Wonderful photos! Thanks! I may be hitting you up for permission to use a couple of them, if I can figure out how to include a lot of photos without making the article look too cluttered (hmm, maybe this is going to turn into one of those more-than-one-article writing projects... we shall see where it goes). Regardless, please remember to upload them into the appropriate PF entry (I'm going to go through my seed gathering photos and do the same).
Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #15
Critter,
If you write about harvesting seeds, you may consider getting seeds from fruits. Like berries and, especially, tomato's!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/228/
Red flax is an annual but they say it will reseed, this was the first year for me to get it to grow and I had to WS it to get it to germinate, early spring while it was still cool, I can't tell you how many years I have been trying to get this seed to germinate! lol I saw someone on here make the comment if you want it to reseed it needs a lot of compost thrown around it and wouldn't you know I put mulch around it when I did that bed earlier, just my luck! I know, I'll just move the mulch lol I'll try and save some seeds but I really want to plant this in my middle bed too, and I think it needs a lot of water, I seem to water it more than some other plants in my nectar garden but then may be that's just me worrying too much because I want to keep this plant soo bad! This one is still blooming.
Here is the blue flax, it's a perennial, I've had two of them in my beds for a few years now, I take a tomato cage and stick it over the plant cause it tends to split in the later part of the summer and I just don't want to see it droop, mine are at least two foot high. I never have it reseed around the plant but on occasion I find one in the yard lol I think this one is done blooming for the year, I cut one back in my middle bed hoping it would start blooming again but I don't think it will.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/260/
I never have been able to get the white ones to live for me for some reason, I get the plants then they die, same with the gold but they don't even germinate for me I gave up on both of these.
Critter, the red flax doesn't get as tall as the blue it only gets about 18", mine aren't standing up very well either, next year I'll put a tomato cage over them too and when I planted them I planted the whole jug that I WS them in, all that seems to be there for the stem is just one stem and they branch out a lot different from the blue, mine are laying on the ground right now but still blooming. The blue one has a bunch of flower stems coming from the root not the red, does that make sense?
tcs, you can have more flowers on one stem on the blue flax at the same time :) How does your red flax grow compared to how I tried to explain it lol I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have just planted the whole jug do you think they would have done better if I had planted them one by one?
Now I'm going to have to save more flax seeds lol
thanks for the info on the Flax.
critter... no prob on using images. I have no problem with that. Use what you need... and if you need a specific one and cant find one.. i'll see what i have in the garden. and take images.
and I know i really should be uploading them to PF.
Tuink, there's a great tutorial from Horseshoe on saving seeds from tomatoes (link in the tomato forum resource sticky thread)... I think he may be intending to turn it into an article format at some point.
All these suggestions are great, but please don't be disappointed if they don't all make it into an initial introductory article... If I get too detailed, we'll lose some folks just because they'll look at the length of the article and think, oh, that seems terribly complicated. I'm thinking if I can just get people *started* looking and picking apart a few seedpods and flowerheads, they'll come to the DG forums for more information. I'm also quite willing to write additional follow-up articles, and I think we may have some other seed-savers among the authors who could do so also... but first I'm trying to think very, very basic -- the kind of information I needed when I first started going out into the garden, trying to figure out where the seeds were on my plants.
heres Calendula officinalis
Are we piggying yet? If so, I'd love to have some of your red flax Terese.
Thanks,
Maggie
Today I found a plant I liked. I wonder if any of you growing it and happen to have seeds from it. It called Red Praire Mallow.
Wish we could find out if Suzy up to doing a fall piggy swap, but maybe she hasnt recovered form the february one yet. That was lots of workI know.
i guess we should at least make a mental note of what seeds we would like.
DH just came home from a weekend in KY. The wife of his friend, mentioned that she loves Hollyhocks, and DH told her she and I must chat. I guess she likes Pink and Yellow.
