Thanks, Lebug! I get old copies of the student newspaper and I make larger paper pots for plants that normally need peat pots. I was worried I would have to have 200 or more of those just for petunias (don't ask . . . I didn't believe I would have sooo many germinate!)
Stoke's Seed Swa-Op Babies!
They're in plastic drinking cups (stole that idea from Tuink). The bruiser at the upper right is an Heirloom Poppy. I've got some mustard, violas and cabbage outside in the little greenhouse so I've got room to start three more trays! (I'm not as brave as Illoquin - I was able to visit her seed starting area yesterday - great googliewooglies does she ever have a lot of fat and sassy babies! She rotates her flats under the lights and therefore has more going than I would have the nerve for.)
First, though, I have to go play plumber - the reverse osmosis thing under the kitchen sink is leaking so I had to turn the water off and dig out the schematic to figure out what's plugged. I'm hoping to fix it before I have to pay the plumber...
Here's a shot of the other side of the petunia tray - there are some red peppers in the middle.
Okay . . . keep my eyes open for plastic drinking cups on sale :-)
Dryad, They are just gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Deep green, stout, stocky, everything you could want!
Mine are little shrimps because last year I started them too early (at set out, they were in gallon pots) and this year I mebbe overcompensated and started them too late -- I'll let you know.
Unlike some piggies I could name (BUT THEY POSTED ABOVE) I tried to only have a dozen of each color and kind.
Suzy
I am not a piggy - just a rookie! How was I to know that virtually all the petunia seeds would ! I was hoping for 10% germination - so I should have only about 30 petunias . . .
Okay, so I really did want a lot for the terrace - but I didn't know that soooo many traded seeds would be sooooo viable.
And it seems so heartless to cull seedlings just because they were brave enough to germinate under my watch. . . . see? I really am a rookie!
LOL! I must say, you are absolutely right, the collected and traded seed viability was astonishing to me, too.
The stuff from the Fresh Seed Swap in November is like 100%, with only the non-germinators being probable sterile hybrids. But it was worth it to me just in case they germinated, y'know?
I drink coffee and have some coffee cans around, and am going to do this with any extras I have that are the right size to give out to people. I stole the picture from a Magazine called Backyard Gardener.
I was very cautious with the number I sowed, and will probably start another tray this week. I read what Suzy wrote about sowing too early, and I didn't want to have a bazillion seedlings as I knew I wouldn't be able to take care of all of them. So, I just decided to do a few rounds of the same plants, just perhaps a month apart.
I'm hoping I'll have a picture of a bloom tomorrow :) In addition to the petunias I've got a couple Lady in Red salvia that I didn't pinch, and one has some nice buds on it.
Here's my lone baby caraway - gotta get more of those started.
dryad, your seedlings are super great!!!! when did you start your petunias? mine are practically stunted at 1/8-1/4" :( ...loved your description of Suzy's seedlings, you're funny! good luck with your plumbing.
seandor, I must have missed your post...you must have alot of petunias going?...oh gosh, just spotted it, am I reading it right...you have over 200? oh my, I'll be happy if I get a few at the rate I'm going!
It is really warm here today, up to 70 possibly. My ws rumex from critter and ws white hibiscus from soulgardenlove are sprouting! The hibiscus seedling looks like a bean, it is really large.
hi wind!! those petunias were started Feb. 12, in those little peat pods that have the mesh holding them together. I must also admit to fertilizing them twice since they were transplanted into the plastic cups (light feeding of Peters, everything is watered from the bottom). I love your collage - you have so many wonderful babies!!
Another thing I did when I transplanted my babies into the plastic cups was add a bit of mycorrhizal fungi fertilizer to the soil - just a weenie bit. I then waited a solid week before adding any dilute of Peters to their water, and I'm only weakly fertilizing them every 7 to 10 days.
Wind, your lil babies are so neat, and not to many in a pot. : ) I'm finally learning not to sow as many in one pot. It is very frustrating trying to get them untangled. I feel like I am breaking their legs, when I pull them apart. lol : )
~Lucy
This wasn't showing up on my thread watcher, hmmm wonder why just wanted to say that my cupid's dart is coming up that I WS from this swap :) Just noticed it today, I'm so glad I had about three plants and traded two of them last year and these are such pretty little flowers!
Back to soing seed trays, trying to get done with everything in here today so I can go outside and play tomorrow when it's 70 degreees Wooohooooo!!!!! Maybe some of this cottin pickin ground will have a chance to dry out a little in the next few days!
