Starting Seeds 2013, Part 3

Pfg,
Impatiens are a tropical annual so I don't think the seeds requires stratification. I have started other varieties from seed years ago by just sowing in seed mix without covering and keeping at room temp. They grew nicely in Massachusetts when I lived there. Too hot and dry for them in WY. I used to grow tuberous Begonias there also using the same roots each year. Lost them when I started them in Nebraska from the heat and dry climate. I gave up on both.

Kathy, it is 51, 8 oz foam cups for $1.00. There is also 21, 12 oz cups. I like the 8 oz.

I. balfourii isn't tropical, that's why it needs cold stratification. It is a Himalayan plant, from higher elevations where it's cold. Same for I. glandulifera. I.omeiana, I. arguta, which are hardy in Zone 5 with protection, are from China and Nepal(I think). /impatiens geek :)

According to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, it is an annual herb and yes native to the Himalayas at 330 ft-2,000 ft above sea level, which really isn't that high.

Here is a link to it. Nothing about seed sowing. For some reason, I always thought of them as tropical.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impatiens_balfourii

Had to just stop by and tell ya I got to order some new books for my birthday, (Amazon.com gift card from my daughter). Was thinking of plants (gosh I must need another hole in my head...lol) but then decided on books instead...
1. The Flower Farmer, An Organic Growers Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers by Lynn Byczynski
2. Specialty Cut Flowers: The Production of Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs and Woody Plants For Fresh Cut and Dried Cut Flowers by Alan Armitage
3. Color In My Garden, An American Gardener's Palette by Louise Beebe Wilder
4. What Happens in My Garden (American Garden Classics) by Luise Beebe Wilder
5. The Fragrant Path: A Book About Sweet Scented Flowers and Leaves by Louise Beebe Wilder
6. The Unknown Gertrude Jekyll by Gertrude Jekyll
7. Gertrude Jekyll on Gardening by Gertrude Jekyll

Who knows...maybe I can use the info in books 1 and 2.
Books 3,4,and 5 are by a gardening Legend! Or should I say an American Gardening Legend. One of the first women in American landscaping.
Books 6 and 7 are a British author and another Legend in her own right.

Now that I've grown a wide variety of plants I can actually follow along with what they are talking about....both authors are from the previous turn of the century, ok, maybe not quite that far back but close. I tried reading #3 more than 20 years ago and got lost..lol, or I wasn't ready then. When she started talking gilly flower, egads, atleast now I have the computer to help me with some of the names and terms.. lol.

Gosh and I could have gotten some more Iris..lol. (Might have been easier).

piz: Passiflora incarnata: Pasion Flower Z(5 roots)- 9 or 10, take a close up look at this one...flowers are truely miracles and the fruit is even edible.

When I started gardening in the early 80's I had a friend who lent me the whole stack of Jekyll books, all beautiful editions bought in England. I would fall asleep reading, then wake up in the morning, pick the book up off the floor and keep reading. I've been trying to find them again, but those editions are rare and $$$$. I still have a 'thing' for her sense of color and design, and for for the Brits in general. Happy reading!

Blomma, the balfouriis are indeed annual, I tried germinating them (pre-internet and advice of other gardeners) for like five or six years. I broke down and purchased plants from Baker's Acres in Alexandria, Ohio--they clued me in to the cold stratification. I have zero clue about the approximated USDA zone of the Himalayas where this is from, but it does see frost. DH says you can see it. lol In any case, they reseed nicely here, maybe more than you want, but not in a way I regret planting.

I just looked on Google Earth. Our town's altitude is 1200 feet, but our house is 1700. Balfourii should be very happy!

We are a whopping 685 feet here, and it grows pretty well. I don't think it has complex requirements. My husband grew up in India, and when I grew the plant out he said he remembered seeing it in the mountains there, apparently it grows in a lot of places. I grow a couple of plants because he has pleasant childhood memories of them, but that was a total accident. Blomma's right, there are a whole lot of tropical impatiens that can't take any kind of chill, they just die without bothering to pout around for a couple of weeks first. One of my first house plants was a double flowered impatiens like that, an old-fashioned pass-along plant from one of my mother's friends. Easy to grow, easy to flower, a good confidence builder for a kid :)

I lucked out a few years ago, I found a box of gardening books at a tag sale, it had some Penelope Hobhouse, Tracy DiSabato-Aust and some other good books. $5. It had a Buddhist cookbook thrown in there, Tassajara Cooking, which was random but I loved it.