I think mine may pass as a pink, though i think they are more of a dark pink .... but if anyone has Yellow HH, I'd like to get that on my list.
as for the Red Flax .... since they are still blooming, I haven't seen any seed 'balls' yet. I'm hoping they are similar to the Blue.... though i have to admit, those were a pain to "clean" .... i did that this morning... lots of chaff, not many seeds.
tcs1366
I have some yellow hh seed from my sis in KY. I will send you a few if you would like.
Someonne explain how this piggy swap works. I was not involved in it but have been on this forum for quite a awhile reading and posting so just want to know how it is done.
nanny -- last year we all made lists of what we have and what we want. It was like a feeding frenzy of seed swaps.
i can't even recall how many were involved... 40+ i think .
it ended up being called the Piggy swap when someone, possibly Suzy started saying "OINK" because they felt they were being a "pig" in asking for seeds.
It was quite fun!! and tiring... i still dont know how Suzy managed it all, even with help from Robin. [dryad]
i think there was an earlier one, say Nov/Dec time frame... the "second chance" piggy swag, was January/Feb time frame.
Terese
oh, and yes, i'd love the yellow. The lady i'd also like to get seeds for is in KY, south-ish of Louisville.
LOL. Feeding Freny is right. Just thinking back to those days makes me smile and want to start squeeking.
If ya go back to around the beginning/ middle of January and look on the seed trading forum you will see the initial seed swap threads and how it works and what a mad house it was. Think everybody more or less sat glued to their computers for those weeks of swaping.
We started out all nice and everything and then as more and more lists went up one day it turned it to like a bunch of little piggies squeeling for food. Hahhahahahah Was the funnest time I ever had. Lots of laughing and oinking and begging and just plain good ole fun.
Ya ever heard of spring cleaning and cleaning out the closets, well it wa slike that except we all cleaned out the seed boxes. Some folks had lots of seed, some had little or none. It didn't matter. Folks put up what they had and you just asked for it. Then the person who had it would put it aside to put in your envie. You didn't have to put up a trade like on regular seed auction, ya just put up what ya had commercialor gathered and if somebody wanted what ya had, they let ya know. Suzy was the queen and it still amazes me with the thousands and thousands of posts how she managed to keep track of what ever body had and kept addign to lists when folks would forget who had what.
Thousands at least of seed type were offered up. There had to be a million or more seed that all got sent. It was new seed , old seed, seed from other trades you ha dleft over. Anything and everything went into the pot.
Here is the link to the story Grandpa wrote. I love looking at the pics. Makes ya smile to re read it and hear those words of me and oink again. : )
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/725/
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh the good ole days. ( sign and smiles)
oink... oink Oink.. OInk. .. OINl. OINK....OINK...OINK. Can you all say suuuu-eeeeeeeeee Hahahahha
starlight -- how awesome that you had that link. I remember that article... what fur we all had.
OH -- and i just remembered -- when i sent in my 'stuff' i send Suzy one of those 5x9 padded envies to send my seeds back.
She send me a DMail, almost laughing at the size of it .... I asked if i should have sent a shoe box instead.
I could not believe the amount of seed packets i got in return. My list did not look that big!.
This message was edited Sep 8, 2008 6:56 AM
Oink Oink!!
Tcs, I received some flax seeds that were just wrapped up in a little square of newspaper from someone one year and didn’t mind a bit cleaning them, in this swap I think you could get away with that lol We are going to have so many seeds to swap I don’t think any one would mind cleaning their own seeds they will just be happy to get them. Flax seed are a pain to clean! lol The red flax seeds are just like the blue ones.
I have some pretty pink hh seeds I’ll save some for you :)
I was going to get a head start on my seeds with all the information on them and so fort h this year for the piggy swap and I’m no closer than I was last year to getting all of that done LOL And my list has already started of people wanting seeds lol
Star, I don’t have any Red Praire Mallow, but those sure sound good :)
I wish I had someone to sit here and tell me no when those seed lists go up lol Suzy mentioned before that she would do another swap, she’s just be en busy for the summer, I hope lol I’m saving seeds but don’t plan on asking for a lot, I hope I don’t ask for any, I figure there will be enough people in that won’t have seeds that mine will make up for some.
