2014 Seed Starting, Part 3

LOL old! It's all a state of mind Ju! Me and hub just realized yesterday that the music we listened to as a young married couple, is now playing on the "classic rock" stations!! Now didn't see that one coming for a few more years..

Robin I'm anxious to hear how long it takes for your roselle to sprout.. Mine never came up for me, but I do have more seeds to try..

You think it's too late for me to start annuals here? I am going crazy looking at my empty shelves inside!!

Cool...empty shelves! I'm still going to do annuals, the only way to find out if its too late is try it and evaluate at the end of the season...by that time... well, you know!

I'll let you know about the Roselle.

Becky, should be able to do annuals, remember your growing season is much longer than the rest of us.. I'm just starting many of my annuals now. Started Alyssum (white and pink) this week. also some Zinnias, Salvia farinacea Victoria and all have sprouted, More things to be started today and over the next few days.... I have a whole bunch of seed on the shelf to choose from, which to start next...lol. Choices, choices, chooices, almost too many... Lol, love seed trading..and sales...

Almost 11:30 am and still snowing here this morning....so I'm inside for the day. Darn, it sure was nice being outside a few days this week... Direct sowed some Polygonum orientale (Kiss-Me-Over-The-Garden-Gate. Gift from a gal at garden club, she explained it's good luck to receive from a friend. LOL, I sure hope so!!!!

Mmm, empty shelf envy. If I want to start more I'm going to have to,dig myself a basement. Or...kick out the extra human! That might work. But would make it all less fun. Okay, back to basement envy.

I have variegated KMOGG sprouting, last year some kind of rodent ate mine and I had to buy seed this year.

Thanks for the nudge, Pam and Kathy, I'm such a chicken.. sometimes I need to stop thinking about it and just DO IT! I don't think I'm brave enough to direct sow my KMOGG though, LOL.

I can't imagine snow right now, it was too hot to do anything outside today, like 95 degrees hot!!

Here's my shelves, one lonely tray of mother of thousands kalanchoe and some echeveria cuttings.. A far cry from the laundry room that a few months ago, housed so many trays I had to rotate them on and off the shelves to make sure all got light daily. And it was like doing yoga to reach over them doing laundry!! Wow any sensible man would have left my obsessive butt years ago.. lucky I married a Marine! :))

Silly girl forgot the photo..

I have yet to be successful with KMOGG, but I'm going to try again. Skipped last year, so this time I'll have DG for guidance.

Becky, how nice - and foresightful - to have so many identical pillars!

More for the herb forum , I know , But here is some German Chamomile .
About Last Sunday I is when they were planted , maybe a little before ..

Yeah I know ,, the Pics

Another bleak, damp and chilly weekend. I just can't get motivated to go outside and get anything done... And things are growing sooooo slowly, I'm afraid to do much in the beds until more plants come out of dormancy. Otherwise I'll walk on them, or worse, pull them up. Maybe next week...

And indoors, I still haven't gotten very far with the annuals. I carry my bags of seed back and forth from the city to the garden, and still haven't done the zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, sweet peas and whatever else is still in there. The more unusual ones have been going for a while: Ceratotheca triloba, Rehmannia, Torenia, Ammi visagna, Ammi majus Rubra, Salvias Coral Nymph and Fairy Queen., and of course the snaps and tomatoes. But there is soooo much more!

I've had lots of distractions. My late mother's house finally sold last month, and I've just finally finished finding room for all the things I didn't want to get rid of. That has been a huge project since the beginning of the year. So I've had lots of excuses not to spend much time outside, especially while the weather has made being out there so unappealing, lol.

So good for all of you who are keeping up with it! Maybe I'll get reinspired when things warm up a little more. Meanwhile, happy planting to you all!

Pam...just to let you know my Ammi majus rubra came back and have little green tufts where origional plant was placed... So I'm not sure if they are a perenn??????? Or biennial???? (If biennial , they bloomed first year from seed so what's up? LOL. I guess I'll find out if they make it thru the winter this year ('14/15) and reappear next spring... Like I said they are rare and I just checked some of my ginormous hort. books and didn't find anything under Ammi or Daucus.

Went to search mode (the web) and the only thing I found was a reference of a post from here last spring between you and I (your post), and pix of your sloped garedens but not the flower... Hmmm...lol.. Also checked out the pix they were listing as such and not any of the hundred or so showed any of the rare red variety.

