CLOSED: Would like Seeds for a Brownie Troop

Hi all,
I am going to introduce my daughter's GS Brownie Troop to the joys of gardening! Actually, it was my daughter's idea. She thinks "It's just so cool watching stuff grow". Her words, not mine.
Anyway, I am planning a "wintersowing party" for her troop and would like to give the girls more than one choice of plant and a greater chance of success. I only have mammoth sunflowers for them. Once spring is good and here, they will plant the seedlings in front of the local assisted living center.
My request is this: Does anyone have any extra annuals they would like to part with for a SASE? I'm open to any suggestions.
THanks so much.
LoraB

Hi Lora,
My wife is the cookie coordinator and junior leader here, I certainly have my share of involvement also.
Anyway I do have seeds remaining, zinnias, marigold and 'honey bear'(all yellow and only 6') sunflower.

Al

please send me a SABE and I will be glad to send a good package of seed

I would love to help. See the address exchange to send two first-class stamps - I will add the rest - I can send a BUNCH! Please put a copy of your request thread in with the postage. I have plenty of padded envelopes.

Looks like you will have plenty but if you don't I can send a few. Cindy

Let me know also for I have a ton of red poppies and also some others...
Susan

Ooh! Lora, you really need some morning glories growing up those sunflowers! I did that last year (along my neighbor's fence), and it worked really well. I planted a mixture of many different varieties and collected all the seeds I could... I'm sure some of the seeds are crossed, so you should get a wild assortment. I'm sowed mine directly last year, but I'm pretty sure I've seen people posting about WSing morning glories in milk jugs.

I've also got seeds for a yellow-flowering plant that I haven't identified beyond determining that it's not chocolate daisy, but I wintersowed it and got blooms the first year from seed, all summer long, on 2-3 ft. tall plants that should do a good job of giving you another splash of golden yellow to echo the sunflowers.

I think zinnias and marigolds will be good choices also, as they tend to be pretty sturdy little seedlings.

Do you have preferences as to height, color, etc. to go with what you've been offered so far? If you've got space for a few additional tall plants, I've got 'Purple Majesty' Millet and Wheatstraw Celosia 'Pink Candles'... since both have self-sown for me, I think they'd be good candidates for WSing.

Daisies are perennials, so I'm not sure they would bloom their first year, and besides you said you wanted annuals... But daisies are such a traditional Girl Scout flower! I'm trying to think of an annual that would have a daisy-like bloom....

Please Dmail me your address if you're not in the exchange, and I'll get some seeds out to you.

When will your wintersowing party occur?

be glad to send send ene. postage in it address and will send back..

If you need more annual seeds, please let me know.

LoraB would you be interested in some penquin gourd seed? I raised some and after they dry you can paint them like little penquins and they are very attractive and make wonderful gifts. Let me know and I can send you a couple of hundred. Also have some apple gourd seed I can spare.

Hi all,
Thank you so much for the responses! I know the girls will have a great time with this.
I'm babysitting tonight for a friend so am unable to respond in more detail but will tomorrow afternoon.
LoraB

Hi Lora,
You have d-mail...
Lauri

Lora,

The only seeds I have are Russian Red Canna and Red Castor Bean. They're both big plants. If you can use either (or both), I'd be glad to send some.

Steve

Hi everyone,
I must say I'm thrilled at your responses and quite don't know what to do now! Which seeds will work best? Which ones will the seniors like most? Which Brownie mom will volunteer to help me clean up? Who's going to have the dirtiest face?? So many questions... I keep hoping a grown up will come along and tell me what to do and how. My DH tells me to keep hoping as *I* am the grownup! :-) Frightening thought!

Back on topic now...
whitewidower - The gourds sound like a great idea. What kind of attention and space do they need? Is it something that I can maybe plant in my garden and the girls can harvest and paint in the fall?

Since I think we're going to be doing mostly annuals, I was planning on the girls planting the seeds towards the end of Feb. What do y'all think? Too early, too late?

I think I'm all set now with all the seed offers. I don't want to be greedy and end up having way more seeds that we can use.

I'll post a photo once I have some!
Troop 727 and I thank you!
LoraB.

Oh Lora I would love to see this in progress please post lots of pictures.

