OK, I guess as long as the moss roses are alive and well I should just let them do their own thing. thanks, Lea.
Suzy, bronze fennel is perennial. It's the Florence (sweet) fennel that is annual.
Seandor, sounds like you've got yourself a pretty nifty GH. If I put together something like that it would blow over. We have the worst winds here. I don't think we've ever had a day with no wind.
tabasco, how much parsley do you plant for the swallowtails? and do you get them? I had about 12 plants last year. do I understand correctly that it's biennial? I was out today cleaning out the old foliage and it looks as if it's alive at the roots. anyway, I've winter sown more., but I just don't know how much room I need to devote to it. I really see very few butterflies. I found one cat all last summer.
Join Us! Seed Swap Seed Starting & Conversation #9
Wind and Tabasco, thank you for your empathy. I really have been riding an emotional roller-coaster over the whole ordeal, but today I'm in my who-gives-a-flip-at-least-I-have-time-to-work-in-the-garden frame of mind. Tomorrow might very well find me in my OMG-what-am-I-going-to-do? mode, or I may even have my I'll-get-even-with-those-greedy-corporate-pigs-if-it's-the-last-thing-I-do attitude. But today it's all good. LOL
Jan, moss roses are re-seeders. My neighbors have great moss roses every summer and haven't planted them in years. Be patient, they'll get there.
I think I screwed up with my basil. I winter-sowed it. From what I've been reading it sounds like I should have started it inside. I moved the rest of my WS containers today. They were TOO wet. I tried the baggie over the plastic cup method this year, and the baggie sagged, and held the rain water. I do have calundula and 3 dianthus coming up though.
And now lookie here! Today was the maiden voyage into the GH. :-D Now I'm just trying to figure out if I need to haul everything back out for the night. It was almost 30° warmer in there this afternoon than it was outside. I wonder if it will hold heat that well all night long?
Lucky Dog!!!!!!!!!
La, that's a beautiful thing! wish I could help on the overnight temp issue.
Once you get those puppies in the greenhouse I'd leave them in there unless you have some tender annuals, don't open and close the door too much and the heat should last a while for tonite as long as it doesn't get to freezing or under I would think they would be alright that's what I'm going to do with mine but you are in a colder zone La, so you just have to experiment with it this year, I envy you! Can you put some jugs of hot water in there with them probably would take a few but if it's not getting too cold tonite they should be alright we don't know what you have in there :) Hint Hint LOL People put big tubs of water in theirs on warm days then it makes it warmer thru the night too :) NICE greenhouse I want one!
La do you have new trays where did you get yours? I think I'm going to need some more 3" pots for next year so I'm shopping around, anybody? 6 packs will probably be ordered too.
eddited to say I wish someone would do a coop on those! LOL
This message was edited Apr 5, 2008 7:25 PM
I did get new flats this year Lea. I have more flats and cell packs than I can ever use (everyone gives me their cast-offs), but I had no small plug size cells. So I bought some new ones at http://www.novoselenterprises.com/products/seedling.asp . I found they have the best prices for small orders, and if you spend $75 you get a 15% discount and free shipping.
I have Salvia Staminea Germinating, but not evansiana yet:( Did anyone that got them from me have them germinate?? They needed watrth, so I put them in baggies and put the baggies (clsed and full of air) in bread pans and on the heat vent they went-worked pretty good!!
?? about pansis & viola-I put em in dark and got a few germinated, but how long do I leave em in there B4 I put them with the rest in light??
Lea-I am going to ask nurseries that I buy from if they have any I can have-free is always good!!
Sadly, I just have 1 lonely MG that has germinated from my WS outside stock:( I am hoping for the rest!!
LaLa-I smell a co-op!!!
grampapa, I don't really know how much parsley is needed for the swallowtails. I planted 8 plants last year but they were hidden under the zinnias and milkweed and I didn't get a lot of cats.
This year I am going to put the parsley out in plain sight so I hope to get some visitors. I will plant about 6 or 8 plants again and will use the parsley for edging with shorter magellan zinnias . The swallowtails use the fennel too of course, so I will plant some of that. I guess I'd better get some seed sown.
