Starlight, you are killing me tonight. 'The leave snot only protect the plants, ' LOL : )
Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #15
Oh no I don't want to hurt any ladybugs! I won't mow them then, thanks for the idea : )
Sorry about that. Bad enough ya gott aread dyslexic typing, but got space bar problems too it seems. LOL looking at that it is funny reading.
My lady bugs lizards all hide in them. Also I have piles of raked leaves that I don't touch, they not for compost so much as the fact that the box turtles come and move the leaves and then bury their eggs under them. With the leaves all big it easy to see the turtle trailes to where they going and depositing and then hatching.
My lizards and salamanders all hide in them too. Lots of nature goign on under leaves. : )
Hopefulyl it gonan still stay a bit cloudy today, hoping to get a bunch of transplanting done so plants have plenty of protection for winter. Sems just like the other day where seedlings were sprouting and needed transplantign and tiem again. Got a bunch of hollyhock seedlings to do today and them Knauitas i planted finally now that the weather cooled off about ten degrees are finally starting to gorw a bit. Poor things they still so tiny. But so darn happy to see them. : )
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Star, speaking of the space bar, you know how you used to be able to take the keys off of your computer and clean under them, well I had dirt or something under my space bar, I'm always typing with dirt under my nails, I try to wash my hands before I come on here but sometimes it just doesn't work lol Anyway, you can't take the tops of the keys off on a lap top apparently! My space bar is so messed up LOL I have to go back and take all of the spaces out every time I post lol I need to go see my cute computer guy LOL
That’s cool a bout your critters hiding in your leaves, that explains the hissing I had out by the tomatoes, I have leaves for mulch for them and have big bites out of some of my tomatoes, I think it was a box turtle, when I heard the hissing I just figured that’s what it was and left him alone :) A couple of years ago I grew cantaloupe and went to pick one up and half of it was laying on the ground and when I picked it up the whole inside was gone, I know that was a turtle lol
I’ve noticed a lot of baby blue tail skinks out by the garage I’m so glad, I piled some rocks up where they like to sun themselves so the kittens can’t get to them, I thought they were all gone, thank goodness there are babies now! Sophera, my mommy cat lays out there to watch for them! I will really fuss at her if she gets one of my lizards!
Fairy, that‘s alright, thanks for offering to split your toad lily but I don’t really have enough shade, I’ll have to be happy with what I have , when I got those I was wondering where I was going to put them lol I am in such ‘shade denial’ LOL I did manage to fit some shade plants in by the driveway under my dogwood and that bed is soo full!
Seandor, I have so many plants in pots still, I’m afraid I’m going to have to pot some up for the winter to plant for next year, I bet I have at least 50 pots out there yet, I managed to get a few in the ground the last couple of days before it rained last night but I’m running out of room now and either going to have to make my beds larger AGAIN or another bed altogether LOL I just did plant a plains coreopsis out that reseeded in the jug, I’ve been bad and admiring those blooms in the jugs but as fast as they grow I think this one will bloom in my bed and maybe reseed for next year, I hope anyway, they have reseeded in all of my pots out there just about lol I need to plant a couple more of the seedlings, I’m really starting to like this one :)
I still have 7 hardy hibiscus to get in the ground but those over winter pretty easy for me but I would rather get them in the ground so they will be full for next year I have three Turn of the Century I’m dying to see blooms on but they haven’t showed me a bloom yet :( I have a place to plant them just haven’t been able to get around to it and need to spray for weeds first. I have pieces of plywood laying down to kill the grass but this spot is really bad for centipede grass! That’s why I’ve been putting it off.
Tcs, LOL I still have three different columbines to get in the ground too, I’m having a hard time trying to find the right spot for them to have them far away enough from each other to keep them from crossing, I’ve planted two different kinds so far. Every place I want to plant them has too much sun.
Anyone collecting snapdragon seed? I'm curious if anyone has run into the same issue I have. The snaps have grown and bloomed beautifully, and the only sign of pests I've seen has been on the developing seed pods. These little bugs about the size of a lentil, shaped like a beetle (although I didn't see wings), and were black with a red splotch in the center. They were eating holes in the seed capsules. I shook them off and collected the stems of capsules to dry. Today I've been hulling out dried seed, and the snap seeds are clumped together, and kind of sticky. Is that normal? I know its normal for the capsules to be kind of sticky, but I was thinking the seed would sprinkle out easily. Now I'm wondering if the bugs caused a problem with the seed curing properly.