Lora,

I did this some years back when my daughter was in scouts. The girls had a blast. We didn't have near the seeds that you are offered here and the seniors loved all the colors and the different types. They even came out and watched us planting, a few even helped or gave their opinions of what to put where and how to put them in. We did three areas with all the different ones. This started a tradition for all the troops since to do it. Good luck, If you need more seeds let me know, I can send more, too.

The penguin gourds can also be used for birdhouses or cut for plant pots. The girls love to paint and make plans. Let them do all the planning and just give suggestions and directions. They will feel grown up doing it that way.

One way to do the planning is after you get the seeds, the girls can draw out little charts as to how they think the garden should look. Just supply them with plant heights & colors, etc. You'll find they all have a keen sense of what looks good. Plus its another project for them to do while waiting for the seeds to start growing.

Robin

Lora,
Late February sounds pretty early for me. You really should wait until the frost danger has passed for annuals(in general). You're a zone ahead of me so late April sounds closer.

You know, I've had 'Wild Cherry' tomatoes self-sow the last couple of years.... since you've got a pretty informal mix there, they might be fun to include... they produce tons of teeny "currant" fruits with huge tomato flavor, so they make great little "garden snacks." I'll toss a packet of those in also.

I think Shirley1MD has done more WSing of annuals than anyone I know, especially in zone 6, so she would be a great person to ask for advice on when to plant your seeds. I started my Castor Beans inside last year, as I think they're quite tender... they might be a fun "windowsill" plant for the kids to grow in a cup... as I remember, they shot up pretty quickly, so you might want to do them just 4 weeks before your planting out date as a separate little project.

Yes, Shirley really knows her stuff - she can be a huge help to you and the Brownies. Here's that wintersowing link - over on the right column you can click on the wintersowing database for 2006 - it tells you which flowers, including annuals, have been successfully wintersown in your zone.

http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/DataBase.html

I have some seeds from trade that would be great for crafts and are looking for a good home - preferably Brownies - strawflowers (Helichrysum bracteatum) in 3 colors - maroon, pink/long & pink/short. For dried arrangements or wreaths, they should be picked just before they open and hung to dry. Would be pretty in a wreath with dried sage, thymes, wormwood, santolina and bay leaf.

In addition to the morning glories, I've also been given in trade a few different morning glories with tiny trumpets of intense color that hummingbirds love: Ipomoea coccinea, I. hederifolia lutea, I. luteola 'Spunspots' & I. quamoclit. In addition to all the MGs above, they would help give an idea about the tremendous variety possible within one genus.

How about each of us sharing with you what we know about the wintersowing possibilities of what we send?

From looking at the link I just sent for your zone, I can see that the following would be good candidates for wintersowing in your area (only sow a part of each seed batch, just in case) -

Helichrysum bracteatum
Ipomoea luteola
Ipomoea quamoclit

I suspect there's a good chance that among the larger MGs being sent to from the foregoing, that you'll get some I. purpurea which is on the list of successful wintersowers for your zone.

As for I. coccinea, it self-sows liberally in Florida, but I don't know about your zone. Not sure about I. hederifolia lutea, either. So these two should be separated into 2 groups - one to experiment with WS and the other to sow either indoors a couple weeks before frost or after frost. This is where 2 complementary lessons get to be taught: leap of faith and prudence

Another thing regarding wintersowing, I would definitely WS the ones known to do well in your zone now, but wait until 4 - 6 weeks before your last spring frost for ones like hardy annuals like sweet alysum that I see were not successfully WS. Two hardy annuals that have been successful that you could sow anytime now would be poppies and centaurea.

This message was edited Jan 30, 2007 10:59 PM

LaraB these are penquin gourds and some apple gourds. If you let the penquin grown on a trellis the weight of them will streighten out the neck which is ok. If you let them run on the ground the necks will be crooked and they make really good looking penquins. Apple gourds grow either way also. Two or three vines will produce severl gourds. I am sending you enough for a small city. Let me know how it works out.

Hope this picture comes through.As you can see I am not artist. Oh the drawing is of my wife and my sister did it. I am to blame for the gourds.

Hi everyone, Thanks again to all of you for your generous offers of seeds. I think I'm more than supplied now! :-) So I'll "close" the thread.

Whitewidower - LOVE them!! That looks like a fantastic idea! And the drawing is lovely! I'll dmail you my address. I definately want to try those seeds!

bluespiral - Thanks so much for the info. The strawflowers sound great.

I'll post photos once we actually start planting the seeds. I can't wait to see how this turns out!..
LoraB.