Thank you all for the welcome back!
Robin/Dryad, I need to see that collapsible suitcase someday. I have never heard of one like that, and boy! Do I ever need it! (Routinely. I always bring home too much!)
Meredith, Nice light rack! Wow! It looks like the Cadillac version....the 1960s jumbo Cadillac BOATS! LOL! The warming cupboard is awesome, too...I wouldn't mind having one of those little pups when I start those heatlovers in January and it's downright chilly! I thought it was funny that your first post said that if you ever did what I did on the luggabge/baggage that your dh would kill you, then the post you made right after it says you are going to try our suitcase trick. ROTFL!
Geminii -- That is cool about the seed you found from your friend....and cooler still that it is something you'd actually like growing in your garden for long-term! Oh, my! Same here on pricking out seedlings, and having as many in the pots as when I started! The Torenia is one of the worst because it must be pricked out -- some of the others like Lobelia and Alyssum can stay together for a long, long time.
Gram! 19 containers germinated? That is not fair! I mean, That's wonderful! :)) We should have that many, too, and I only have one.
Lea, The Blue Vervain was from me -- the color was quite startling in August when it blooms because everything else in the garden was that yellow-gold: sunflowers, rudbeckia, Bidens, Melampodium, etc. While it is true that it prefers a moist place to grow, I think I am right in saying that if you keep it on the dry side, it wo't achieve the 48-60 inch height it is supposed to. That's good because the flowers would be too small on a plant that size. It bloomed the first year for me. Hmmm. Maybe that's why it bloomed in Aug and it usually blooms earlier. Oh, well, last year was my first year for it, so I'll know more this year. LOL! If it increases substantially in size I'll bring a little chunk for you. (I only had one live after they germinated, , were frozen solid for a week, were transplanted, and endured the summer drought) :))
Fairy, You are having such great luck with your seeds...skill, not luck, but luck in that the traded seeds are all viable. On the Eastern Redbud, when you plant it in the garden...plant it right where you want it for the rest of its life. They are very, very deeply taprooted and it doesn't usually go straight down....it goes off to one side. Sure as shootin' if you go to transplant it, the shovel will sever that root! They don't like to be moved.
Diana/Wind, The lid removal is the worst part of the milk jug idea, IMHO. They must be removed on sunny days that are in the 70s as I recall from last year. If it's not sunny and in the 70s, you can open a lot of shoulder vents in the top. I'm pretty sure that's where you are now.
When you do need to open them, seriously open them, you take a wooden clothes pin and fold the the top back and clip it to the bottom.. This effectively means that they take up DOUBLE THE CURRENT SPACE, which was my big problem when I did it. New Topic: My Cannas have been knocked over twice now. They are just somuch taller than everything else LOL!
Suzy
Join Us! Seed Swap Seed Starting & Conversation #8
Lol Suzy - I will have to wait to try that trick when he does not travel with me! (He hates when I have a lot of luggage and he does not like me to carry anything on!)
Oh Suzy, I would love a start from that vervain if you get to it, that would be great I hav a perfect spot for it that stays moist and I love it cause it gets so big I hope it does here!
As for the tops to the jugs when you take them off if you punch holes to the sides where they fit together when it gets colder and they need their tops back on you can take bread ties and tie them together and I put numbers on both the top and bottom so when I take the tops off if I need to put them back together I can do that and they don't take as much room for your jugs that way with the tops on the side of the jug :) I use a hole puncher for the holes on the sides where the jug goes back together, hope this makes sense :)
I just put my violets and pansies, parsley outside today :)
Suzy, what about the bush violets I don't figure they are the same so shoud I leave them under lights and not take them out to the greenhouse? I have enough I could try both ways :)
What about the convolvulus, I WS it the 20th and it's up lol Should I just put it in pots until the weather gets dry enough for me to plant them, of course that may be never? They still have their little seed heads on right now.
