Piggie Swap babies and seed starting #2

Gemini,

Hardy Hibiscus syriacus can be wintersown. In my garden it selfseeds and sometimes I get really crazy from all its seedlings.....

Thanks, Tuink. I've been thinking most anything I see grown in the area as a hardy perennial should be a good candidate for wintersowing.

Suzy, when did you sow your torenia?

I don't know if I've mentioned it here, but I'm such a proud parent I have to mention again my sweet, little hardy cyclamen seedlings! Having wintersown babies to look at while I'm in the process of this years wintersowing has been a great motivation and joy!

yikes Suzy, I hope I haven't over watered my geraniums thats why the lack of sprouts!

I looked high and low for seeds on my torenia last summer to no avail...even after critter mentioned how to check for them, I still couldn't find them...so I'll have to buy a few torenia plants again. They are lovely and bloomed all summer ~ mine were the purple ones.

I wasn't going to start the hibiscus indoors...maybe I will now after reading your posts

Illoquin, thanks for letting me know that the germination on those older Torenia seeds was still just fine!

When I look at what they want (and what I paid the first year) for 20 pelleted seeds of Torenia... !! Well, let's say I figured even the older seeds were worth passing along. :-)

Geminin, I don't think my torenia did much crossing... when I've saved seeds separately from different colors, they've mostly been "true," and those that weren't were more likely due to seeds getting mixed in their rows in the seed starting tray (they're really teeny). And if you've got them started already, you should have a few buds & flowers to tell you which are which by the time you're ready to plant out.

Wind, I don't think I have extra seeds of purple left, but if you want a pack of mixed blue & pink torenia, LMK.. I'll pop them in a regular envelope (should be fine, since seeds are like dust) and get them out to you.

I've only had one hibiscus to self sow for me and that's where I threw a bunch of seeds out and got two plants but I think it's the white one with the red center nothing special, the one with the smaller flower. I've never had the hardy pink or the manihot or texas star self seed. Before I always sow them on the picnic table too after the last frost and I've always gotten a bloom off of them before the end of the summer. Just one or two but they did bloom.

Okay I wanted to share my experience with the canna seeds, it was very similar to suzy's. First I tried the toe-nail clippers, they wouldn't even scratch them. Next was a regular metal nail file. This seemed like a lost cause-on to the next. Then I tried my usual scarifying tool a little knife, to no avail. Meanwhile during all this the seeds were dropped, found, dropped, found etc. etc. So this is what I came up with and it ended up working out well. Girls raid your men's tool boxes! LOL These ones were tough!

Thanks critter, good to know :-)

wind, I did something so stupid when I gathered torenia seed. The little calyx that holds first the bud, later the seed looks about the same before and after. After drying them I found all kinds of flower buds I'd picked off in there! But on the ones I got right, I could just pick up the dried calyx and rub it back and forth between my thumb and forefinger and the seed spilled out the end.

I was so irritated this morning! I checked seedlings and the sprouting torenia that I uncovered yesterday had dried on the surface over night. Looks like I lost several, so I'm going to re-sow today. So those of you growing them, keep a close eye for moisture when they're tiny!

I know I read somewhere that someone asked about the bergenia. I'm trying two different methods for these - WS and under lights. The ones under lights are on a heat mat (the heat mat is on a timer like the lights so the seedlings get 16 hours of light and heat each day) and they have all sprouted. They were sown Jan 20, and look to have sprouted some time last week (they're at my sis's), and are on their first set of true leaves.

I think you did good on the bergenia, I WS some a couple of years ago and it took them all summer to get any size on them, as a matter of fact I think I have some seeds here now I think I'll start mine under lights, thanks for that Robin :) That might be my answer lol

i think I'll put my cana seeds in a can and shake them around with some rocks lol It sounds like you all are going to hurt yourselves LOL I check the coop out on them but didn't care for any of the ones they had there. I'm not much of a canna person anyway just want to grow them once and see if they are worth it for the hummers.

Lebug - Mostly I want em for the hummers, but I thought they'd also be cool for a tropicalesque theme around our swimming pool.

Oh yes, those should be nice around the pool! I guess I'll plant mne agains the house because I know I won't dig them up lol

LeBug--what kinds of cannas do you like?

I'm not a real canna lover, either, but I'm growing some for the HBs too. Ordered them in the co-op.

I saw some of the 'Bengal Tiger' cannas (aka 'Pretoria', I think), planted downtown by the pro football stadium, with Verbena bonarienses, zinnias, and tall purple ageratum, and sweet potato vine and it was a late summer flower show that was to die for! (Of course, it didn't help the Bengals win many football games!)

I'm sowing seeds this morning--nothing as interesting as all of yours, though...I can see from my window that my forsythia have a few buds so I may cut some branches and try to force some springtime bloom, too.

I am looking around for daffodil sprouts and I have a few coming up. When I see them I think of Illoquin and the big ADS shows coming up soon!

Great plant combo suggestion! I wish I could say the same for daf sprouts, but I still have at least a foot or two of snow out there! It's about 60 degrees and raining. You know what they say about new england weather? "If ya don't like the weather- wait a minute"

I put Canna 'Tropicana' in a client's yard last year and it was gorgeous (they're resting in the fridge in the garage right now)
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/3301/

Meridith just be glad you do have the snow over the daphs at least yours have a shot of blooming in the spring I'm not sure if mine will or not.

t, I'm not sure what kind of cannas I like, I haven't really planted them before and only have seen the red taller ones and those don't seem to be that much on flowers they are all foliage so I may try to get some seeds to a variegated one for next year I like foliage but these cannas to me just seem to be a waste of space, am I being bad again LOL I'll grow them just to see how the hummers do like them but can't guarantee that I will grow them again unless I get a variegated one. I just couldn't justify buying only about three cannas in that coop plus postage and none of them sounded that great either, but then like you said we aren't canna people lol

Would someone point me to the 'microwaving soil', I'm getting mushrooms and white mold on my dirt!