New sprouts du jour: MG Gypsy Bride, Rebecca, Carnivale di Venezia, Ishidatami, Sunrise Serenade. Still waiting on Ipomoea indica. More Orlayas popping up, and a boatload of edamame. "Not all the seeds germinate, plant extra" I was told...I wondered why it'd be different than any other soybean, which have a high germination rate and are very easy. Should have listened to my intuition, now I have way too many edamame! Scarlet Runner beans, and Hyacinth bean are popping up as well. I must have mismarked my Mina lobata seeds, because I know I soaked them, I know I planted them, but I don't see them. I may have a surprise later on.

Celene if you might have a couple extra plants of the Orlayas would you like to maybe make a trade ??
well I will be back later today gotta get off here .

I'll see how many actually germinate and grow, but if I have extras, I'd be happy to trade.

Oh, I forgot to mention...there are 3 books that I also read every year. I do not know where I got them, I think a couple from ebay and one at a local used book store...all written by E.A. Bowles.
"My Garden in Spring", "My Garden in Summer", and "My Garden in Autumn and Winter". These are reprints by Timber Press, of course, since they were originally published in 1914, and first editions of these are difficult to obtain. True, they are English, but again so much information just on every single page...these are not actually design book, like G.Jeckyll, but observations of plants and the growing environments that each plant likes and how to grow them well...not actually if you live in California, but still....

LOL... Yup these are reprints, I only paid .01 to .05 each (Amazon.com, garden books) and then tack on $3.99 postage, so about $4 each book except the first two, they were full price. Evelyn and Pam their were many at this price if interested, just aren't first editions at this price..

Celene..I have several books by Hobhouse also, love her stuff too, in fact just got book #7 today and it is written by Hobhouse and her comments and suggestions of the compilations of Jeyll's works. Will be interesting as she gives updated plant references.

Evelyn..I just love the Garden books..that's how I ended up with such a large garden!!! (And I have several bookcases filled with gardening books, from technical to eye-candy and everything inbetween...I probably didn't need these either butttttt..lol). Will have to look for E. A. Bowles. English author?

Kathy ~ What is the name of the new P. Hobhouse book?

OK, Sweet Peas are sprouting. I soaked them 4/11, then Deno. About 6 show sprouts. I'm hoping more show over the weekend, I'd Ike to get them all planted. The plan is, several toilet paper rolls fitted into a larger pot, filled with potting mix, top 1" seed starting mix, seeds 3 per roll.

The Detroit Red beets I soaked 4/7, then planted in cells under a dome have not sprouted. Grrrr.... 2 years ago that was the magic formula in just a few days, but for Red Ace. I may try again, but still wait and see if these do it.

First day outside, exhilarating, and of course tiring. I MUST get the annuals going! Yikes!

This message was edited Apr 20, 2013 8:37 PM

Evelyn.......not a new book per say. It's #7 above, it is edited with a commentary by P. Hobhouse. Giving updated plant info for those not available any longer or hybrids, newer planting techniques and less expensive ways of acomplishing Jekylls ideas.

The book I have from 20 years ago: Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden by Gertrude Jekyll (Introduced and revised by Grahan Stuart Thomas).

Still burry here. Might get to 60 tomorrow but more rain/snow mix on Monday. Would love to get outside and get some cleanup done. Goffed around all day, got another bale of peat, dumpster dove for pots....lol. Hope you all enjoy my escapades...a couple of employees offered to help me pick pots out of the bin...lol....was funny. Later all...Kathy.

I thought I was going to harden off some of the early perennials this weekend, but we suddenly have a cold spell. Last night 29, then around 30 the next two nights. I had the Alchemilla, Aquilegia and some hardy geraniums from a co-op outside yesterday but brought them in for the night. The digitalis that have been in the mini GH were out too. I put them back at night but left 2 of each outside to see what would happen. I haven't looked yet...

Super cold the last two nights here. We went from 85 to 35 in 30 hours. What the heck?

Yeah, really!! We were in the high 60's, low 70's. Ouch!!!

