our garden right now is Verbena bonariensis - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/141/ - the butterflies and hummers go right to that one and the Lobelia siphilitica.
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Just in case we are fortunate to have some newbies who haven't yet used the PlantFiles, here's how to find Lobelia siphilitica (or other plants) in them -

-- Click on the Guides and Information tab at the top of any DG webpage.
-- In the box to the right, click on PlantFiles
-- On the left is a green box that says Click here to Search for Plants - click on that
-- If you have the common name, type it into the top box and click on search. But we ain't got that here, gotta go with the Latin. Soooooo - in the box next to where it says Genus, either cut and paste or type in Lobelia
-- Next to the box where it says Species, cut and paste or type in siphilitica
-- Hit enter or search. Next scroll down and click on Lobelia siphilitica, and its DG PlantFiles page will come right up.

I think using this search method works best by putting in the least info first. If you only have the first Latin name of a plant (in this case, Lobelia), then before you hit enter or search, go down to the box next to Sort by, and click on the arrow next to the box that says Popularity, and then click on Latin name. This will make searching or browsing within that genus alphabetical and therefore easier.

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How to cut and paste (just in case this'll help someone) -
-- highlight the word(s) to be copied
-- put your cursor over the word(s) and right-click
-- on the menu that comes up, left-click "copy"
-- place the cursor where you want the word to reappear and right-click again
-- on the menu that comes up, left-click on paste

The nifty thing about this is that you can do this with the address in the address bar of your webpage, too. I like this feature because it's easier to make 2 tabs of the same webpage, so that I don't have to keep scrolling up and down just one page while trying to answer.
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And never send a post without saving it first -
-- right-click in the box where you've typed your message, and click on Select All
-- Then, almost simultaneously, but very close to each other, press down on Control and then on c. You have now saved your work.
-- if for some reason your message doesn't go through when you click on Send, then all you have to do is to right-click on the blank box where your message used to be and then left-click on paste.

apologies for being windy - karen

LOL Karen! I'll send him right on over ;-)

I stumbled upon a cool search site for identifying wildflowers I wanted to share with y'all. I saw this cool looking plant today and was looking on line to find out what it is and found this site:

http://www.realtimerendering.com/flowers/flowers.html

It worked too, first time I'd checked one wrong box, but went back and changed that and found exactly what I was looking for.

Nice site Neal! I put it in my favorites wish I had had that to id my yellow flowers in the field this year Thanks!

Karen this is the first year not to see those cats on my tomatoes usually I have one on each plant. I haven't even seen any tent caterpillars this has been such a strange summer!

LOl. I got the stories, but figrue I wil save them for durign the cold winter months when we don't have much to do but sit aroudn and gab. LOL

me. too! me too! Please save me some Dahlia seeds.

I gotta get a pic of my what I call a weed, btu it may very well not be, but it has tiny white flowers and have notice d it abotu the only thign blooming now down here and the butterfile s love it.

I had a bunch of cats hatch all at opnce and so I have this nice littel group of abotu 15 butterflies that always flyign around outside back door in the morning. I knwo they lookign for more passion flowers, but they have finishe d blooming for the year.

Got big green pod s hanging around full of seeds waitign on them to ripen up.

Sure Ella, glad too :-) Gotta get a few from each plant- there are so many pretty colors among them!

I'm trying to remember who the Vitex bush seeds came from? I wintersowed them, and one is about to bloom! I didn't expect that the first year.

I still have my Verbena hastata (Blue Vervain) in some 2x4" pots from La and think I'll get those in the ground this morning since it's nice and cool and it's going to rain today they have tiny little blooms on them lol I still have a jug with a bunch of them too lol From that picture I saw that someone had on here forget who I really really NEED to get those in the ground! :) I'm saving a few to put in the side yard when I get that cleaned out too so I can see them from the house :) Those should go really well with some of my butterfly weeds I'm putting over there next year.

I'm soo curious to see what kind of weather this winter is going to bring if anyone hears I would love it if you would share! It's a little too soon maybe for a forecast but as soon as you hear or I hear I will share too :) I want a winter to be able to plant all winter again esp. if I get to keep the house!