Those cannas are pretty! I read in the planfiles about that one and that's another reason I haven't planted them, moist soil, it's too hard keeping up with all of this watering in these hot dry summers we are having. Most of my other ones that need moist soil is by a drain where they are watered more I live in the country with no sewage so we have our dishwater go out of a drain along with another drain for the laundry.

Oh, I see...and understand (LOL)...I'll let you know which canna my HBs like the best. So far they like my feeders the best and I may as well not even have a garden for them!

LeBug--did you tell me about that 'Yvonne's Salvia' that I'm so interested in? Or ...mmm...who was it? Anyway I found out a web page for free seeds for it, if others are interested in a tall red not-canna plant for hummingbirds!


http://mamakane.com/yvonnesalvia.htm

Yes I am glad - it would be awful if yours don't make it to bloom! I've heard as long as the buds don't get damaged they should be fine. Do you have buds yet?

Oh my those salvia are crazy!!! I wonder if they are the splendens type, I know that type will draw hb's in but they won't nectar on them. Hopefully they are another type. (For the hummers sake)

Nope no buds yet but last year the late freeze got the buds and the year before that so don't look for any this year either it'll be a nice surprise if I do see some :)

Nope t, wasn't me telling you about those salvias, just grow the regular kind they get that tall too, bonfire I think is what I grew a couple of years ago and they were almost as tall as me when they bloomed, I don't like them that tall out front the butterfly/nectar garden is fine though, but they reseed like crazy!

Lebug - Oh that's awful about your dafs!

Am I the only one that found the hb's didn't nectar at the splendens? Maybe it was just the type - I think they were bonfire as well. Hmm.
Anyway - I'd try those just because it's such a great story and it would make that cute lady happy, to send her a note!

The hummers liked my bonfire or I wouldn't have kept them! They were all over them!

Well, phoo, all this talk... now I want canna seeds... I thought they took years to bloom from seed, like amaryllis or iris... I had better sit down and sow the seeds I have, first! LOL

Critter - In the T&M catalog you'll find canna indica seeds - it says they are first year flowering. I am sure the flowers won't be as nice as in an older plant. So I am planning on diggin the them in fall.

I didn't know hummers liked Cannas. I"ll have to remember that. I haven't really been a canna person, either, but for hummers, now that's different.

This is the coolest thread on DG -- so many people with the same seeds! And so much knowledge from past years! I love it!

Oh, yeah, and Merewdith, love the rusty pliers on the million dollar granite! LOL!

Gemini, I am very jealous about your cyclamen! I have seen the seed in the T&M catalog, but I just never got 'round to ordering it. Somehow having 2 or 3 plants (all I could afford if I bought them) isn't the same as havig a big ole clump of them.

I started the Torenia within the last week. I am not keeping records this year...too many to go through PF and typing and spreadsheets isn't my thing. Last year I had 300+ WS jugs and they almost all germinated March 5-7. It was too much to keep up with, so I gave up even trying.

There are 2 kinds of garden-worthy Torenia -- the kinds they propagate by cuttings from the garden center at premium prices (the creeping kind which is a sterile triploid), and the kind that grows from seed (pretty sure this is the "bush" kind, most famous is 'Clown Mix').

There are more posts I want to respnd to, but I have to get some work done around here... be back later.

whoops, LeBug, overlooked your request before... see my article on preventing damping off for instructions on sterilizing soil... http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/277/

Ah. That explains why the few seed-like things I got from my trailing Torenia aren't doing anything. Shoot.

Thanks for the insight, Suzy.

Woops critter, I read your article and it was a great article too BTW! Forgot that was in there, thanks! What good does it do to tag the articles and then forget to look at them when you need them LOL Just think people will be reading your article for years to come you are immortalized!

Hmmm....good to know about the trailing torenia. Now I'm wondering how much trouble it would be to keep a pot going through the winter for cuttings the next spring. They grew almost effortlessly in sandy soil for me a couple of years ago in deep shade, so I'm thinking they would probably do ok inside.

There were some seed offers made on this thread for Cyclamen coum:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/805436/

They are blooming now, so if fresh seed is saved for you, probably better than purchased.

It's getting too slow to load this page. Go ahead and finish out any answers or direct conversation to what has already been posted here, but let's just sort of migrate over to this new thread:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/815113/

Suzy

Hey everyone-Sorry to have been out of the loop! My wireless internet has been down AGAIN! I just wanted to say THanks to Suzy and all for such a great swap! I'm looking forward to seeing pics and I'm really diggin' all the tips and info! You are all awesome!

Critter!!!! Happy Birthday!

I hope this one is the best one yet!

Suzy

Happy Birthday Critter!

i i i i i i i i
[_______]

Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday! And many more...

It's Critter's birthday! Happy Birthday - may your gardens bring you the maximum pleasure with the least amount of effort :-)

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/815282/

Critters own Birthday thread!! :)

Susan

Happy Birthday, Critter!

Wow, thanks! I came over to see what seed chatter was making this thread so active this morning... my ears should have been burning!

"max pleasure with minimum effort" in my garden... that's got to be one of my all time favorite wishes! :-)

So... about those cannas from seed... how many years until bloom? I guess that's a question for the new thread!