Where is everybody?

Except for one on Anita's swap thread, there haven't been any posts in weeks. Wondering where everyone is.

Attached is a picture of my butterfly bush blooming for the 2nd time this summer.

Karen

It's great that you started this thread just so we can stay in touch with each other.

Good grief! I still have winter-sowed plants still waiting to be placed in the garden! I bet others are busy in gardens as well - weeding, and planning where to move all the perennials in Sept.

I bet we will have lots to discuss in terms of successes and failures once we have more time inside with our computers.

Today I planted out 17 Dianthus Rose Zing, and planted out even more Veronica Sunny Border Blue. The latter are just seedlings and I have crammed them into a garden, planting them like rows of peas!

I have to admit, I am sold on winter sowing for perennials - you can't imagine how many I have in holding pattern, waiting to be placed permanently in gardens ^_^

I'm back from vacation and enjoying my wintersown 'maters!

Here is "Marianna's Peace" eaten for dinner tonight.

Convolvulos, "Blue Ensign"

Japanese Morning Glory, "Velvet Plum"

Balsam, "Blackberry Trifle"

Karen, some of all the rudbeckia varieties you sent me are doing well. They were very slow to get started and big enough to set out (I probably needed to feed them more), but once in the garden they've finally taken off. Got blooms on a couple now. I'm wondering if you find any that don't bloom the first season and behave as biennials? Thats what I'm hoping will happen with these, they'll be gorgeous if they bloom after a good year of establishing!

Still have perennials awaiting homes here too. Some were just too small till now to set out earlier, so now I'm waiting for cooler, wetter weather. The toughness of some of these babies amaze me. I have some delphinium and painted daisies awaiting homes that I was very surprised to see recover after being attacked by some kind of caterpillar. The little seedlings only had 2 or 3 true leaves each, when all the leaves were eaten over night. I could still see the stems and leaf stems, so I kept my fingers crossed that the growth bud in the center was intact. I sprayed them, fertilized, and babied, and am so happy now to have some great looking plants to set out.

Seandor, isn't it great to be able to plant multiples of perennials with so little cost! I think about how many I'd have if I was paying $3-10 each for them.

Earlier in spring, I was undecided about how much I was going to like wintersowing annuals- just felt like I was getting such a late start. But now that August is here, a time when I'm usually not very happy with the gardens, I'm sooooo glad I tried all these annuals! So many are in their prime right now, like sunflowers, zinnias, Kiss me over the garden gate, cleome, cosmos, tithonias, and marigolds. I'm used to being left with a garden that's not very colorful in August after most of my lilies (the stars of my early summer garden) have finished, but this year looks very promising for color right through fall!

These are some of my WS 'Custard and Cream' four o clocks. I think I got all custard, and no cream, LOL.

I LOVE custard!

I'm saving plenty of seed from them, dmail me if you'd like some :-)

These WS Zinnias are so bright, I'm loving them!

gemini_sage: Most of my rudbeckisa bloomed the first year, but waited until the second to really thrive. Some still look healthy as horses, completeing their second year. I have my fingers crossed that maybe a few will make it to a third. However, some second year ones are really pooping out , definitely dying out.

I sowed some rud Prarie Sun in 2007. I loved them, saved some seeds to see what their offspring would look like, whether they"d maintain the green eye and beautiful color differentiation of Prarie Sun. A few of those plants produced offspring that are, I think, exceptional. The colaration is there, but more muted than in true Prarie Sun. They maintained the green eye, but a few blossoms on a couple of plants turned out doubles. I'd like to call this "Rudbeckia Karen". I'd like a patent.

Karen

Karen, that one is a winner! Gorgeous! The 'Prairie Sun' offspring you sent do have green eyes, but I haven't seen any doubles yet. Lovely in any case! Instead of black eyed Susan they could be green eyed Karen :-)

Thanks for the info, looking forward to seeing those babies mature!

Good luck with them Neal; I hope they do well for you. Maybe you will have a few doubles pop up eventually.

Karen

Here's my Rudbeckia Cappuccino just opening with several more buds.