I've gotten so many wonderful flowers from the last swap and want to thank everyone and have gotten a preview of most of the blooms this year, next year should be just beautiful in my gardens!
Tuink, my hibiscus seeds are almost finished then I will send them to you :) I haven't forgotten you :)
I got some seeds from a tree of a magnolia or something in front of the animal shelter when I took my cats and wish I knew what kind of tree it was, the leaves were shinny and five petals to each one that were long like fingers it had cones on it but the seeds didn’t come from the cones I don’t think. I got quite a few seeds anyway but don’t have a clue as to what it is lol I’ll watch for the blooms in the spring, I asked in the shelter if anyone knew what it was but no one did.
I saw some Yellow Flax too. [in a photo] stunning!!
might have to see if I can't get my hands on some Yellow Flax.
Running out of town for a week or so.... so i wont be posting as much.
[so someone else may have to start a new thread with the Piggy Image]
That yellow flax is pretty but must be hard to grow from seed or it is for me, I tried for a few years along with the white with no luck :( I did get plants from the white but no blooms and it didn't come back.
Have a safe trip!
I've been collecting seeds all day it's suppose to rain tonite and I'll be planting after dinner, I'm ready for winter and a break from both jobs lol
it was raining when i left, i checked the radar about 2 hrs ago, and it looks like an ALL day rain affair in the Chicago area.
We are just cold [55F] and drizzly up here.
we really needed the rain though.
as for the seeds... i was on this swallowtail seeds site, and darned if i didnt book mark it.
DH was out in the rain this morning collecting seeds for his friends DW in KY. He was all running around asking what is where... kinda cute.
That woulda been a cute pic!!
Terese, don't you just love Swallowtail Gardens! Especially nice for us piggies because so many of their packs have large quantities of seed for a great price- plenty to share! I've been avoiding looking, but should probably start getting ideas what to ask for in the swap. Looking forward to participating this year!
Neal
Looks like we got almost two inches so far, sounded like hard rains from last night though, didn't get any planting done last night but I did get my lawn mower fixed and so the grass is cut the first time in two months at least lol Always know who is going to work on your lawn mower guys lol Two months of excuses! If it weren't for my 'mentor' it would still be sitting out there and my weeds would still be reseeding in my beds LOL
The cracks in our ground in places are three inches wide from no rain!
tcs, that's so cute about your honey, how in the world do you find a guy like that!
I love swallowtail too. I buy on there all the time and was on the site today tryign to figure out what it is I wanted to get next. Seed addiction is a baddddddddddddd thing. heheheheh
The sweet he out there trying. Hope they appreciate what he going through. : )
LEA!!! My toad liles ou sent me are blooming and they are wonderful!!! They are White towers and Miyazaki I think-the one is white w/ lavender speckles-I have pics at home, but not close up ones-I will have to get some close up of the flowers!! I thought it was 1 plant when I got it and so I planted it all together-LOL-now I need to sepereate them:) Thanks you ever so much!! I LOVE THEM!!!
Mine are starting to bloom too Fairy they are so cool how they get blooms all down the stem, I grew these from seed two years ago but look at what I found on here yesterday:
http://www.perennialnursery.com/tricyrtisvirus.html
I was hoping to get seeds from the ones I got from the coop this year, each one did bloom but I think I missed the seeds, they are looking really nice too can't wait for next years blooms!
Not all of them have seeds....