I just cut a flap on my milk jugs. Can't I bend them down and secure with a clothes pin if it gets too warm. I'm hoping for that soon........70s would be welcome. Probably going to have more high water here.
yikes fairy....I didn't nick and soak my eastern redbud tree seeds :(
WInd-I will cross my fingers for you on the redbud and if you need them I have some left!!
Suzy-I have a collapsable suitcase too-my mom got it for me way back in the day-it is ugly as all he&*, but serves it's prupose-it is just kinda like the outside, then the sides to make it sturdy are not that sturdy, but just slip right in and then snap togehter to make the shape...Also, I might have to reconsider where to plant it(redbud) and maybe you all can help me. I want to plant a smaller tree in the yard between the street & the sidewalk. I have seeds for eastern redbud (which is what I was planning on putting there), a mimosa tree and a golden chain tree....any advice??
Fairy I think the eastern redbud would be a good choice for the front they only get 15-20', I'm planting one down by my shade garden this spring hoping it grows fast, I've already planted one by my herb garden and have one more left to place when I figure out where I want it :) I planted a golden rain tree last fall I'm wondering if that is going to come back it was only three inches lol But I have another in a pot just in case.
Morning all,
My babies are romping away and as temperatures are right by now a whole bunch will be moved out tomorrow. Here's my window sill construction (photo taken yesterday), which DH has dubbed Garden Gnome's hanging gardens:
And these are about to be banned from the house!
More baby pictures: http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb270/AnkeFreese/Slideshows/Babies2.swf
Oh, My LORD!!!! You do all that with no lights? Just window light? Mine would be deader than a doornail! We haven't seen sun since last November. (Okay, maybe not that bad, but it has been a dreary spring, that's for sure!) The 10 day forecast shows rain, clouds and more clouds, but one day, Sunday, is supposed to be sunny. :)
I don't really have any large seedlings right now except the Cannas, the Geraniums (Pelargonums) and the Stachys coccinea. The rest are little Chia pets just waiting their turn for transplanting.
Suzy
The ones on the second photo don't have additional lights. However there's white curtains there that I close every day and open every night. They reflect the light.....
If you look at the first photo, you'll see I covered them in aluminium foil, which also reflects light. There's some extra lights I use, but only for plants that are further away from the window, like this:
I like that foil Idea-I think I am going to use some on my little container that my babies are in to reflect the light...
Lea-That root Suzy was talking about that runs along the surface won't mess up the sidewalk or any of the pavement?? I really want to put some dayliles I think around it-I figure that since it is a small tree it won't offer a whole lot of shade, so they should be OK-does that theory sound right or am I underestimating the tree??? I just really love them and the purple flowers they get in the spring!! For my Golden Chain Tree (not rain) I want to put it someplace that I can put the purple chinese wisteria by it-I think the drooping flowers on each of them & the yellow & purple colors will be very complimentary.....what I REALLY need is a handy hubby to build me some things!! My BIl is supposed to help me this spring, but we will see....
They all look wonderful!!!
What are the large ones in the 2nd photo, on the front right? They look a little like Jack in the Pulpits -- Arisaema, I htink.
Fairy, no, the root will be fine. It is a deep taproot and you can plant right under the tree because there are hardly any feeder roots on the surface. (I would actually say there are no feeder roots at the surface.)
The tree is small, sort of. Compared to an oak or something. I have one that's 20 feet high and probably 20 feet wide. It is half-dead now, but it would definitley screen off anything at eye level and above, so becauseful placing it in front of your house, so that when it grows you can still see your front door, at least.
When they grow in nature, they are rarely by themselves...usually a little grove. They prefer woodsy soil, protection, part shade, ample moisture, and can be sort of tricky to establish where you want them, although they seem to grow really well where they want. I have seedlings along my driveway a lot of years, but as I said before they don't transplant well. Once having said that, my neighbor had a landscaper put in a large white one, it is in a lot of sun, he doesn't water, the soil was cruddy (I saw the hole when they planted), and it's by itself and doing fine. Go figure!
In 10 years, the daylilies won't have enough sun. :))
Suzy
Suzy,
They're Tinantia erecta (pointed leaves), Leonotis nepetifolia and some tomato's yellow pearshaped.
