Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #12

Oh boy do I hope some of that rain comes this way! We need rain in a bad way. All my moister loving plants' bottom leaves are turning yellow, as well as most peoples' lawns. If things keep up this way we are going to end up having a water ban. That won't be good for all my babies that aren't even in the ground yet. 8(

Suzy.. put that texas Star in sooggy bed. they love the water and can even be used as bog plants. I have some that was seedlings that got put into a pot with nothing but rain water and oak leaves and they growing like a wweed

Way to go, Suzy! I had my first Ensign bloom yesterday, a blue one! I've never seen them in person, and it was gorgeous! Hollyhocks that were wintersown last year are blooming now too, and the Shirley poppies get prettier every day.

Now with all these plants from the RU, I'm hopelessly behind LOL! I did pawn off several extra seedlings at least.

Tuink, so sorry about your cat Janneke :(
also, yours Lucy :(

I'm getting so behind here, our porch is getting more seedling cups instead of less!!!!!!!!!

I heard about the terrible rains too, nothing here and for some reason all the storms breaking our recent heat wave missed our area ....so we really need some rain.

Another one of Weez's violas started blooming today AND finally my first lilac petunia bloom opened today :)))))) I took a photo but didn't have time to upload it yet.

the wild sunflower begging to be transplanted!!!!!!!!!!

Morning all!

We are very much in need of some rain (and more than the drizzle we're having now). Please send some our way!

Lots of flowers are now in bloom. More than I can mention. Will soon make a slide-show to share them with you.......

Morning all!

Here you can see what's in bloom by now: http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb270/AnkeFreese/Slideshows/12f3dfdd.swf

This is just the backyard!

Tuink, I loved your slideshow! You have so many wonderful flowers already. : )

And there's so much more to come. Just can't wait!

Aw, I want to see your pictures and my computer won't bring them up, says error on the page :(

Try again later, there may be some trouble with Photobucket!

I'll try again later...sigh, sometimes I just can't get your links up for some reason I know some of the others can :) Maybe my settings and I know nothing about computers lol

I need to give Suzy and Lebug seeds from this red Dianthus, if you don't already have red that is.

Lovely garden, Tuink-your flowers look great.

I'm hopelessly behind on reading this thread, I've been sulking about the weather here being so cold (we broke a record for coldest day ever in June a few days back) and haven't been spending a lot of time online. But, the house is looking good even if most of my seedlings are just sitting there. ;)

However, one bright spot is my petunias-they look terrific. I've got a lot of very confused little plants, though.

This message was edited Jun 13, 2008 10:17 AM

Meredith, are those Sooty Sweet William? I planted some of those last year and they are so pretty! They look the same as those, lovely flowers! Do you cut them back after they bloom? I've had sweet william before and got rid of it cause it was such a mess after they bloomed, would they bloom again in the fall if I cut them back you think?

Sue it's so dry here my petunias are doing much of anything, I water and feed and they are so slow to grow lol As with all of my other seedlings that I have in the ground.

I have my castor beans soaking and mole plant, not sure if the mole plant is the castor bean or not, they do have a mole plant and it sounds kind of invasive so I'm putting those in a good spot just incase so they will have plenty of room :)

Ahhh Tuink, your flowers and gardens are beautiful. Thanks for showing us. : )
~Lucy

Lea, It's kind of funny, the sweet william was from a pack of seeds I got at walmart. It showed bright red flowers, and I got a good percentage of those but I also got a lot of what look like sooty. The butterflies are only going to the bright red ones. --I hear you about it being dry - this has been the driest spring we've had since I began gardening. : (

Oh I forgot to answer your question -- they get messy for me too, I just cut em back last year. The only thing is I need to keep them to gather seeds from, then I'll cut them back. If you deadhead them soon enough they might bloom again. I cut mine right down to the ground and I didn't get many new blooms.

I may cut them back half way then? I don't really care about saving seeds to those I have some extra sooty but not sure if I will plant anymore and a lot of people have sweet william :) I only have that one lol I've had it before a long time ago but I took them out cause I didn't like the mess didn't even think about cutting them back, duh! I got the sooty from ansonfan and they are just beautiful! I had the red the last time and they were too, so the butterflies liked the red better, hmmm lol

It was way too dry last summer so bad I went and bought a few soaker hoses that I need to get in the beds for them to do me any good lol My flowers are getting to the point that I mash them down trying to get the hose to them on the other side of the house lol

I don't care for messy plants either and of course I planted these in a spot that needs something neater. So now I need to move them, if I can ever find a good spot. They are worth it now that I've seen Tiger Swallowtails on it 2 days in a row. Here is a picture that shows the two color strains I got. Doesn't the one in back look like sooty?