I am no meteorologist but I saw on tv that El nino is supposed to stay through winter. This can be good or bad depending on where you live and how you like the weather. One good thing about it for everyone is El Niño can help to suppress Atlantic hurricane activity. For anyone wondering what El nino is - it refers to the periodic warming of central and eastern tropical Pacific waters. Some positives for most of us in US are that it typically brings beneficial winter precipitation to the arid Southwest, less wintry weather across the North, and a reduced risk of Florida wildfires.
BTW I had to look it up myself for the umpteenth time, because I always get it confused with El nina. : )

Meredith I think it was because of El Niño that we had that warm winter I hope that is right and we do have a warm winter thanks!

More good news for me today :)))))))

My neighbor that used to sit on the porch with dad all the time told me he would testify in court for me I soo wanted to ask him but he didn't mention it so I just let it lay, he said he would testify that dad was upset because my sister didn't come out very much and didn't care anyway because the only time she came around is when she wanted something isn't that great!

I do feel MUCH better today :))) I just had to share since whinning Wed. lol Thanks for your prayers and good thoughts they must be working :))) Keep them coming darlins I still have a few months to go lol

Gem, thanks for that neat search site! Very interesting. Maybe now I can learn my wildflowers!

And thanks bluespiral, for the tutorial. I find it tricky to get a search going on plant files, since I rarely know if the name I have is a genus or species or what! I am making a TAB for your post.

So, what I resort to doing is just typing into my 'google search' box in the upper right corner of my screen (I don't know where everyone else has their Search box) 'plantfiles' and then 'peony' 'scarlet o'hara' or whatever it is I want to find and the Plant File page usually comes up. For me, google is faster and easier~~is it just me, or do others have trouble with PF search?? (-:

Hi everyone, glad to see that you're all busy saving seeds, planting seeds, and yippee! Critter on your new daughter! She's lovely. Are we going to have a piggy swap again this fall or winter? I've been saving seeds like mad.

It's LynnWeidman's Birthday today :) Happy Birthday Lynn!

colchie we are all saving seeds so looks like we are going to have a swap this fall I sure hope so! I'm just wondering if Star will do the honnors again this year she sure did a bang up job last year :) Hint Hint :))

Hello all. I'm also trying to collect lots more different seeds than I did last year, but I'm having some problems identifying what are the seeds for some of them. Wondering if anyone can help. Can't find pics in the seed database.

First, what I think are the seeds of rudbeckia "maya" - see pic. Can anyone verify if these are the seeds?

Helenium - Are all those hundreds of bristles that stick out from the dried flower head the seeds?

Astilbe - so small - hard to figure out. Has anyone collected these seeds or have pics of them?

Has anyone collected seeds from campanulas?

More questions to come, I'm sure. I've also posted a few of these questions on the seed saving forum, but it doesn't look like too many people go there.

cross-posted.

Happy Birthday, Lynn!

yes perenniallyme that does look like the seeds to rudbeckia, the campanulas have a capsule like when it turns brown the small almost dust like seeds are in side maybe not like dust but they are very very small. Sorry can't help you on the Astilbe I've never gotten the hang of those but some have on here I remember someone had some last year unless they were bought I don't think they were.

I've collected Helenium seeds before but for the life of me can't get them to germinate! Very frustrating for me lol

Thanks for the info, LeBug! I was wondering about the helenium, since it doesn't self-seed in my garden, and with all of those hundreds of flowers, I would have thought it would, even with a lot of deadheading during the season. Can't be sterile, can it? With a name like sneezeWEED?
Hmmm, I don't remember anyone having astilbe seeds last year. I would have thought that I'd request them if I saw them, but maybe not, as I bought some astilbes last year.

Anyone else have any info?

I started a post for help on deciding between some spring bulbs. I want a lot of people to see it because there isn't a whole lot of info on these plants. Can my cottage gardening friends please check it out? Thank you. : ) http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1032504/

HAPPY>> HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope ya haf a great one and may you have many many many more!