Tuink, that's quite an ingenius setup you have. I'd like to have something like your window hanging shelves for houseplants. I've seen something similar somewhere else 'pre-made'.
I'm finding I sow way too heavily, but not knowing how good germination is going to be, it's tough to judge. On an APS-40 (from Gardener's Supply, self-watering with 40 little squares) with 8 types of zinnias, I sowed about 15 seeds in each square. Some only got 1 or 2 and some got the whole 15.
I haven't started my eastern redbud yet. I thought I would keep it in a pot the first year, but it sounds like it wouldn't like it. Suzy, do you think it I put it in a deep pot it would be ok? I thought it would be taking a chance planting such a tiny tree in the ground.
Next year maybe we can exchange the different colors of the vervain if they all bloom.
With so many days with freezing temps here I was amazed at the germination. Maybe my tub/baggie combo experiment will be a success. It will be really neat if it is. Anyway, so far, so good.
I sowed a flat of those peat pods last night and it had seeds from Tuink, Margaran, Fairy, ansonfan and Robynznest :) I also sowed a few black tomatoes from another DG friend. The weather this morning wasn't too dreadful, but it's still winter enough that I'm not schlepping things outside today. I've got two more lights to set up that will give me room for two more flats - with out blowing any circuits, I'm hoping - LOL! I split a bunch of violas from the Weez Winebox yesterday that were getting crowded, so they're in new cups under plastic baggies.
Tuink, I love the aluminum foil idea - your setup is so smooth, you've thought through all the details! (Hanging Gardens, hehehehe......)
I sowed some Golden Rain Tree seeds a while ago and have seen absolutely nothing, so I'm gonna dig them up and see what happened to them.
Grampapa, I feel your pain on not knowing how many seeds to sow. Sometimes it's because of the age of the seed, sometime it's because the seed itself is "supposed" to be difficult and ends up being as prolific as cover rye!
Dryad, Trees usually need to be stratified. I looked up your tree, and if it's this one, it needs to be cold stratified. It's forecasted to be 27 tonight, so sooner, rather than later, on it.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1778/
Gram, (and Fairy) I had to run outside to see the little redbud trees. Brrrr! The very first year they stay small, so a deep pot is ok, but beware that the top might be small, but the roots are about 5x bigger. :)) Get it into the ground either in Sept 2008 or mulch it real well and get it planted early in March 2009. Like late winter, I mean. When it's really cold out. That's the spring it will be much, much bigger.
I think your baggies will be great. My problem when I did them was threefold -- and without bothering you with the lowlights of my experiment (as opposed to highlights!) I found the seedlings that lived to be very difficult to extricate from the baggies. I'll be curious to hear how you are able to do it.
Right now I have the cutest chia-pet pots you ever saw. I keep telling them to hang on one more week until I can get them transplanted to bigger digs. I figure what's the point of doing it now; I don't have any better place to hold them until I can get the portable plastic greenhouse up, and the shelving installed. TOMORROW iof the ground isn't too saturated to hold it up without sinking down a couple feet. We'll be happy for all this rain come summer.
I had a pack of snapdragon seeds that said to freeze for 48 hours before sowing. That is the only pack I had that said to freeze them, and the information (and seeds) came from the Stoke's website. Hmmm. My Rocket Red and Black Prince seed didn't get frozen and they came right up. Plus they were BIG seedlings!
Next year I want the 'Chantilly' snaps from Renee's Garden, so if anybody places an order with them, let me know, will you? I pretty much have a wish list from every seed company in existance, but I really, really want those! www.ReneesGarden.com
Tuink, LOL! Never heard of it: Tinantia erecta
Suzy
Ok Suzy-so just to make sure, I need to keep my redbud in a big ole pot until this fall, then plant it in Sept?? Will it be big enough to survive the winter?? How big is big sough and should I get those syro things some of my neighbors have & put it on top so DH doesn't kill it with the mounds of snow from the snowblower?????? I would be heartbroekn if I planted it out this year & it didn't come back next year:(
Tinantia erecta has a nice name in Dutch: Widow's tears......
