MG Vines VS MG Shrubby things

Hey again, I am back with another question.

I have some Royal Ensign Dwarf MG that germinated in a milk jug outside and I planted them out in the garden. Now we are due for a rude awakening and the temperatures will fall to night time 24-34 for at least the rest of the week and into next week.

I know the vines like the heat and can't take frost, but I wondered if the same is true for the Royal Ensign types. It seems odd that they would germinate and grow so early if they weren't ok with the cold.

Thanks,
Suzy

Suzy - Convolvulus tricolor originated in semi-desert areas of the Southern Meditteranean area...the semi-desert areas are hot during the day and the temperatures can drop drastically during the night,but I think your taking a chance with your seedlings if your temperatures are going to drop to freezing or below...

TTY,...

Ron

Suzy,
I don't know about the seedlings, but it took about 20 degrees to kill them in the fall. I don't think I would chance it.

Yuck! Well, thanks for answering.

I'll add it to the list. I've been going form forum to forum asking the same darn question for every plant. It's because I have so many, many, MANY which are new to me.

Hey, Al, fancy seeing you here!

Thanks to both of you,

Suzy

Suzy - I have like 20 planters full of annuals. I have the Enchantment mix again this year. It might be one that since they flower so late that you wouldn't seed to WS it?

Oh, I didn't need to WS 95% of the stuff I did, I just did it because it was new to me. And they lied and made it sound so easy....then I find out you have to remove the tape on hot days and put it back on when it gets too cold. Add more drainage holes when you realize you didn't put in enough...stuff like that.

And the seeds -- OMG, the SEEDS! I'd join in a swap or make a trade and get all these seeds that sounded prety nice in PF, so I just sowed them.

Basically I have no idea what I'm doing even though I've been gardening for 30 years. Most of what I know is through plant autopsies. LOL!

Suzy

I

Ron,
I was interested to read your comment about Convolvulus tricolor orginating where temps can change rapidly at night. Our summers are famous for exactly that, I suspect because we are not too far from the Rocky Mountains; we can have exceptionally hot summer days, but quite cool nights. Maybe the MG's will like it here, though I have been cautioned by some other Zone 3 gardeners
that they don't put MG's outside until late May or June.

Joanne

Joanne, there's a morning glory genus in PlantFiles with quite a few species, some of which look like they might really like your area - Evolvulus. I was alerted to this genus when Ron sent me seed last spring of Evolvulus nuttallianus, half of which I murdered by sowing warm, so I have my fingers crossed that the portion I wintersowed on 2/19/07 will do something. Most of these species don't have much info entered yet, but E. nuttallianus is hardy to zone 4 (4b?), and who knows how cold-hardy the Rocky Plains one might be. Many of them seem to have somewhat fuzzy, succulent, small leaves with bright, silky blue, dime-sized flowers on low-ish growing plants.

Suzy, I got such great results from wintersowing NARGS seed - have never had any luck germinating primroses before, and I'll bet the damping-off Fungus Monster would have had some low, silvery sages from mountainous, arid places first on its menu indoors that I'm just thrilled to see germinating (which is not to say I don't have lots of wintersowing containers still sitting there doing nothing). So, I've been casting my noodle around looking for wintersowing techniques that do not involve fooling around with all those tops, tapes, tarps, etc. The following only involves one top:

from: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/alpines/msg0813330213685.html?33

"I used a makeshift cold frame for germination and growing-on: I bought the biggest translucent plastic storage box I could find at Target (about $15.00), dumped a 50-lb. bag of sand into the bottom, and called it a cold frame. I set my pots of seeds in it, putting the cover on when it was below freezing, taking the cover off when it was above freezing, and bottom-watering by leaving a small gap in the pots so I could dump water into the sand and let it percolate up. It worked/works incredibly well, especially for the ease of setup and the cost."

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"I start my seeds sort of like you do (frame covered with window screen)--I pot them up, put them in flats, put the flats either in my "plastic storage box cold frame" or on wire shelving and let them fend for themselves for a month or two."

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There's 2 things they don't mention that I would do:

1) put slashes in the bottom of the storage box first - with maybe several thicknesses of newspaper beneath the sand so that the sand doesn't run out right away but water still drains out

2) If you can't find window screen to put across the top (minus the box top), then wire fencing or a top of chicken wire to prevent squirrels and other critters from rooting around inside would be good - I think that snow, ice and rain should be able to fall right on those open pots of seeds. It would be good to have the box top around for that inbetween time when germination has just begun, the "dirt" has thawed, temps are swinging wildly, and a torrent is forecast that could wash out your pots. But, then, you would just be fooling around with one top: the box top.

When it comes to strange seeds, I wouldn't give up on the unknown. I learned a lot from those swaps over the last year, but in terms of fishing uncharted waters for seed-treasure, seed exchanges like NARGS might be more rewarding.

Bigcityal, I'm looking forward to trying Blue Enchantment this year, too, that I got from a DG trade.