Arghhhh!
With all the rain we've been having in Southwestern Ontario (on top of the ice!) our sunroom roof sprung a leak yesterday and water dripped right into my seed collection box! Most of the veggie seeds were unscathed, but the flowers needed a quick rescue. Most were damp, some were goners, and some, thankfully, were in plastic, so I just lost the paper envelope. Three hours of sorting and culling and drying ensued, and I have developed a method that works without too much fuss.
1.turn on the oven to the lowest temperature
2.get a round paper coffee filter and put it on top of the stove element that has the oven vent in it
3.pour the seeds from the wrecked package onto the paper and let them dry in the gentle heat for a few minutes.
4.while you are waiting, make up the new envelope
My near-disaster has prompted me to stop collecting seeds and make sure they are grown and enjoyed. So here's my idea. I'm doing up five “newbie kits” with my favourite no-fail, tried-and-true seeds, with detailed instructions. These will be available for SASE (#10, no padding, 51 cents, Canada only) to beginner gardeners who will promise to grow them this spring and let us know on this forum how it went. And I'll be your personal troubleshooter, available by e-mail, to help make sure these seeds don't get left in a box to be dripped on by other leaky roofs!
Each package will contain three of the following:
Lavatera “Silver cup”
Garden Balsam
Tall Heirloom marigolds
Cosmos (either “Sensation Rose” or “Sensation Mix”)
Annual Dwarf Phlox mixed
- Bev
This message was edited Mar 10, 2006 11:54 AM
leaky roof, seeds, and resolution
What a great idea! I look forward to following this one. --Ginny
Oh no Bev. Tell me all your seeds waren't in there. Nice offer to the newbies.
All my seeds were in there. My bankers box that holds my seeds was on the floor right underneath the da((#^#&$)&# drip!
Needless to say, the box is now a plastic one, and it is not on the floor.
Maybe I need to post this idea/offer on the seed exchange forum. But I want these to stay in Canada...
No, your just fine here. This forum used to be called the Canaddian Trading Forum . The bottom of the page thingy use to say "tradeeh". Not a lot of trading happened here so we elected to change it to a better description, but we are still fine to talk about trading here.
Bev, glad to hear that you were able to save some of your seeds. The method sounds good, but only if you have a range, My kitchen has a built in wall oven; so I'd be scrambling to come up with an equivalent.
It's a nice generous offer you are making. Hope you get takers for all of the packages.
Ann
Now those little plastic seed baggies start to seem like a good idea, even if they are not everyone's preferred method. The ones I sent were OK? I can resend some of them if you need.
I feel your pain, there's nothing quite so disheartening than a bunch of ruined seeds.
I had collected about a half-cupful of canterbury bell seeds summer before last, left them in the greenhouse.... we had a rain........the jar the seeds were in were directly under the only leak in the roof ......I didn't put the lid on the jar, wanted to leave them for a few days to make sure they were dry......... all were ruined........... :(
I really missed my canterbury bells last year.....
Sue
Thanks for the offer, Echoes. I've got a lot of the little plastic ziplock bags on hand.
Still no takers for my newbie offer. Think I'll post on the "other" garden forum site as well...
- Bev
Sorry Bev, I was referring to seeds, not the baggies themselves.
drivenbronkers you sure that were ruined.just because thay got wet,all you had to do was put them in your veggy crisper in the fredge it would slow down them sprouting until you were ready to plant.But giving them away will work to lol.Good_luck with them.
digging dirt, they were definately toast. The majority of them had actually had sprouted, then died, looked like a jar of dead bean sprouts :(.......
I did manage to salvage a couple of them, and stuck them in the little bed outside the greenhouse. To add insult to injury, the dog dug them up making a cool spot to sleep!
Total crop failure!
I've just learned to be more careful of leaky roofs.....and digging dogs! lol
my canterbury bells come back every year with no help from me at all? don't yours?
wow that was a stroke of bad luck.dont know what i would do if something like that happened to me.
jagonjune mine do to ,thank god thay are a showy plant,how ever thay self seed everywere.And in places you would never think possable
lol, I laugh a lot, and forgive my dogs!
Since I love the canterbury bells so much I wanted to plant them in most of the flower beds. They're perfect as cut flowers. So I saved the seeds...... I had intended to start scads of them the next spring. Oh, well plans change.
I did the cruise of the garden beds earlier today, there's a few canterbury bells in the one bed. They weren't there last year. fingers crossed they're the mauve ones........
I've got a couple of packages of seeds ready to plant, just in case. lol
What a horrible story!
I too have been cursing the weather this past week, mainly because I have to walk half an hour to work and was drenched on Thursday.
BUT
I am just starting my garden and I’d absolutely love the seeds if they’re still available? They will definitely be grown this year!
I have to tell you what i did with my cantarbury bells,frist year i had them a gardening budy of mine told me ,when thay were finished flowering to dead head them so i did ,and though will insted of putting them in the composter i just through them in other flower beds, what a dum thing to do . Th e following year i had all these plant growing couldn't understand were thay came from so i left them there and now will you can guess but like a good gardener i think thay are nice and are so showy.
I have six different colors a dark purple,light purple , lavender ,pink.white, and two toned one might be a cross.