I just read that it takes them 3 years to get to flower. That's a real setback!
Suzy I got the chantilly orange snap seed from Parks. It had 25 seed and I have 3 of the tiniest plants that I have ever seen but they are still with me after maybe 2 weeks. I am really hoping to get them all 3 to live and grow. Then maybe I will have seed for next year and I definitely plan on doing them differently. BTW when you all talk about putting them out (any plants) this time of year do you mean in the greenhouse. I don't have one but am thinking I will get one of those portable ones you all have if I can figure how to anchor it in the sun.
Thanks
Fairy - Redbuds are only supposed to be marginally hardy in our zone 5, so when you grow any plant in a container they should be 2 zones hardier than your zone if you want them to make it through winter. The pot being above the ground is exposed to the elements and freezing temps much worse than plants with there roots underground. So if you want it to make it through the winter you should mound a very thick layer of mulch up around the pot so it is as deep as the pot or bury the pot right in the ground. This may help but Redbuds are tough in a zone 5 winter - I planted one 2 years ago and last spring it had some twig die back. We'll see what this year brings. The one I have was purchased from HD in a large pot, so they must be ablt to grow in containers, this one was probably 4' tall, I saw the big tap root trying to find it's way out one of the drainage holes and had to cut the pot to free it up without damaging it. I think my husband used his sawz all to get it off!
Tuink, your set up is BRILLIANT!! Very clever, and making excellent use of every drop of light!
Thanks.....
Tuink - I am like Suzy here - not much sun - so I don't think I could get away with just using window space or I would try a set up like yours! It is so cool! What are those grass like plants in the last photo?
Meredith-they are all over here!! They are along the railroad tracks next to the road I take to & from work and all over peoples yards, so maybe if I keep em in a pot I will put it in the garage-what i was talking about was the styrofoam things you can get at HD in the fall & put a brick on top to keep it from flying away-that will protect it from DH snowblowing...right??
Sounds good to me!
I need to vent - last year we spent $90 on a cool evergreen and planted it next to our pool. Well now that the snow melted enough to see - I found about 2' of the end of it are gone! At first I thought the weight of the snow broke it off but upon further inspection it appears an animal has decided to eat it or use it for nesting or something! The end looks carved off into an odd shape and there is all wood chippings around it! And no sign of the 2' that have gone missing!! Aaargh!! ):
This is a pic of how cool it looked last year.
This is it now! (from inside - it is snowing so I can't get out there for a pic!) This has been bothering me since yesterday. I am sure it will take years to fill back in. Right now I am hating chipmunks because I think this may have been the culprit. I noticed one living in the rocks over there and thought 'oh how cute, our rocks have given a home to a cute little chipmunk' I remember shooing my cat away from it's hole - oh and that time he was using one for a playmate and I got it free from him! Now I will be sicking my cat on it!!!
Oops I was so busy venting I forgot the picture!
Robin, I always WS my tree seeds, I WS my golden raintree seeds last year and just about all of them germinated and only kept two of them, the only seeds I have trouble with that way is the darn beauty berry seeds, I soak them then plant them or just plant them and have never gotten any seedlings from them anybody know why? What am I doing wrong with them? Maybe i should try deno's method but that's about the same as WS them.
I've got two redbuds in pots outside but they are by a bunch of concrete that I have around my herb garden and one is buding out now hope I didn't lose the other one :( But the one in the ground isn't budding out yet either...we shall see.
Fairy, I hadn't thought about that tap root on the redbud, surely it'll be a lot deeper than the side walk, and on that golden chain tree I was told the raintree was hardier than the chain tree that's why I grew that one, wish I could find that post I've been looking but can't find it :) I know they are both hardy to zone 5. If my dogwood tree seeds germinate this year I can send you a white dogwood to plant out there they are a nice tree for the front yard and small, last year none germinated and the year before that they all germinated so I have to wait to see what happens with them this year :) Did you get any of those seeds?