Not really sure Meredith, my sooty is a brighter, darker pinkish red, maybe it's just the picture?

We finally got some much needed rain last night, now I want more LOL I've been out digging violets this morning, still a lot of work to do in my middle bed before I plant a lot of these seedlings.

How long does this Jack Flash Silene to grow lol That thing takes forever if I put it in the garden now the snails and slugs would have a hay day with it! It just germinated the 6th of May and is not a fast grower at all, but it is starting to shoot up a bit now :)

I had some silene that I started from seed last year, and it just got a couple inches tall and didn't look like much... this year, the plants have shot up and started blooming, and they're just lovely!

Lea, Your Sweet William sound beautiful, I was thinking on starting some that color, I only have these two colors now. I just remembered that you and Suzy love red flowers, so I thought you'd like them. Plus I know you two have a soft spot for butterflies like me. Check out this link http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/37998/ I was wondering if I was getting names mixed up so I searched it. : )

hi everyone :) enjoyed your photo show tuink ~ what is your first photo, the white bells with the green stripe? also, do you know what kind of passion vine was in the June 11 #025 photo?

It is HOT and HUMID here today...just hooked up a soaker hose and gave away more seedlings and STILL have seedlings everywhere!!!!!!! I'm hoping for some much needed rain tonight and will plant more tomorrow.

Our first crazy daisy opened yesterday and it looks really nice in with a patch of feverfew. The mina lobata didn't germinate :( I'll have to put something else in that basket. Also, the purple majesty millet grassy part looks green so far...is it supposed to look purple? I noticed red okra seedlings that I direct sowed coming up too.

Suzy, I'm loving all the seedlings from your swap seeds, thanks again so much :)))))))
...did you ever get a Gartenmeister Fuchsia? I did try and start one for you to no avail. It does not propagate easy or I didn't know how to do it, sorry.

Okay . . . I started a whole bunch of campanula seeds (all different kinds) . . . many are just germinating - or growing VERY slowly . . . is this typical?

Also Balloon flower plants - just germinating now . . .

What's up with this? Am I doing something wrong? I really, really want these, but I don't know when I should pot these up, they are all sooo tiny.

Meanwhile, some of the hibiscus have germinated! hurray!

Thanks for thinking of us Meredith :) I'll check the link out later just in the house to feed dad then back out it's pretty nice today so trying to dig holes to plant in after the shade hits this evening and doing pots.

Wind that purple majesty will turn purple before you know it, it's alright :) I haven't planted mine yet and just did plant the castor beans and mole plant seeds think I need to do some more to soak tonite I only soaked a few to start with and had to give a couple to Bill (my mentor) he had a mole go right across his yard in the middle of it and he is so particular about his yard lol He cuts grass twice a week, drives me crazy lol

Don't you just love the crazy daisy? A friend on here told me they need to be divided out every year! Guess mine will die lol I don't divide lol Once those suckers are in the ground they are there to stay :)

I plant seedlings and still have them everywhere too but it's so comforting to know everyone else does too!

Lebug . . .how big do the seedlings have to be before you can plant them out? I planted some sunny border blue veronica - and the seedlings didn't make it. . . but seedlings I potted up and allowed to grow for longer seemed to have a better chance - but OMG! I have tons of seedlings I would have to pot on. . . What do you do?

thanks LeBug :)
meredith, "sooty" looks really nice, do you have that?

I bought a new ceramic pot today to match a combo that I really like of coleus festive dance and zingiber midnight ginger ....these were not from seeds...I purchased both. It is funny, every year I have a diff. interest and this year I'm coleus crazy :)

my one bloom so far of crazy daisy and the feverfew around it :)

Wind, I have some that look just like the sooty pics in plant files. I got them from a pack of seed that just said red, so it seems they were mixed in. Your container looks so pretty, and so are your daisys : ) I'll save seeds from them this year if you want some Lmk.