Pix
1 Ammi visagna or majus
2 Ammi majus Rubra
3 Ammi majus Rubra

Will definately need to get better pix this summer... Threw seed from those that bloomed last summer, hope more germinate so I can get a nice patch and better pictures of a grouping of the plant.....

So we are forever on the web now as a ref..... Lol.

Pam...correction. I found my origional letter. It's Daucus carota Rubra. (red or pink), B., Z 2-9, 2-3 foot tall rarely taller, reseeds (pull any that bloom white within 50 feet or they will revert over time, sun.

Pix again with corrected ID
1 Daucus carota rubra
2 Daucus carota rubra

Hope they can get this in our files here at Dave's...I contacted Melody to submit it.

Good to know, Kathy, I'll change my labels. I got decent germination indoors in my 2nd batch, which now looks better than the first (pic 1). I had white Daucus carota last year, no idea so far if it self sowed though people said it would. I'm still pulling up Ammi majus white seedlings from a planting 2 years ago, just got a huge patch out this weekend (even though I barely got outside at all).

The frost blanket is doing its job. The Lupines, Digitalis and perennial Salvias are very happy even though we've had nights in the very low 30's a few times since putting them out. Days have ranged from low 40's to mid 60's. I put out a few Campanula pyramidalis just before we left this morning, to bee on the safe side, I left some in the house, but I really don't think there's anything to worry about.

I'm still amazed at how late this spring is. My new 'Tulip The first,' an early species tulip, is blooming in the sunniest spot, just starting where it's shadier. The Daffs are just barely getting going, so many don't even show buds yet. The sticks in the daffy bed are marking some bi-color daylilies I want to move .

Meanwhile, back in the city, I WILL start more annuals this week!!! Promise!!! (Lolol)

Ya, sure..... lol. Speaking of which I need to do the same this afternoon.... Better get to it. Later all..

poppies , tulips , and more Salvia , today here .
Rainy cool day to start , little warmer now ...

Lots of things in germination Baggies , Basil mostly right now though ..

More from today outside .

iris Bud , Little Zinnia , red looking Salvia , Buckwheat sprouting up , and a penstemon .

More zinnia in a sprouter , About the third ? now ...Two more zinnia types to go !
Hopefully for a bloomin" nice summer ,, he he .. ^_^

There is problem though ,, My feet (and most of the rest of me ) are tired of digging ,, and chopping up sod clods ....

That is a problem, isn't it? Are you sprouting these seeds where you want them to end up in the garden? Are you making new beds where these are germinating? Seems like hard work to me, lol.

This is the first time I'm not trying to start a brand new bed, and what a nice relief! My newest areas were planted fairly heavily last fall, and a lot seems to have made it. Peony Bartzella, penstemon Rocky Mountain Blue, Veronica austriaca, Dracocephalum, pink Dictamnus -but not the baby Alba :-(, many, many TBI's, some Clematis and all the usual hardies are appearing. Platys, Mums, Salvia Azureum and a few others are still sleeping. But, big surprise, a couple of last year's Delphiniums made it. It looks like 1 D elatum and 1 D Bellamosum, very cool.
That I did not expect. They're not thought of as reliable around here.

There's plenty of room in my kitchen window now, and DH is out tonight. So off I go to get some planting done. Later...

Yes to a new area ,as a bed , I sprout them all in sprouter containers or baggies , Then when the bed is made . holes or furrows to drop the sprouts into . Once the zinnia finally made good seeds , and I have finally figured out how to clean them .
I have a dollar store bag filled with Zinnia mixed seeds..

I still have White to go .
I had about 5 kinds of Basil sprout last night , Most of this evening was working on them . Fennel in good Soil is Perennial here , the Bronze is coming up everywhere I will destroy most , Always keep a few though . The green is a 3 to 5 yr plant here , 3 most of the time , as for Dill and the Herbs , they are much the same as Zinnia , Meaning I have about until June 18 to plant them , and still get seeds and blooms .

White Wild Viola ; today

Following with I really like the earlier photo's of the garden and your plant setting ,, I have no room here for anything like that , so the sprouters it is .
My Blackberry lily and Robinson's red Mum , have not returned this year , don't know if they will now .

Think I may have lost my hydrangea - nothing showing yet. Hebe also. Lilacs are blooming though.