Meredith, you may have had a visit from a deer with the looks of that woods behind your tree but they don't leave chips of wood I wouldn't think, hmmm wonder what it really was, that sure was a shame your tree is cool looking :) I've had deer prints in my herb garden this year and never had before I need to put my dog back outside I think that's the only think that has kept them away in the past they do nibble on my morning glories in the back yard in the spring hope that's all they do this year!
Yes Lebug first thing I thought of was a deer until I saw all the shavings all over the place and the very end is rounded then it gets very skinny and then it's all knawed again almost like someone whittled it! Plus the part that's gone was under the snow and there is a hole close by. So I guess the little bugger did it right under the snow! I am wondering if he thought it was a downed branch and used it as nesting material- don't they do that? The worst part is that the yard and pool are not finished - so I never got to enjoy how cool it had looked!
spelling
This message was edited Mar 28, 2008 2:18 PM
LOLTuink! 3 years, but it will be well worth it, for a couple anyway. :)
OMG! I got the Chantilly Orange ones from park's, too. Hmm, I haven't run across the package; I wonder if I wintersowed them? Yes, I put them outside because of no light inside, but they are a lot slower growing than they were last year. The Bachelor Buttons and Calendula are a lot bigger, and they were put out even earlier. I have snaps inside, too, but they are the bigger ones. I'm not sure what is going on, but I sure won't have to harden them off! The 3 (4) things different from last year are this:
1. I put just a seed or two in each cell, last year they were in a community pot
2. These are the smaller, border snaps
3. I put them out before all of them had germinated, thinking they would germinate outside and it's happening, just very slowly.
4. I added this - no sun and hardly any 70 degree days here and there like we are used to having, even in Feb.
I have no idea if any of those things have to do with how small they are, just the things that are different from last year.
Fairy (and Gram), depending on how close a watch you will be able to do for your Redbud, I would use that Miracle Grow Potting soil with moisture crystals and 9 months of fertilizer. It has a LOT of sticks in it, so be sure to use that kind becaus it drains so freely. BUT if you do, you have to water it every other day in hot summer....this is a pain in the rear, and once you commit you have to follow through! Stacey/Fairy, I think you have a sprinkler sysytem, right? and that should help a great deal. The reason you need such a free draining mix is because the pot will be waaaay too big for the seedling in order to get the depth you need. When you have that combination of large pot and baby plant, you get into a situation where the plant actually drowns becuase of lack of air to the roots. I'm not sure of the science behind it, but I know it's true. So the mix has to have a lot of that composted bark in it and supposedly the new bags of Miracle Grow have that texture....terrible for starting seeds, but great for a large pot/small plant situation.
In the winter, the snow will not hurt it one little bit form my own personal experience. I shovel snow right on to the area of the driveway where mine come up as seedlings -- ALL of the snow from a good portion of the drive goes on top every single snowfall and it doesn't hurt it at all, but the soil is extremely well-draining (I can grow Heucheras long-term in the spot, so you know it's well draining!) Lawnmowers, dogs and feet are another story! The styrofoam-things are "rose cones", right? LOL! Yes that would work ok, but to be honest, a bag of shredded hardwood bark mulch would be better, and better looking for your neighbors, poured over and packed against the pot and leaving the top open. In this area, redbuds are ardy to like Zone 4, so not to worry about the top of it.
After 9 months, maybe 7 months, you'll have to fertilize. Not too much, it will still be a baby.
Yor next problem in that after the 2nd year, possibly the third year, the leader branch gets very long -- maybe 4 feet or so with no branching off of it. It is never straight up, more like a 20-25 degree angle. By the time it happens to your plants I'll have the anawer on what to do with it. I might have cut one in half last year, I think, to see what it would do. I know it will branch, but sometimes the braching is way out, like a hammer, and sometimes it's more V-shaped. I think it will be like a hammer and you have to clip one of the sides, but I'll let you kwow more, either this spring, or next year :)) If you don't clip it, your tree will forever lean, and though they do that in nature, I don't think you want a tree in your front yard listing off to the side like that -- that branch becomes the main trunk.