Seandor that's all I do all summer almost is transplant some of the perennials that are WS, I think I could do it in my sleep, I don't usually plant the ones that grow slow until the last of summer/first part of fall and they are in 5" pots by then. I transplant two times from the jugs 3" or 4" to start out and they end up in 5" pots about a month before I plant them out unless the seedlings are the ones that stay really really small and they get transplanted three times from the jug to 6 pks. and then on. I planted my penstemon in the middle of the summer last year and got blooms before fall, it was an unknown from Mikefreak and beautiful I might add I planted the rest of his seeds out of that pack for this year :) I don't work so I have the time to pot all of those up lol But when I worked I did it too just more plants were held over until the next year in a gal. pot. My gal. pots are going down now, I'm so darn glad still a lot more to plant from last year but they are going down :)

I don't remember when my campanula came up that was about 2 years ago that I grew mine, no three cause it took it three years to bloom, I'm getting blooms for the first time on 5, I'll get blooms off of 5 more next year I hope :) I only have four different kinds though in all of those. Same with the balloon flowers but seems like they grow pretty fast, it may not if you have a dry summer, just depends. I've WS mine before and have seen a bloom or two before the summer was over.

Wind, your pot is really pretty, I love that color and that combo. I've got feverfew that I planted in my herb garden this year, will it bloom this year? I like how the crazy daisies and feverfew go together, I may have to copy that :)

Suzy, I got most of my cannas planted today, I planted 3 yellow with light green leaves with black pearl pepper and the darker foliage orange one wih 3 of Tuink's purple petunias and I planted nemesia around a blue knoll annual aster I cut the nemesia back to about 4 inches I just hope it blooms soon lol Still have a lot of pots to go! lol

I saw the first bloom to Kew Blue today and not at all what I expected, it was dark purple with a lite blue specked stripe in it going fron the center to the outer edge, I need to look that flower up again and see what it's suppose to look like, these were still in cow pots so that may have somethng to do with it, I have three in the ground right now and one is getting ready to bloom. Don't you just love seeing your seedlings bloom it's so exciting that you started that from a seed! 8^)

Morning all!

We had frost last night. Can you imagine? Luckily it wan't too much and my babies don't seem to have suffered. But still: frost halfway June is something that has never been registered in Dutch weather history (and it goes back 400 years)!

PS
Wind, the bell flowers are Allium triquetrum, the vine flower #25 is a Passiflora mollissima (also called banana passionfruit because the fruits are edible and yellow).

This message was edited Jun 16, 2008 12:21 PM

thanks tuink! I'm going to make a note of it...I liked those :) I can't believe you had a frost!!!!!! I had to finally put the air on here it got so hot and humid. I'm not sure, but I think the rest of the week here in my area is going to be in the 70's...go figure. I'm sure it will feel good, I'm so HOT right now from planting in between mosquito bites!!!

My salpiglossis seedlings are fussy. Some died and I just read in plant files comments tonight that they don't like full sun, which is where I had them. I hope I can salvage what is left and get to see it bloom :)

I planted 3 of the summer showers geranium (from the swa-op) today around 3 scarlet magma coleus (PamSue's) with purple majesty millet (Suzy's) in the center. Also, I finally divided my ws wild helenium (Rachierabbit from the swa-op) and planted it where I can keep an eye on it and water it if necessary. I still have several pots I think I'm going to give to our local master gardeners office next week along with other "extras".

eeegads...I think I put a pkt of kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate seeds in my pants pocket that are now in the washing machine!!!!! ....gonners I guess now :0

Plant those seeds and see... I washed some castor beans, and after their unintended soaking they germinated very nicely! LOL

Tuink, can't believe you had frost! I'm glad you didn't lose much... I imagine your heart was in your throat when you went out to check on your plants to see if they'd survived!

Wow.. frist this late doesn't bode could for not having an early or a hard winter it seems to me. Sure hope all yoru stuf f makes it Tuink.

T&M had one of there half price sales going on and I couldn't resist. Major drought and heat conditions, but still here I ma getting some mroe seed.

I got a package of Knautia macdonica have no idea what its common name is Just saw the red double pin cushion like flowers and had to get em.

