I Think I Jumped the Gun

Seeds from T & M arrived today, I couldn't wait when Weez said their 2003 seed was online. Received are Petunias 'Horizon Lavender Sunrise', 'Chiffon Morn', and 'Plum Purple'. Petunias give so much bloom throughout the season (still blooming their head off), and are easy to start.

As a bonus they sent forget me not (Myosotis) seed. Not familar with this plant. It says it is a biennial and blooms in the spring.

Forget-me-nots!! :-)

Here we plant them in the fall and they bloom in the spring. They like cool weather.

i got my catalog and they seem to expensive for me-will wait for park or only order things i cant find.
3.49 for 20 seeds! ha
it is a nice book for info though!

Oh, Golddog! Don't get me fired up now! I dearly love it when the catalogs start coming in. Every year I swear I will stick to the tried and true varieties, but every year I get hooked by those T&M photos! I'll have to get online and see whatcha bought!

Mysotis sylvatica is a great plant. They are biennial, but they self-seed like crazy, so put it somewhere you can let it spread. You can also transplant seedlings elsewhere. They generally bloom in the late spring here and the bloom for quite awhile... a lovely soft blue. Here's a picture of my cushion spurge in a bed of forget-me-nots.

My T&M catalogue came in the mail on Friday. Drool. Their catalogue is the best free reference book I have ever gotten! But I hadn't even thought about ordering yet. Golddog, you dog! Beat me to it LOL.

Forget-me-nots are also considered to be short-lived perennials. The foliage gets really tattered by the end of winter, but new leaves appear in early spring, and by April they are blooming. The seed pods are barbed like tiny teasels, so they catch on passers-by and re-seed everywhere. They go extremely well with trilliums, daffodils and tulips, but fade out of sight with Virginia bluebells. They also do superbly well combined with celandine poppy, and with most ferns. They thrive by water, but can't stand to be submerged for more than a little while.

Great info, Lupinlover. This would be a great addition to the PDB. Here's the Mysotis sylvatic entry: http://plantsdatabase.com/go/233/

Forgetmenots self seed in my garden every year :)

Funnily enough when my paper copy of the Chiltern catalogue came they'd included free ..........wait for it......forgetmenot seeds!
These however are pink - haven't tried those before.

So therefore Myosotis must be good reseeders, and easy to harvest. Pink and blue together sound like a nice effect.

Yes, i've seen that in people's gardens.
They pop up all over the place if they like you. Mine come up in shady areas - i don't know if that's what they prefer, or perhaps it's too dry for them in my sunny spots

That's a nice combination Weez. I should try some of those forget-me-nots here, usually we have a cold spring. My grandfather grew them.

There are also Chinese Forget-me-nots (Cynoglossum amabile).
They are an annuals, but the blue flowers are very impressive, and I think they are avid reseeders as well. As I recall, they don't mind warmer climes. I think Dave grew some.

I might try to find some of those, thanks Weezie.

I got a free pack of the Chinese forget-me-nots, but didn't care for them much: they became too weedy looking in my over-fertile garden. They reseeded themselves way too much for my liking, also. I have seen them much more attractive looking in other areas though: places that nasturtiums bloom well also do great for the annual ones.

Weezin, I love your graphic! I know; I am lazy about entering info into the PDB a piece at a time: I do the easier route of entering info into spreadsheets that I zap over to Go_Vols (I am in the process of doing another 1,500 for it). But after I send this in, I will go there and update it.

My perennial kinds show good genetic variation: some flower blue, some pink, some white, some blue and pink together. They have been re-seeding for about 8 years (they also came as a free sample pack!)

Golddog, what else did you order?

PDB updated! Thanks for the reminder.

Wow, Lupinelover, you have got this thing down to a science! I'm lousy at spreadsheets, but it sounds a lot easier than entering each one separately. Before I joined Dave's Garden, I used to look for this kind of info from all sorts of sources. In fact the PDB is what convinced me to join...thanks again for sharing.