You know Stac you might be right. I ought to check into that now that I'm not so pushed for time. I've already used almost all my plug liners. Hmmm.
I asked my nursery guy where I get my cheap soiless mix at and he wanted to sell me old pots LOL I don't think so he wanted about as much as new ones would cost after I give him some WS seedlings I'm hoping he will come down :) There is a place I can buy new here but I hate paying the full price the are kind of expensive! Maybe I'll call Roger and see what he could cook up for us for next fall LOL I don't think I could do a coop though since I've sold plants?
Just got back from seeing my grandson off to his Junior Prom. His parents (my son and wife) cooked supper and we got to eat after the prom goers. UMMMM. steak on the grill.
The Bronze fennel sort of came out and looked like a paper clip. Pricked out some but I am in doubt. I am going to do some tomorrow in a milk jug and also some just in a container in the window. I don't even know what I want with it but have heard it is a good foliage plant. Did you all say it is a perennial?
Lea I didn't read all the way down to your post. Thanks for the offer but there is still more seed. After reading your posr I definitely will try more tomorrow.
Oh, well, I had a geranium like that and I just planted it (crooked underground, but regular above ground) and it is fine -- blooming and ready to be put in a pot for outside, as a matter of fact. I also had some lilies just now, they were hairpin-U-shaped because the seedling tip had gotten caught in the seed itself underground and it couldn't pull itself plus the giagantic seed up. I watered it to soften the seed, then then did surgery.
Bronze fennel gets really tall. It is a peculiar color of, well, bronze! :) It is light and feathey and as long as you kow it gets tall, you can plant it where it should go -- I have some with the lilies, and that tall Cosmos sulphureum for the butterflies if that is of any use to you.
Suzy
Thanks. Suzy
How tall, like 4 or 5 feet.? I like the sound of feathery, I kind of want to go for different textures. You all have turned me into a plant fanatic. I see it, therefore I think I can grow it.LOL
Yes, feathery is exactly right. Yes, 4-5-maybe 6 feet tall. I had all three heights, depending on the seedlings, where they were planted, etc. The leaves are very thin -- feathery, and yet the swallowtails can lay an egg on the very tip of them. I have seen them do it, and it's nothing short of amazing.
Suzy
Basil can be sowed with the winter sowing method, but you have to wait until milder spring weather, as the seedlings can't tolerate cold. I just published a DG article on using the WS method in spring. :-) For some good ideas on sowing basil inside and clump transplanting (complete with step by step photos), see my Seed Starting 101: Sowing & Transplanting article. Here's a link to the whole list of my articles, including all the Seed Starting 101 articles, Winter Sowing articles, and the one on preventing Damping-Off: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/by.php?user=critterologist
Fairy, I just remembered that Tuink has those Salvias you are talking about. it keeps me up nights worrying about who got which pack of seeds!
Suzy
P.S. I'm KIDDING!
Is it possible that this will be a Perfect Spring?
I just checked weather.com's 10 days forecast for Indianapolis and there is NO FROST or FREEZES in the forecast for the next 10 days. It goes out to April15th and all the nights will be in the 40s.
I pay particular attention to the weather forecast in spring because of the daffodils (not that daffodils in the garden care if they freeze or not, but for showing daffodils, you have to cut them in their prime, and if the weather doesn't cooperate, you have to go to Plans B, C, D, and E.)
We have never had a Spring where it was cold, and dreary and cold and dreary and then all of a sudden, it was Spring, and stayed Spring. A hit of 17 or 18 degrees is the norm, but it doesn't look like it will happen. ??? Or WILL it?
Suzy
Suzy, same here. Spring in Buffalo, NY is a 'blink and you'll miss it'. It would be nice to have a real spring for a change. My Bishop's kids and grandkids dahlias have germinated. can't wait to see I get. I sowed both the pink and the coral.
critter, I have to look back at your clump transplanting for basil. I have too many things going to prick out all my seedlings, and I have 8 varieties of basil started insidel
I need to start some bronze fennel (Indy, yes it's perennial). I have the Florence fennel and didn't understand the difference when I planted it. I wouldn't mind having both. The Florence is a bright green, about 3' tall. I think I have bronze seeds here somewhere.