Planted out the purple picotee violas today! They look terrific in the front garden. :-)
Miss Suzy who are you calling a piggy up there LOL I'm saving quite a few petunias because some of you coming down want some and dispatcher said he buys a bunch every year so why not save them LOL They are going outside tomorrow though to fend for themselves, it's suppose to be nice this week, a whole shelf will be opened up when I get rid of those from ownstairs LOL
Foxglove could go out couldn't it doesn't that bloom in the early spring?
Lea, Don't you throw those pansies away!!!! Oh, wait, does that make me a piggy, too? :)
Oh, Yes, Foxglove can go out, easy. Harden it off, but it won't need a whole week with the forecast I'm seeing.
I have to bring my trays in soon...if I wait for 1/2 time for the NCAA game, Mr. Clean might help. sigh....I am tired. Today was Ivy Day. The day we cut back the Ivy by 4 feet so it can grow another four feet in May. If I ever won the lottery, the first thing I would do is pay to have the ivy erradicated.
Suzy
I didn't say anything about pansies I said the reason I had 70 petunias out there was for you all when you come lol Where did you get pansies at you must have been thinking about them :)
I went out there to zip my cover up and I already have on 4 pack of foxglove out there so I'll put the rest out tomorrow, good luck on getting yours in :)
I've got some of that wild ivy that is making me nervous it headed for where I want to put some plants this year but it's right under the birdfeeder right now so I hate to spray it! Nope, I don't have time to go out there and dig roots and all either lol I hate ivy! LOL
Yikes! Tonight the temps are suppsed to be 30 degrees and 29 tomorrow night, but just for a few hours. My geraniums are out in an unheated greenhouse. Just one of those plastic jobs. I went out this afternoon (no sun!) and it was the same temperature outside as it was inside.
I wonder if I am making a big mistake by leaving tender perennial and annual plants in there overnight? Geraniums (pelargoniums, like our Ivy leaf burgundy summer showers) are hardy to 25 degrees according to Plant Files.
Suzy
Put some jugs of hot water in there Suzy if you have any jugs left something you can put hot water in, maybe run a light out there?
I watched for the weather tonite got fed up with the comercials and started working on my plants in the greenhouses lol My phlox are out there but I think they will be fine, all of my gal. pots that I cleaned up, I put row covers over them and I have an allium that I thought I lost last year so I put a pot over it I would like to see it bloom this year lol I've got towels stuffed around the bottoms of the greenhouses that the covers reach to the ground the cover to the one that my phlox are in is only a 3/4 cover so I put some insulation under the trays on the bottom shelf hoping the wind, if there is any, won't get into it.
I have morning glories sprouting better tend to them they are in the soak :)
As a weather update:
I chickened out at the last minute and brought the geraniums in. I left everything else outside, though. I checked the weather against the forecast and we are 4 degrees warmer than was forecasted for 5:00 am. If I follow the projection they have, which is one degree cooling from 5:00 am through 7:00/8:00 we should only get to 33 or 32, and not the 30 they've forecasted.
Today will be partly sunny which will put some heat into the earth below the greenhouse, but I don't think it will offset the clear skies and the high pressure and it will definitely get 29 degrees on Monday night. I wil have to take a serious look at the seedlings and see what needs to be brought in.
Lea, I'm afraid of the water jug idea because I'm afraid it will put too much moisture in the air and that will affect the humidity, and the dewpoint. I don't know that it will, because I barely understand the principle, but it could. :) The other thing I question is how long it can stay hot/warm. If you put it out at midnight, how warm can the water it realistically stay for 8 hours?
Running a heater out there is probably out of the question. OMG! Mr. Clean would have a conniption! I could maybe sneak one out, though; I found one we used in DD#2s room a couple of years ago when I was cleaning for a daffodil guest who will be rolling in on Tuesday.
Well, that was the update -- am deciding on whether to go back to bed or just stay up. I hope everybody fared ok.
Suzy
My little geraniums are finally looking like little geraniums. I'm afraid the petunias will have to carry them until they bloom...probably August. I don't have a greenhouse. I should get one. Maybe next year...have to watch for sales. In the meantime everything stays in the house until it gets warm enough to harden them off. At least I don't have to agonize over the freezes.