I was collecting seeds from some coneflowers and some Helianthus think it was , and darn wind blew up and mixed em all together. Hoep folks like surprises.

Ya, I wil do it again, that is nobody else would like the honors. Ther e may be somebody who wants to do host the piggy swap , so wil just wait and see. If nobody else speaks up, will do it.

I hoep we include again this year thos e folks that have been through any kinds of disasters again this year. Ther e were sevral areas hit bad.

Well, shoot, just get on and dang if it aint rainign adn thundering again and I gotta get off. Hugs evrybody!

I will have to wait for the sed to form, but Do you think Rose of Sharon seeds will be great in
the swap? Here is a pic.
one is this light lavender and the other is white. Both singles.

Here is the white one.

Wow, what beautiful pics! I want in on this!! What seeds are welcome? Anything and everything! This will motivate me even more to get out there and get all those seeds!

They remind me of Hibiscus. They may be a cousin, I'm sure someone will let us know. Official name is Althea.
glad you liked it.

I think it gonan depend on who the hostess is. Usually it for plants and veggies, btu we always have folsk that want trees and shrubs for sure and usually have all btu the kitchen sink throwe din and that probabyl would be do if it wasn't so expensive to mail. LOL

Perenniallyme.. If ya not sure what seed and what not, just pt the whole seed head in a baggy or a brown paper bag and shake the heck out of it. Usually the seed will seperate.

Then if ya not sure. ya c an just bag the whoel seed head and let whoever get it figrue it out. LOL

I didn't knwo Astibile even made seed, if they do I need to get some and big time.

Gemini.. I had oodles and stil do of the Vitex seeds. Not sur e if ya got them from me or not. But would love to knwo just how you did your s that you got a bloom on them first season for sure. How ya starte dthem and how ya been carign for them . What your secret recipe???

I have a vitex too, but usually just take cuttings. Pyracanthia(?) don't know if that is spelled right but I do have orange berries.
Wicked plant, but nice.

Ella, I just did a search, and several places sell astilbe seed. Also found someone on garden web say that she justs plants all the stuff that comes off the dried flower head, and that apparently works, so I guess I will just collect the whole thing, and if someone wants some, they can plant the whole thing or try to sort it out themselves. Also, the only description I found : tiny. Are you going to want some of my "may have crossed" varieties - I have several varieties I can collect if people are going to want them. Any particular ones you're looking for?

Star, I just wintersowed the Vitex and planted it out in full, hot sun in June. Haven't done anything else to it, not even water, except when I planted it. Its less than a foot tall, I was shocked to see buds!

Perenniallyme.. I would love to have seed of any kind ya got. I not fussy, I been wanting some for awhile. I sure there gonna be lots of folks wantign them too. Rubs hands together saying goody..goddy. goody. : )

Gemini... You be so lucky... : ) They sure must have like d your climate and your " touch: : ) That oen for the books for sure.

Well good. I'm glad I'll have some desirable seed shortly. I'll try to get several varieties and just hope it'll sprout for you guys.

ridesredmule, have you ever grown rose of sharron from seed I heard that only about one out of five come true to the plant, your white one sure is pretty! I have Blue Bird and the white one with the red center, I'll save some seeds from the BB for the swap.

Neal that Vitex must be pretty hardy is it a perennial?

Star you sure would be welcomed in my book to be our host this year I sure couldn't handle all of those seeds LOL

I'll have to check my astilbe out and see if the there might be some seeds for the swap I have the white Wedding something and a red one. I have the names some where.

Thank you everyone for the b/day greetings. We hosted the 1st PNW Roundup at our home this year last weekend , the last guest went home today. Everyone enjoyed the beautiful flowers that I w/s from the Piggy Swap. The 4 o'clocks were a big hit. Thank you so much for making my gardens so pretty.

Lea, the Vitex is (eventually) a shrub/small tree- extra surprising to see bloom the first year! Plantfiles lists it as hardy to zone 5.