Sprout report! Poncirus "Flying Dragon", some are obviously curlier than others even from 2 leaves. Mina lobata, Datura 'Purple People Eater', Tall Telephone Pole peas, moon flowers, Radio calendula, and a lone Sanguisorba.

Celene...let me know how you like the Sanguisorba, I've eyballed that for a couple of years now and never gotten any, so reports would be welcomed!! LOL. You start the moonflowers inside? Probably a god idea, I've tried them in the garden without any results, so I guess i should remedy that this year, lol. Will be starting the last batch of annuals later this week so I'll put those on the list, anything special to get them to grow?

Went out earlier to begin putting plastic up but turned around and came in....to breezy!!!! Am thinking I have just enough plastic sheeting to do the back (horse stall). Small area, and it's enclosed on three side and the area protected best from the winds, but the least amount of sun. But I figure I will only need it for 3-4 weeks.

More snow tomorrow, 3" is what they are calling for, gosh willl it ever warm up so I can get my garden cleaned up and ready for planting? Only 22 days til planting can begin...lol. Later all!!! Kathy

Pix: Delphinium grandiflora, at 18" and an alllll summer bloomer, Started a batch of these this winter of mixed colors,(blues, white and pinks). Nice little filler plants, sure hope I get some pinks!!! And they reseed themselves too.

I use the Deno method to start moonflowers and MG's, it works great. They are indeed indoors.

Hope you get your pink delphs :)

I've also had good results with Deno for MGs and Moonflowers, both vine (Ipomea) and bush (Datura). Celene, you are doing some really cool things... I just read about Poncirus on Danger Garden- yikes! I wouldn't want to get stabbed by one of those spikes! My roses are mean enough, lol!

Coooold here... At least, cold enough for me. So glad snow seems to be over for us! Last night went down to high 20's. 3 out of 4 of my poor little foxgloves wilted. I put them back in the mini GH and they revived minus a couple of leaves. The one that didn't wilt I left outside. Inside the GH it only went to 32.2, and everything looked great, including 1 Alchemilla and 1 Aquilegia I left in there overnight for a test. They had been outside all day, temps in the 50's. So tonight, after spending the day outside again, I put the rest of them in there, left yhe zippers open, and wrapped the whole thing up in Reemay again. It's a joke, really, how many tears there are in the plastic, but it's really doing the job of staying above freezing and not boiling in the sun. Better than when it was new, lol.

So tonight and tomorrow 30 degree night temps predicted, days 50's and 60's, then gradually warming up a little at night, but not really during the day.

Detroit Red Beets I soaked & planted 2 weeks ago inside doing zero, might have been old seeds. Today I soaked new Red Ace, will plant tomorrow in cells, leave inside. The house goes down to 52 when we're not here, I have them in a cold room with a mat. That worked a couple of years ago.

Got to get the annuals going!!!

Strangely, Deno didn't work for my Daturas. I have 3 different varieties, harvested from 2002 to 2010 and tried them all. When I sowed them in seed mix they all sprouted within 2 weeks. Go figure....

Edited to add that the test was to see if the seed were any good. They are now over my daughter house in 3" pot.

This message was edited Apr 21, 2013 9:22 PM

I have better luck direct seeding Datura with gibberellc acid. The Deno method failed with them, at least for me.

I'll see how much I hate the Poncirus thorns. They won't be any worse than the Acanthus or the Yankee Lady rose. That thing has thorns piled on thorns. I call it a grandithorna rose.

I have several kinds of cucumbers and tindora sprouting today.

Too funny... I hope you have a pair of good heavy gloves!

Whoopee!!! Schizanthus sprouted. over the weekend while I was gone! There are only 2, it's only been 7 days, so I pricked them out, and put them under lights. Then I covered the container with the rest of the seeds since darkness helps gmination, they say. But I'm very excited, the pictures look amazing so I'm eager to see for myself.

Also lots of Lobelia sprouted, but unevenly. There are still a few empty cells.

I spent the last hour reading all the above post with all its dizzying numbers of perennials and annuals seed sowing. I am really surprised that everyone sows both types in the spring. No one thinks of sowing hardy perennials in late summer.

Guess what? I sowed many perennials starting in August. I concentrated mainly on annuals and veggies in the spring because I was selling those for the summer trade. This is when I was living in Nebraska and operated a commercial greenhouse.