Funny how we're focusing on those geraniums. Here's the rest of my SWA-OP report:
Bergenia cordifolia : w/s - gemination on 4/6
Cheddar pinks: w/s - germination on 3/26
Cupid's Dart: w/s - germination on 3/29
Delphinium 'Pacific Astolat': w/s - germination on 3/29
Dianthus 'Ballad Blend': w/s - germination on 3/26
Italian alkanet 'Blue Angel': w/s - germination on 3/26
Petunia 'Supercascade Lilac': sowed inside - have 2 dozen nice plants about to bud
Phlox, Stokes new hybrids mix: w/s - no germination yet (nothing on any of my phlox)
Primrose 'Pacific Giants': w/s - germination on 4/2
Pulsatilla dwarf, violet: w/s - no germination yet
Salvia viridis: w/s - germination on 3/29
Sunflower 'Ring of Fire': will direct sow
Veronica 'Sightseeing Mix': w/s - germination on 3/29
Viola 'Penny Purple Picotee': sowed inside - have about 15 seedlings still in a flat
Zinnia 'Uproar Rose': sowed inside - have 4 nice seedlings
the dates are just the first day I saw a seedling poke it's head up. here's the first little bergenia
Suzy it shouldn't put moisture in the air to put the jugs in the greenhouse I have lids on them, the purpose of the lids was to try and keep the water warmer longer and I have no idea how long it stays warm but it must help a little?
I still haven't found my lupine seeds :) I have looked everywhere, well not everywhere or I would have found them by now but I've even looked under the bed to see if they fell off there that's where I go thru most of my seeds.
My geraniums are in the house and it's not getting down to 30 tonite like I thought it was but it is tomorrow so I will keep my plants in the house until Wed. it's suppose to be pretty decent after Tues.
Grampapa, I'm fretting over my geraniums because I'm mailing some for a trade so I'm really watching them LOL But I would be just lie everyone else on fussing over them too I wonder what it is about them too and with them so small right now it's hard to believe they are going to be nice and fat :)
I think it's because it's the one thing that we all appeared to have started inside (as opposed to wintersowing). My other seeds came up (Ws'd) but they all look like gram's pic...just cotyledons and nothing interesting. Plus, they were expensive!
We are forecasted for a widespread frost tonight, though I don't see how, and the 27 degree temps have been upgarded to 30 degrees. The greenhouse is warm because of the sun, but soon the wind will kick up and the skies will clear, and the solar heat will be history. The coldest part will be from 5:00 am - 7:00 am, but I will be too tired after last night to take out hot jugs of water. Lea, Our Tuesday night looks fine at 38 degrees; I'm sorry you will still be cold because 4 days in a row is an awful lot of work hauling stuff in and out again!
Actually I wish everything else looked as good as my geraniums.
Suzy, So far it's going to be 32 tomorrow night which doesn't really worry me that bad but I'll keep them in the house just incase, the weather man here didn't even press the thought of 32 so I'm thinking it will be a little warmer for tomorrow's news, I have my fingers crossed anyway :) Since I have one of my osteospermum half way close to what I want I'm happy to go in and out cause they are in that bunch 8^) They said 32 here in town tonite and like 22 out here! I just hope it doesn't carry over until tomorrow night, my purple plum is just barely blooming and in two more days it should be full of blooms if the freeze doesn't get it, thank goodness my wisteria is holding off on blooms for a while.
My mina lobata has sprouted, I want to put this one up by the house but it has some shade in the morning and middle afternoon for a couple of hours do you think it would work there? I thought I would plant a white caprice with it, not sure how tall that one gets but I'm figuring at least 8', morning glories usually do good there so I'm thinking the ML will, what do you think? Should I plant one or two ML are they pretty full vines? Sorry I've never grown that one :)
I'm trying something new tonight lol I went outside and got one of my new row covers to put around a couple of my plantstands in front of them to keep the fan from drying them out so fast I can't get anything done from watering all of the smaller pots! lol Call me lazy but I'm getting too tired going up and down 12 steps 15 million times a day!
Lea, ditto on the watering! if I had mine in the basement they'd all be dead by now. I can't do stairs anymore...one trip and i'm out for a week. But it's getting to be a full-time job. Even the self-watering things need to be filled so often now that the plants are getting so big. I'll be so glad when they all get outside. On the other hand, the wintersown plants haven't needed any water yet.
About the mina lobata. How long did it take yours to germ? I thought I had one starting and it disappeared. Now nothing. I knicked & soaked, planted on 4/4.