My seed did not say which variety just Bronze Fennel . They are from Riverland. I am going to do some more today ws method but guess it will be now called ss.
Illoquin do you show daffodils? I love them and mine have really done better this year than inthe past. Last fall I gave them a little fertilizer and had never done that before. Usually they flop over so bad but this year are much straighter. Many more blooms also. Now I amthinking I will divide them in the fall and have a larger swath they have really perked me up since that is all I have blooming this early. I did get a forsythia bush at the grocery store yesterday but it is much to wet here to transplant. It will be done blooming before I get it in the ground.
Better go have to eat my cereal and get ready for church.TTYYL
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Illoquin, thanks for the info . . . checked the plants and all survived the first night. The forecast for the lowest temperature for the next 10 days is 34 degrees - then everything is in the 40s.
I was more careful in starting the zinnias - so I have spare seeds if these croak. But, I think they might make it. I will be putting the dahlia tubers out today - and cross my fingers there as well.
(Honestly, I didn't plan to end up with sooo many petunias!)
If this flops, you can gloat and tell me, "I told you so!" :-) Meanwhile, I have more seeds to start and more seedlings to plant up. :-)
Now Suzy, I was thinking it was going to be a perfect spring last year then we got hit with that freeze in the middle of April so I'm just wondering what is going to happen this year!
Holy crap I just pulled up our extended forcast and a week from Tuesday (the 15th) they are calling for rain/snow showers. But the low is "only" supposed to be 35° so I'm not really sure where the snow part comes in. Still, 35° is too cold!
I went out a little while ago to open the door and window on the GH. So far it looks like everything survived the night. (Whew). Now I'm off to find a place for the 50 lily bulbs I bought in Neal's co-op. I think it's too wet to get the tiller out, so I'm in for a world of work today.
Edited to change GF to GH. LOL @ opening the door and window on my girl friend.
This message was edited Apr 6, 2008 11:04 AM
OK-I think it was over looked, but HELP ME PLEASE!!?? about pansis & viola-I put em in dark and got a few germinated, but how long do I leave em in there B4 I put them with the rest in light??
Lea-if you have a tax ID, then no co-op running for you:( But I think LaLa can!!hint, hint
Fairy I plucked them out as they came up I think most everybody else did too, that reminds me I still have trays in the closet, ooops, wonder if anymore germinated LOL
I'm not doing a coop I'd get it all screwed up LOL I'm just looking for pots for next year I'll take the summer and scrounge around :) I don't have a tax id :)
I would do the co-op if no one else would-I am all about getting the deals!! If we decide waht we are looking for EXACTLY then I will research it...
Thanks Leas-I just didn't want to take them out too early.
I have 1 of my tinkerbell nicotiana germinated and my sunruse lupine!!
Fairy did you soak your lupine before you WS it? I took my lupine seeds out to soak and lost them somewhere LOL I've been looking for them for two weeks!
If you don't take the violets out they get really leggy not sure if the rest of them would germinate if you put them under lights but the first time I ever sowed them I had them under lights and they did that's been a few years :) They were the cornuta though I think they are pretty easy to germinate.
Well I'm going outside!!!!!!!!!!! No rain, just sunshine today Wooohooooo
I saoked the russel & chandelier, because it said so, but the sunrise didn't say to and I didn't and they germinated in a little over a week!!
Hey Fairy - sorry, I missed that. I waited a couple days after the first couple sprouted, and then put them all under lights - they all sprouted, and while the first ones to sprout were a little leggy, they got over it pretty quickly.
I may have to move all my tax work outside today....