I started all perennials in August and transplanted them to a coldframe where they spent the winter. The coldframe was built out of free railroad ties. No cover. These seedlings were husky plants the following spring. I potted them up to 3" square commercial pots to sell. I specialized in drought resistant plants for the climate I was living in. For some reason in the Midwest plants were only sold in the spring. Customers liked the idea of planting perennials late summer and early fall.

When I moved to Wyoming and bought a house I followed almost the same ritual. There were not one flower in sight. First action was to built a simple coldframe situated against my link fence. This one had a frame with shade cover. I started 54 different varieties of perennial split between spring and late summer (Aug). I sowed 12 of each for my self and my daughter. It took 4 ft of lightning on 4ft shelving, plus my plant stand. My office smelled like a greenhouse. Those that I started in the spring, were mature enough to be transplanted to the coldframe. By August and September they were old enough to survive the winter on their own. The August sown seedling then went into the coldframe where they spent the winter.

All became husky plants the following spring. Many of those that were spring sown were mature enough to bloom the following season. This is an ideal way to start perennials for those of you that don't have room to grow a bunch of different plants during spring.

This idea came when I was living and garden in Massachusetts. There, nurseries sold plants both spring and fall. Mainly perennials in the fall. I did likewise in Nebraska.

1] The coldframe from railroad ties.
2] My plant stand with greenhouse behind.
3] My current coldframe before I planted. It will be filled with DL seedlings come May 31st.

Edited to add that I operated the greenhouse in Nebraska during the 80's.

This message was edited Apr 22, 2013 10:52 PM

Which Lobelia is that Pam cuz I have plenty to share. Mine are L. cardinalis and L. siphilitica 'Great Blue Lobelia', L. s. mix which has blue and white. The only one potted on so far is the L. cardinalis (more than 30). I will get the others potted on right away if you're wanting any of them for our May trade in susie's forum. And yes, they will be extras..

All 3 Daturas I've tried starting were with my method: D. stramonium (sprouted in 5 days); D. purple and white (8 days), and D. 'Black Currant Swirl' (5 days). My D. metaloides reseeds in the garden for me.

blomma, are you doing the nursery thing where you are now? I'd love to start my plants late summer but I'm always soo busy in the summer with planting. This last season I was planting til mid December. And I don't have airconditioning thru the house, think I'd get a bit warm in there with lights late in the summer. It's always seemed like the perfect winter hobby.
Many of the seeds I'm doing this season are Biennial and those that are perenn and not going to bloom til next season will be interplanted with the annuals. Not only that, the other excuse I get to use is I didn't get the seed til last fall in a seed trade and then another this January. And to top it off, lol, another round of the seed swap will be on it's way to me in the next few weeks. I thinking that I may have to wait to start any of those til next season. Once the weather starts to warm up all plants will go outside and then I'll be out there dawn to dusk (except for time out to take care of the gkids this summer. I'm trying to decide if I want to try selling some of my leftovers but not sure where to find the time..lol.

How about a new thread for us slow dial-uppers? Thank you all for a very useful thread.

Kathy,
No, I am not doing that now. I don't live in a commercial zone here. The way the world is now, I wouldn't take a chance on strangers coming to my home to buy since I live alone.

Sowing seeds don't take very long. You were planting until December last year. Wow, those plants could have been new perennial seedlings started late summer. You are one zone warmer than I. What could you possibly plant safely in December? Are you taking time to "smell the roses". and enjoying your garden?

Are all your seeds from seed trades? You realize hybrids don't come true from seeds

bluespiral,
You need to send a message to Pam (Pfg) to start a new page.

Blomma, usually I wintersow perennials that need cold to germinate, but for those that don't, I'm definitely going to try sowing them in August. It makes so much sense.

Okay, i did it, here's the new thread:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1308987/

See you there!

Pam

Which ones, besides Datura are good to sow now?

Thanks, Evelyn-- do you have white? If so, I'll take you up on your offer. But since our season is so much shorter than hours, shouldn't they be started inside?

pam i just put mine right inthe ground where i wanted then two yrs ago but forgot to get seeds from my plants so if there is any in the robin i hope to plant a few again they are easy to grow just as Balsam & Would like some of these also .

Susie ~ Did you want white and/or other colors of the four o'clocks?