(bowing courteously) I spend a whole lot of time searching through reference books myself; Weezin. And of course, who but a public library can afford to buy them all? The PDB is one of my absolute favorite parts here too. It is so much easier to find things in one place, rather than trying to remember "now was that in Peterson Field Guide or Taylor Guide? How about checking the Audubon book again? Nope, well, shoot, maybe it was the the Grasses Illustrated!" LOL

I have to admit, I use online sources and my hard copy sources. One thing I have definitely learned is that none of these sources are consistantly correct. When I've exhausted all avenues concerning botanical identification, I ask Baa!

By the way, my Thompson and Morgan came in the mail yesterday... seems like they are playing favorites with their mail list... the lower 48ers are getting theirs first!

No, no T&M here.

I got my T&M last week and have read it cover to cover probably a dozen times already. I want one of everything but Dori is right..the prices are very high. I usually only order from Parks too but I did order from T&M last year and none of the seeds did well...Of course that could definitely be the seeder.....lol

You are not alone in your complaints about T&M seed, Vic. I love the T&M catalog as a beginning reference source and as an available location for some seeds that are hard to find here in the U.S. However, this year I'm going to look around a bit. I'm becoming seasoned enough to be an intelligent shopper!

My own experiences haven't been necessarily bad with T&M. I have ordered a few things that didn't work out for me, but I cannot say if it was my expertise or their seed. I order from over a dozen places, and I can't really tell you which seeds are better, so I may not be the best judge.

Just because the catalogue hasn't arrived, doesn't mean I haven't been busy. After having insured that the Petunia order will be on its way, I have been putting together a more comprehensive list. Boy, do the numbers add up fast. Good thing I have Arthur Anderson as an Accountant; now the books will most likely show a profit.

Golddog: I have to laugh, because I start out with a catalog, a pad and pen, and lots of enthusiasm. After the second page or so of "wish list", I begin adding up the numbers, and I begin to realize I'll need a bank loan! Then I begin to cross things off the list... then I begin adding other things on.... it goes like that for at least a month or two until I finally have it all put together and get online.

Two years ago, I ordered about $300 worth of seed, and I felt a bit guilty. Last year I ordered about $600 worth of seed and refused to think about it! I sell plants, but I still spend too much on seed.

My problem is that I want to try new plants all the time, so I never buy any one seed in quantity. When I order my seeds this December, I want to be more prudent in what I order and from where, but meanwhile... bring on the catalogs!

That process sounds so very familiar Weez.
Always wondered how you seem to grow just about everything that's possible for your climate - and a few more for luck!I always seem to end up with far more than i can grow and hang onto them for the following year.........and so on. This year i'm having a proper clear out and will start anew. I've just had the RHS seed list - you can choose 20 varieties as a member, now i find they have another list from one of their northern gardens, and then there's the NCCPG list, the Hardy Plant Society, the Alpine Garden Society....... So I'm having a look at all those before i start on the commercial catalogues.
Oh dear, i can see i'm going to end up with more than i can chew again

Marketing wise, it looks as though T&M has the right approach. We are not willing to wait for the 'rest' of the catalogues to arrive and then give each equal consideration. The same holds true for plant catalogues. One especially excellent one in Oregon doesn't arrive until March-April (they may be online by now). By that time the internet trades are in full blossom.

I do exchange with the HPS, Mid-Atlantic, for seeds. Here, hard to find varieties can be found. Its membership comes from many parts of the country, and abroad.

So who says gardening is a seasonal hobby? With fall trades, catalogues arriving on a weekly basis, Master Gardening classes to attend, cuttings to grow on, benches and such to build, seeds to propagate, books and magazines to peruse, thoughts of new 'scaping' and, of course, the most occupying of all, DG.

https://www.jelitto.com/haupt_en.html
here's one i discovered recently

I requested their paper catalogue and it's HUGE. Thick A4 format with loads of photos and info and they send all round the world


Yes, goldog, who could ever be bored in this life??? Beats me!! I've always reckoned to be a 12 month a year gardener - it's certainly true if you include the catalogue day dreaming, DG etc etc