Gosh Fairy the seed coat looks like it's so hard I can't believe those germinated in a week! I wish I could find mine LOL There here somewhere not looking today it's too nice outside :)
My plains coreopsis is germinating in the jug today! I freaked when I WS them cause all I saw was annual on the package when after I sowed them lol I figured I'd have to sow them again lol Who did I get that from? Next year I'm going to keep better records of who I get seeds from when we are begging for them LOL
I filed two greenhouses up now I need to put covers on my other two today I only use two shelves on them though the top shelf doesn't have enough head room and the slugs and voles get to the bottom self lol
My pussy willow is blooming and some of my other stuff is peeking!!! I have been in & out all day cleaning out beds!!
hi all, hi Fairy, finally got started with your datura seeds! planted the double golden queen yesterday :) thank you again, I can't wait. Also, I got the salvia evansiana planted. Several salvias have germinated already and Dryads salvia Lady in Red started yesterday, and Shirley1md's salvia Victoria started today!
I noticed with the parsley sometimes the birds eat the swallowtail caterpillars, so it seems like there are no cats at times, but they may have been there and eaten! We have only around 4 or 5 parsley plants in our butterfly garden and they always attract many s.cats. I imagine what else is around in your gardens would influence the number too. We also have some bronze fennel and they also do love that. Suzy, I guess ours got various heights too, I didn't really pay too much attention to the height.
I realized this am, I've gotten so many seeds planted, but I forgot to plant what I usually plant ~ incl. my nicotiana sylvestris which I love!!! which reminds me...critter I'm looking now for the nicotiana photos I said I would send you.
Ooh, wind, that photo would be a nice one to use also in an article about enticing butterflies to an herb garden, if you're willing... is that dill and a BST cat? I appreciate your looking for the nicotiana and hornworm photo... I'd like to do several articles on wildlife friendly gardening in June. :-)
It sounds like my next couple of Thursday articles should probably be the hardening off and planting out ones, even though it'll be another month or so before I'm really doing that here.
My petunias just keep getting bigger, too... :-)
Evening everybody! I need some big time help from somebody if ya don't mind. Ya all know I am pretty much stuipd when it comes ot the computer.
I finally got me an excel sheet made. bene sittign here with the manual and got it done. I made it and saved it into my documents. Gave it a name . Closed it out.
Now I working on a paper on a word document. I wanted to put my excel sheet I made, it a small one, onto my word document.
I have tried everythign I coudl think of, but I can't figure out how to get it to copy and paste on my word document. I have windows xp home office and my puter is a dinosaur.
I had my word document open workign on it and went to insert and tried to find it in my documents , but it wasn't there for the format.
Please, somebody have a bit of tender mercy on me and tell me what I need to do in simple steps to get my excel sheet on to my word document.
Usually I pretty easy going and it takes alot to get me really frustrated. I been two hours and still can't figure it out and for the first time in a long time, I really so frustrated I about to the point of tears. I alreayd doen lost my excel once tryign to save it and had to do it all over again. Don't think I cna handle havign to do it a third or forth time.
And does anybody have a good way to keep Dianthus Sweet Williams from flopping all over when transplanting or are they supposed to do that?
Got a squirrell who has chewed through a bunch of my main electricalwires, so gotta call the electric company tommorrow and get that fixed.
Everythign is stil as soggy as soggy cna be from several days rain, but we needed it.
Starlight, I can't help you with your documents, but I can make us a party of 2, at crying party. lol
I just went out and carefully loaded my seedlings in a wagon, so I wouldn't drop any on the way to the GH. Well, I rounded alittle corner, and the wagon tipped over with all my seedling upsidedown. They didn't break, but all the name tags but a few, went everywhere. BoooHooo.....
Some days, you just can't win. Thankfully, most of them were zinnias, but I really wanted to know where to put what color. Oh, well......
~Lucy
>>We also have some bronze fennel and they also do love that
Hey Lea -- that reminds me... did you want me to send you postage for the Fennel you were gonna send me??
I had completely forgotten about it until i read wind's post.
Terese
Stalight, Dryad would know...I'll dmail you her email addy in case he doesn't log on. She's whiz at that kind of stuff. I can't do anything.
Suzy