Ah . . but the weather is getting better! Over 70 degrees during the day and over 40 degrees at night by the end of the weed. Yahoo!
grampapa, I didn't put a date down I think it was Saturday or Sunday I put them in to soak and they sprouted over night well four of them did and I have others to let me go check to see if any sprouted a root, yes four more I soaked 14 of them lol But I'm giving some to the nursery that I get my dirt from so maybe they will give me some plants too lol I have all kinds that have sprouted in there I need to get to planting :)
I watered my plants that I put outside before I took dad out to eat now more need watering too lol It's a never ending job on the watering I don't think I'll even go in the basement until I get these potted up LOL Such a beautiful day I want to go outside and play so bad! I need to get a couple more greenhouses put together for when I stick my tomatoes out there real soom like tomorrow :)
Noticed yesterday, I have Gram's helenium ruby dwarf sprouting and Suzy's little Joe Pye starting :)
Ooh, cool! I'll have to check my WS containers. That helenium was one we weren't sure would be fertile, right? LOL, I sowed it extra thickly...
I need to do some moving around with the WS containers, a lot of them are getting more sun than they need right now and I need to keep the tops for when it storms really bad and I'm sure we have some of those coming, it takes too much room to just pinch a top down with a clothes pin lol
I need to start my butterfly weeds too, I'll stick them in a seed tray and put a dome on them for over night and bird netting on them thru the day lol And tie them down so the wind doesn't blow the seed trays away :)
wind, I'm glad to hear the Ruby Dwarf has sprouted. It will be interesting to see what you get from it. I hope they are at least red.
I think I may have soaked my Mina Lobata too long. I saved a few seeds and I'm going to try again.
This thread is getting impossibly long - Illoquin, can you start a new thread?
The weather in New England has been AMAZING! And it is supposed to continue for the next 10 days - right up to the average-last-day-of-frost for Springfield! Yahoooo!
So, I spent the weekend planting lots of containers ('cause sooo many of the stuff I started inside was so large, I was going to have to pot them into larger pots anyway.
I have 2 round pots with supercascade lavender,supercascade blue (special order) and with the burgandy trailing geraniums.
I have so many of the supercascade lavender, that I made several other planters with them. Two are very large ivory coloured square pots. I put a Cleopatra canna lily in the centre (note the reversed " of centre) of the pot, and then a supercascade lavender on each side. Then, on either side of the large pots, in two long rectangle pots, I put a supercascade lavender on each end, with a euphorbia "Summer Icicle" between (really small right now)!
Here ya go, Michaela, a New Thread!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/837043/
Lala Jane, I am going through all the recent threads looking for a single seedling photo you posted that I think is a Pulsatilla...I just need to see it again. think I guessed as "somenthing in the daisy family, annual chrysanthemum, etc.".
My Penstemon Pike's Peak germinated (lots!) but I don't know when since it was wintersown. :(
Suzy
My penstemon is just now germinating and I found a picture of Pulsatilla, I have this one in three different colors, last year was it's first year to bloom and the seeds didn't look too fat, I guess they are kind of like clematis seeds don't you think? I was surprized with a pretty pink one this year :) It's first year blooming was suppose to be red lol
The two geraniums that I though were hardy geraniums in the yard I think they are wild geraniums we'll see when they get a little bigger but I have a lot of the wild ones around, they usually get mowed down they're in the wrong spots :)
Seandor your pots are going to be wonderful! We want to see pictures :)
Cell Phone Photo Time:
Here's the geranium that just started blooming yesterday. I planted it out last weekend. Of course, the photo does not do it justice -- it is very pretty in real life.
EEK, sorry, I posted to the old thread. Oh well, don't shoot me! =)
oh wow....so that is what it will look like :)
mine have been loving being outside so far, I have left them out for the past few nights
Wrightie, Did you tell me to pinch off all my buds just so you could post your flowers first? And I fell for it!!!! ;)
smooch smooch!
Suzy
LOL! One of my geraniums is budding up now... and I ain't pinchin nothin! I just got back into town (been in Pittsburgh since Saturday), and my lilac wave petunias have started blooming, also... they look awesome! I don't know how I'm going to keep them from trying to climb up into the rafters between now and Memorial Day! I may have to plant them out early and just drag the windowboxes inside if we get a frost.
Frost??? In May? In Frederick MD? You jest! Is there any chance at all? Are you in the mountains or something?
Suzy
our last frost date is May 15