Here are some zinnias... please ignore the weeds....

Raggedyann: Are those profusion apricot? I love profusions, didn't do any apricot this year and I miss them.

Joanna: Very pretty. What's the red behind the rudbeckia?

Karen

It's a Belgium Mum

Hi Karen and gang ... I'm spending most of my summer in Wisconsin, so i'm only home a few days per month to enjoy my 'babies'

they are doing quite well!!

i just got home around noon or 1pm today, and i dont even get the car unpacked .... i head straight for the back yard, search thru all the flower beds, then around the house -- checking everything out... takes me about 20 min or so.

Spied my Sunset Hyssop today.... even the lil babies that i WS'ed this year are in bloom!!

and i've begun collecting seeds too.

Terese

Joanna - what's a Belgian Mum? I lived in Belgium about 20 years ago, for two years. Ya got any seeds left?

Interestingly enough, I just put in my last WSers this morning. I had three Canterbury Bells and about four Obscura Foxglove hanging around.

The ones that did best, as far as germination and growing, were Bachelor's Buttons, Foxglove - 'Excelsior' mix - obscura 'Sunset' - trojana, Red Flanders Poppy, Shirley Poppy, Petunia 'Madness', Canterbury Bells, and Sweet William.

I don't know about anyone else, but I've spent very little time on Dave's this summer - I've been in the garden!!!^_^

I think most people tend to be outside rather than in on the computer. I'm sure the fall will pick up on traffic here on Daves. Winter definitely sees an increase in people logging on.

Speaking of garden - I'm heading out there now with my coffee to appreciate all my wintersown blooms!!

Karen, yes those are profusion apricot. I volunteer at my son's school for the grounds beautification committee. Last year we dug up all the zinnias in fall and composted them. I saved tons of seedheads and that's the only one that bloomed so far. A few weeks ago, someone dug some cannas and daylilies out from the school entrance sign and threw them in my neighbors back yard. I found them when I was looking for my cat and gave them a new home ;)
Starting some pansies, carnations and coneflowers now. The coneflowers are doing good so far. It's still in the 80's here...

I have some Profusion Double Cherry this year. Seeds from Park's, and only one sprouted. I bought 3 of them at a local garden center. I can't make up my mind on them. I generally like them less than the orange and apricot which I've had in the past. The cherry ones fade so much as the blossoms age. Just when I think I hate them, I deadhead, they look better, then I think they look OK again.

But the cherry color does fade a LOT.

Karen

This was my first year to try winter sowing.. I had a couple of great successes.
My best was hardy hibiscus.. I have yet to put them in the ground and still haven't decided where I want them all to go.. I may put them in one large bed and then set them out after I know what color blooms they will have.. I have over a hundred babies. I got seeds from several different sources... I have a very large yard that needs lots of bright colored fowers to really show up ... so am very excited about them.

I need to work at my organization for next year.. Start saving milk jugs earlier, maybe even have the soil in them on the ready ( yeah, right, like I will get that done).. I use my own compost for potting soil, but need to figure out how to get the weed seeds out. I have heard that if you put the compost in black trash bags and set them in the sun the heat will kill bugs and seeds... May try that.. Anyone else have thoughts on that?

I am busy and excited already and saving seeds at every opportunity.. But, My big goal for next year is to try to start roses from rose hips.. Hope that works. Has anyone had luck starting roses?

This last year I think I put my milk jugs in the wrong spot.. It was great for things that happily germinated in early spring, but otherwise it got too shady later in the Spring. The spot was as protected from the wind as I could get on my windy hill...

Shirley, the morning glories are beautiful.!

Hello to all,
I’ll be new to winter sowing this year and would like to join you all on this forum. Right now I have just been reading all the great threads and colleting the things I will need. I will need some help and I’m sure I’m in right place for that.
So for now, hello, later in the season it will be a cry for HELP. I have some experience with direct sow and a little both good and not so good with indoor/kitchen counter sowing. This sounds like a new and wonderful world for me, and maybe I’ll be able to cook in my kitchen next spring.
Have a great weekend everyone,
Donna

KathyJo, I've used my own compost for winter sowing before. I baked it in a Dutch oven with the lid on for a couple of hours at 400F. I still had a few weeds, but not enough to be a problem. It was mostly composted, mulched leaves, so that may be why there weren't too many weeds and it worked well.