Suzy
Sorry Meredith, I sent the last before your 2nd pic posted....and that pool *is* cool, with or without your evergreen!!!!!!!!!!, although I know it was a lot of money. a LOT of money and it will be a shame that you lost such a big hunk of it! That looks like the work of...? I have no idea, but for some reason I was going to say rabbit. They like to chew without always eating, don';t they? With all the snow you've had, they could walk right up to the top of it, but it looks like you are out in the rural parts, so it could be a beaver or badger for all I know! (?)
But the pools are very, very cool!
Suzy
Thank you for the compliment Suzy. When I first looked at it I -was- thinking 'what the heck? was a beaver eating it?' so it is kinda a mystery I guess. I just thought because it was under snow when it happened that it must have been something that burrows.
That is so funny how red buds are so hardy there. I have only seen a whole three in my town, but they are all big enough that they must have survived quite a few winters here. So I have great hopes for my baby! I planted mine near the road taking into consideration how wide it should get. I read that they are great roadside trees and I wanted it to be out for all to see! Last spring was it's first year blooming for me and it only bloomed a little bit but I was still excited! http://davesgarden.com/tools/journal/showimage.php?eid=128091
Most of it ended up leafing out with just a few little twigs that needed to be pruned off. Thank goodness.
This message was edited Mar 28, 2008 2:28 PM
Meredith, does that red bud grow pretty fast? That's a nice looking tree! How big was it when you planted it?
LOL! Quite a different picture than the last one with 5 feet of snow on the ground! VERY PRETTY! If your dh is a race fan, come to my house in May and do some trimming like that for me!
If your redbud is plated near the street, doesn't it get like 12 feet of snow on it from the plows?
Suzy
P.S. Oh, yeah, the tree is cute, too. No, it probably isn't dead just because it isn't blooming...they don't bloom on new wood. All of then around here are like that, too. -- edited to say, sorry, I didn't realize it was an old photo and you knew the answer to the bloom question.
Fairy look at the pic...do you see the middle trunk? Foillow it to the tip. Do ou see where is was pruned off? That's the answer to my question on what happens when you prune that long branch. But it made the trunk on the left have a really long leader to compensate.
Suzy
This message was edited Mar 28, 2008 2:52 PM
I don't know if you can see the road - but it is a pretty good distance away where the plow doesn't throw snow on it. I'm hoping you can see the plows rathh. The neighbors barrels got knocked down from that like 2 minutes before this pic. Unfortunately I have to say - no it does not seem to grow fast. The few twigs it got that were new were tiny and some of them probably won't survive the winter! (This could be due to it having been container grown and it could be developing it's root system and grow faster soon - I hope) Hopefully you all have better luck! It is pretty much the same as when I planted it. I cheated and bought it that size at HD. It wasn't too badly priced there. They ended up having a bunch on clearance later and I was tempted to rescue some. (resisted the urge though) They looked like homely things after being left in the care of HD staff for a month or two!
My DH loves his lawn! I'll see if he can be tempted to watch the races! lol I know he loves cars - he used to be a mechanic. Now he builds gunite swimming pools - this is the only reason we have been able to start one! He has done all the work himself (except the actual application of the gunite). Most of the materials were leftovers from other jobs! He has built swimming pools for NE Patriots, his company has quite the reputation! All though he is starting with a new company this year. Which I am a little nervous about!
This message was edited Mar 28, 2008 3:17 PM
Does anyone know which thread the info on soaking hibiscus seeds until they sprout was? I tried scrolling through the last few and I've had no luck finding it. I started 3 types and two germinated very quickly while one hasn't after 11 days now. So I've started soaking the seeds I held back yesterday. I changed the water today. One seed has sunk and looks swollen, but I thought I remembered someone said the ones that sink are bad. Is that right? How many days can I soak them without it being too long? So sorry to ask this - I know it was already discussed but I have to wait a month longer than most of you to start the same seeds you've been starting.