I rading the directions and am a bit confused. Says it flowers summer.autumn. Also says to sow from late winter to early summer. Sumemr starts here in a couple days. So do ya think it ok to go ahead and start them. The package says makes a large neat, roudne dbushy plant. I want to try and have them big enough to go into one gallon pots for next year. Do these multiply or get bigger with age does anybody know.

I am so easlily turned by a pretty picture. LOL

Hi Starlight!

I feasted with T&M too. Didn't dare to tell DH how much I spent there but they were quite a lot of dollars!

I have Knautia and it's a lovely flower that just keeps going. Insects love them too! It's flowering for a month now and will do so till september. If you want them to flower next year, you'll have to sow them now! They grow a little bigger each year, but is well behaved and doesn't get out of control.

I have the Knautia, the red and the melton pastels and love them, they reseeded in my garden this year like crazy, you should have seen me trying to cut with the lawn mower and trying not to run over the seedlings that was out in the grass lol My plants that I planted about two years ago are about 1' around and last year I took seeds off of them like crazy and they still reseeded everywhere. The only two colors I have though are the pink and the red, no purple. Must be a good one to WS with all of the seedlings, not sure if they would sprout right now with it being so hot out. Star maybe if you sow them in the fall where you want them to grow, the seedlings are blooming now that popped up from last year. I can send you more seed to throw out, I've already collected a lot of seed, not from the pink yet, just been too busy :)

Oh Tunik, I would die right now if we had frost, I can just imagine the torture you went thru wondering if your plants were going to survive :)

It's nice and cool here today, just lovely I plan on doing a lot of planting and weeding today and tomorrow before the heat hits again, I got some goldfinger tithonia planted last night about 7 of them and an indigo feather morning glory.

Wind, I planted my salpiglossis Kew Blue in the full sun that I think I have here lol It's starting to bloom now, I love the flowers on them but it's making me wonder about the sun now lol They seem to be doing alright they are about two feet tall now.

I thought I got some of the pink turtlehead in a trade and planted them with the purple and I think the pink is turning out to be jacob kline bee balm, sure looks like that's what it's going to be if it is I'm going to have to move it I'm waiting on a bloom lol

I haven't plante one coleus yet, still so many seedlings to get in the ground! And still so much grass to kill yet LOL

You guys always seem to be my go-to people when I'm in a quandry. Sorry....and thanks!

Never having grown nasturtium before I'm not sure what to expect. I planted some seeds a couple of weeks ago and I don't think they've come up. To be honest I screwed up their bed so I'm not totally sure. I was out of planting space so I hastily tilled up a new bed a few weeks ago. The bed was apparently FULL of weed and grass seed and I'm having a heck of a time determining what is weed and what is flower. Since I've never seen a baby nasty it's making it especially tough. Should they have germinated by now?

This is pretty off-topic, but whilst I have my captive audiance I'm going to ask anyway. Have any of you ever received money via Paypal? I've had 2 people who were going to send me money in the last couple of days and either it's not been sent or I don't know how to retrieve it. When they ask for my addy is it just the email addy I use with Paypal? Jeesh, I'm such a babe in the woods.

Lala,

Did you register with paypal? You have to do that first. From then on it will work like a real bank account. If people send you money, you will get an e-mail confirming the receipt. The e-mail address you used to register is the one you will receive money on. See it as a kind of bank account nr. If you are already registered and you didn't get any mail from Paypal, the money isn't there yet. If the people who are sending money to you aren't "confirmed" users, there will be about a week's delay. On the other hand, you could ask the persons if they sent the money already. Maybe they didn't and you're fretting for naught.......

Nastie seedlings look like this, they're easily recognised:

La, I'm putting pepsi bottles over what seeds I'm planting in the ground right now cause I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to tell the difference with the seedlings either lol I have nasties I'm planting in the ground today so I hope it's not too late, that's one of the first things I'm going to do today :) This is my first time growing them too but I think they take a little while to germinate but in time for fall I hope, seems like they do better when it's cool?

I don't do pay pal so sorry I can't help you out there.

Thanks girls. Good idea on the bottles Lea....wish I'd have thought about that BEFORE planting, LOL.

Tuink I'm not sure I follow with the "registering" part. I do use Paypal to SEND money, does that make me registered or do I need to do something else? Ack, I guess I'll go back and read the fine print again.