Here is the new one I have-Golden Leopard
Here is the Miyazaki
And here is the white towers
So far I have collected lupin seeds, lavender seeds, and coral nymph salvia seeds . . . ^_^
oh no not all of them have seeds? That's a shame I hope mine does, I think it's Guilty Pleasure? I hope it has seeds but doesn't matter really I love the foliage on it! I like yours, was that one offered in the coop? I don't remember seeing it :)
I'm at the point I have to finish digging violets out of my middle bed, I have run out of room!!! I can't believe it! LOL I still have a lot of plants to go LOL This is the hardest part of my middle bed cause I have so many violets and plants mixed together that I'm getting rid of, old rudbeckias and such and my big poppies are in there too I'm just hoping to save enough of them so they will reseed again lol This part is such a mess but it's been too hot to deal with it but now it 's cooled off some and it's going to rain Friday so I want to get some more plants out there :) I still have a little planting space left by the house once I get rid of my Mexican petunias, I have sprayed them three times and most of them still aren't dead, they weren't that hard to get rid of out front.
nice pics Fairy :)
Seandor, you are so lucky you can grow lupines...I don't seem to have much luck here for some reason.
I was just out chasing away a frisky kitty chasing our birds and noticed that two plants of ansonfan's green amaranth sprouted tassels! They are so short; I would have pulled them as weeds if I hadn't seen the tassels. I hope they self sow and come back taller next season. They are so cute, two little plants, two little tassels :)
LeBug, sounds like your Mexican petunias grow like weeds. I can't believe your killing them back with spray, couldn't you just yank them out?
Wind , I've tried yanking them out and it's no go, they don't budge, they've been there for three years probably.
I had a big scare with my mommy cat earlier, she was foaming at the mouth, I cleaned it away and tried to get her to drink some water but she wouldn't, guess she is alright she hasn't done it since, she probably just ate some dirt lol She's always there when I'm digging and playing with the dirt clumps but she was out of site for a bit, really scared me, I really worry about these silly cats just because I know nothing about them, cats are soo different than dogs, like I'm used to :) I had to put a bell on all three kittens Wind, the other two kittens are just discovering birds now lol
Nope Lea-I stumbled upon it at a nursery-when it is big enough to split I will sned you some if you want-maybe next year??
Do any of you still have plants in pots waiting for someplace in the garden to locate them? I have four hardy hibiscus, about 7 Apricot Sprite Agastache, and all my balloon flowers still to plant!
Ohhh-yes-I have some that became casualties waiting to be planted too:(
Well, I did pot mine up into larger pots - there simply wasn't any room! I might start planting some of them this weekend - if I can bring myself to start ripping out the annuals (which are still blooming profusely!)
Seandor, I ended up potting up all my veggies and stuff that I didn't have a spot for yet. Baptisia, Hibiscus, Rose of Sharon, Texas Stars and some stuff that I sowed in June that has just decided to start sprouting! Walmart has had their bagged potting mixes on sale and I got a few really big bags for $6 and I think I'll still need one more. I am planning on digging out a trench to put the stuff I need to overwinter in and mulching them heavy. I get plenty of oak leaves but I don't know if that will be good, possibly I'll use that hay from those bails they sell for autumn decorations.
the only thing i have left are Columbine. about 7 containers worth... they are turning brown, probably saying they are done waiting. I was going to bring them up here, to Wisc, and they got as far as the garage, i got side tracked and forgot to pack them in the car.
DH may bring them up this weekend, other wise, i will find a spot in my over crowded garden for them.
Meridith.. I have oak and hickory trees galore here and thats what i use for winter mulch. I don't even grind em down. Don't have a chipper and can't afford one. I just gather piles of leaves and throw em on. Only problem I have is with the hickory sometimes hickory nuts get in there and they wil sprout and are a pain to pull out if ya dont get em whiel they tiny.
The leave snot only protect the plants, but it also goo dhiding an dwarm places for all my beneficals to hide over the winter.
Oh that's great star! I will use the leaves then because they are free, I've heard running a lawn mower over them is the next best thing to a leaf shredder. Maybe we can do that.
Ya , ya cna mow them first, but I don't. cuz I have lots of lady bugs and such that hide in the leaves , so I just rake a big pile and then throw it out on th eplants and th ebeds and that way I not killing any of the good guys and the littl piece sbreak down faster and the big ones offer more protection.