Porch is supposed to come down this summer; fingers tightly crossed.

Germination operation.

I'm sure my beautiful Hydrangea is just sleeping extra long...not expired.

OK, so I finally did it:

I used the last of the GS Germinating mix, then switched to Espoma. It's not nearly as fine, lots of sticks, etc. Wonder if I'll get gnats... Saw some whitefly on the Nicotianas. Ugh! :-(((.

In 3oz cups: Dracocephalum maldevicum, Centaurea cynus Classic Fantastic, Zinnias Envy and Apricot Blush
In 4" pots: Cosmos Versailles Flush and Candy Stripe, Lisianthus Sapphire Blue Chip

DH got home just as I was finishing up, so I didn't soak the Sweet Peas. I'll get to it in the morning.

Still have lots more seeds, but plan to direct sow most. For the first time, I'm not moving everything in every bed, (did that last fall, lol), so direct sowing is an option.

While I was at it, I potted up Daucus carota Rubra (formerly Ammi majus) in Greenworld ASB Mix. I've been liking that a lot lately. I get it at the local nursery in CT.

Most of the tomatoes are in 5" pots in CT, the last couple are still in NY, to be given to DH's brother for his place in the Hamptons. I just potted them up, too.

I feel muuuuuch better!

Edited to correct name



This message was edited Apr 29, 2014 7:38 AM

Go Pam!

Robin I'll try to keep the faith with you. :~)

This morning I realized that the windowsill that I had the propagator on is not going to be good for germination. The window is open a few inches, and this morning was quite cold. So I took out a small heating pad and put the whole setup on the floor by my chair.

Then I mixed up some hot water, peroxide, 2:1, and 1 drop of Superthrive and started soaking the Sweet Peas, 4 types. I'm weeks later than other years, I hope it's not too late! My most successful year I started them at the end of March, soaking, then Deno, and they bloomed beautifully. Last year, I got them going mid-April and they never bloomed at all. I may have had them in too much shade. This year, I'll make sure they get more light.

I'm still afraid to start them outside. Two years ago, I soaked them, then planted and put them in a Spring Sowing box. They never came up at all.

Nicotianas are getting huge, Lobelias beginning to look like something, all others just fine. Meanwhile, the Platycodon Astra Blues are starting to boom, and -surprise!-one is pink. Very pretty. :-)

Deno?

Aw thanks Robin, he is a treasure, that's for sure :))

Wow yes those ammi majus/ daucus carota are pretty.. The wild carrot (daucus pusilis)seed heads around here drive me crazy, the seeds are like Velcro and get stuck all through your socks.

Kathy, you don't know how many times I've googled a specific plant and the only reference I can find on the web is a thread I mentioned it on, or a link to the original source of my curiosity.

Pam you may have been a little later than you wanted to be, but sounds like you're caught up now!!

Deno = Dr Norman Deno, Germination expert. Below are the main links to his work, including sites by others who simplify and/or expand on his work, easiest first. Many of us use his technique at least part of the time. It's a great space saver, and sometimes works where conventional methods are less successful. I refer to these databases sometimes but not always, mostly when I'm trying to figure out how to start perennials I haven't grown before.

Here is a site that explains the basic method in simple language:
http://theseedsite.co.uk

And here's the real thing, plus a huge database on line to download free, in 3 parts:

http://hdl.handle.net/10113/41278

First Supplement to Seed Germination: Theory and Practice
http://hdl.handle.net/10113/41279

Second Supplement to Seed Germination: Theory and Practice
http://hdl.handle.net/10113/41277

And another scientist with an expanded germination database, continuing Dr Deno's method:
http://tomclothier.hort.net

Happy reading-- but don't think you have to take it all in ;-). Just use what interests you.

Oh, thank you Pam! I will go read some of it tonight. I lo-o-ove to read and learn.

And I love your platycodon. One of my favorites, and yours are blooming inside?!?

This message was edited Mar 9, 2015 10:02 AM

Hi blomma, I keep waffling on growing datura. I have seeds, but it would be a first time for me. Why do you grow them, if I may ask?

Turtle

I'm not Blomma, but they have amazing fragrant blooms. Easy to grow from seed, mine reseed so I really don't *have* to start indoors. I have to site them carefully, usually in pots, because they're poisonous and I have dogs. I grow white, yellow, and purple every year.