Donna, you're gonna love winter sowing! Its the easiest way I've ever started seeds.

These are winter sown 'Purity' cosmos with orange zinnias and Tithonias (also winter sown) behind them.

A winter sown Datura in the same garden.

I have amazing success with my w/s zinnia. I have vases all over the house filled with them!

I tried daturas , not sure why I wasn't successful..

and I can't believe I didn't plant ONE zinnia this year.. I must be slipping.. The cherry colored one with the white tips on the petals is especially beautiful.. just beautiful.

Thanks Kathy - I look forward to them every year.

Just beautiful, Anita. I love zinnias. What is the name of the red with white tipped petals?

Karen

It's from a mix http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&SearchText=4930&mainPage=textsearchresults&RequestType=NewRequest Zinnia Haageana Aztec Sunset. I like it too as the blooms are real small and perfect for small, long neck vases.

My neighbor does Zinnias and TONS of them.... seems she had many "pink" ones this year. I had more of a color variety than she did, but she had way more plants.

and Uggggg, speaking of compost... bless her heart, she adds to my compost bin. Over the 2 yrs i've had it, i've found odd things like chx bones, which really grossed me out.... but about a month ago, i went out to "roll" it, and i saw whole apples, giants chunks of a variety of fruits and veggies and the entire egg crate [the cardboard kind]

I think she ruined my compost. I'm going to do a small lasagna garden in an area i have a lot of weeds .... and i'm just going to dump it all on the card board, then dirt on top of that.

she really is sweet, and her English sometimes isn't the best... so i haven't said anything .... but -- after i dump it, i'm going to tell her to only put grass clippings in there .... that way i dont get WHOLE watermelon rinds.....

When i got home today .... been away most the summer .... i gathered TONS of seeds. The Bachelor Button seeds were pathetic .... i think most were sterile .... I also did Rudbeckia hirta ... i only trimmed back 2 plants and good golly did i get a lot of seed. Then i trimmed back my Cosmic Orange Cosmos.

then did enough weeding to make my back ache.

Terese

Anita is right - most of us are sooo busy during the growing season . . . Anita, I haven't shown pictures of the zinnias I grew (thanks to you for the seeds!) They are truly amazing! I share the blossoms with folks that help weed the terrace.

And thanks to Seandor, who is so generous and who gave me some Datura and Morning Glory seeds, neither of which I had ever winter-sown and grown. Here they are, a bit intertwined!

This message was edited Sep 4, 2008 10:11 AM

Pretty flowers!

My poor flowers have been sadly neglected lately. It's just so hot, and so little rain, seems all I do is water. I haven't deadheaded anything. I'm letting the perennials go dormant now. I haven't even taken any pictures lately. Here's one from about a month ago.
of a hummingbird sipping from the lobelia cardinalis. It's right in front of my front porch.

Karen

Karen, that's such a cool photo! I also have some of this lobelia (WS) and the ruby-throated hummers are mobbing it lately as they "bulk up" for their migration. But I've NEVER been able to get a clear photo of the little birds--they are in constant motion. How did you do it?

speaking of Zinnias .....

Like i mentioned above... my neighbor LOVES them.

A wave of zinnia - yahooo!!!!

and ....... since i didnt really have dinner... i was hungry for a snack ... looky what i found

nice, juicy WS"ed 1884 heirloom 'mater.

and Ohhhhh was it tasty.

tcs: Wow, those zinnias are something else. Gorgeous! Is that your yard, or your neighbor's?

CapeCod: How to get hummingbird photos: Tell her to pose!
Seriously, that clump of lobelia is right in front of my front porch. As we sit there the birds come to feed. I sit with camera in hand and snap. That's the reason it's planted in that spot- so we could watch up close.

Karen