I've still got a few things waiting to get planted too. Some columbine I thought were duds, till a few weeks ago when I was emptying some I was sure there was no hope for, and found perfect little plants! A few other perennials too, but now I'm waiting for rain and cooler weather to plant them.
weird thing for me.... snap dragons at my old house grew like weeds.... can't get 'em to grow for me now. quite odd.
I been gathering snap seeds but have not seen any bugs like what you have described. If the insides icky I woudl say that damage has been done. Could be the bugs emzymes from the chewign and piecering has secreted soemthign that causing that.
Snap seeds are small and a pain, but I would take the see dpods and ones that look good go ahead and open them individually in a cup or somethign and if they feel good and look good then put them ina bigger bag to save.
You have me thinking bugs are the reason for all my seed imperfections lol! I just sorted some salvia seeds from their sleeves and about 4 looked moldy, I just pulled them off the plant a few hours ago so it wasn't from me..
I also collected some agastache foeniculum, there is plenty for all!! I can't believe how many seeds those suckers make! If any one wants these ones make sure you plant them somewhere that they can do their thing, in other words where they won't take over any other plants. I am throwing all the bloom stocks into my brush pile, I cut them to prevent more seedlings than I can already see...
I want them to take over that area. Right now the only things growing there are weed grass, burnweed and more weeds. I couldn't beleive how much insect life was living on them, I felt guilty cutting them down but I don't need more than are already there. I found 5 different kinds of spiders including those crab spiders which are real funky. All kinds of beetles like the one eating tcs flowers. Grass hoppers or something that looked like them, but they were huge and one loked like a de-winged angel. I tried to pull him off the bloom so he wouldn't have to go for a ride but he wouldn't let go he was clingin on for dear life! The spent blooms are still purple and I just tapped them against a bowl. I have about 100 plants so that gave me a bagillion seeds. I did the same thing with Verbena bonariensis they are still in full bloom and I got a lot of seeds off them. I didn't cut those ones I just tipped them sideways still attached and it didn't bother them one bit....
Has anyone done Glandularia canadensis, I have been checking them often and getting very few seeds. Is there a better way!?
Thanks for the tip on collecting seeds from still-blooming "Verbena-on-a-stick!" I'll have to give that a try so I don't miss them this year.
Crab spiders.. yes.. very cute!
LOL that looks familiar... look at the one I got!!
gemini, I have those beatles on my snaps too and on a lot of other plants! They eat holes in the top of the seed pods but I have been cutting them then they have a hole for them to spill out from lol These were the red rocket snaps that Suzy gave me when she was here, they are just beautiful I just love them, I'm going to spread seed for next year, seems that I read they are perennial I hope they are I have them planted in an old veggie basket and they really look great in there!
Critter, I have a cra b spider just like that on my petunias in my nectar garden and have watched him get bigger and bigger all summer, I wonder how big it will get lol Mine looks to be about the same size as that one right now, kind of pretty yes!
Has anyone seen those wasps with no wings, I've seen two so far this year on my flowers, I just wonder how they travel lol They are a lighter rusty brown color.
Ooh, he's a beauty, Meredith!
Word of warning... when you're seed collecting or pulling weeds, look out for some of the stinging caterpillars. Saddleback cats (green with a white saddle marking) are worse than any wasp sting (I kept encountering them last year on cherry weedlings; this year I'm wearing gloves & so far so good), and several of the tussock moth cats have toxic/stinging hairs on them too. I saw some milkweed tussock moth cats this past week... not sure if they sting or not, but I didn't pick them up!
OK-so that white spider is good then???
Crab spiders are lovely, I think... they look like painted porcelain. And any spider in the garden is good -- I put them right in there with the other "beneficial bugs" because they eat bugs I don't like, such as mosquitoes and mites. :-)
Huh-I knew ladybugs were good, but thought spiders were bad.....guess I will stop killing them then...
Fairy.. depends on the type of spider.
Yep, other than the black widows and brown recluses I have here, all the spiders get to stay unless they start getting so huge that they may become a menance.
I have spiders of differnt kinds all over the place. My favorite one is my orb spiders. I don't have any crab ones. They are pretty though.
I had to kill one spider the other day cuz it was gettign to about the size of the bottom of a 3" pot. That a little to big for me. Stepped on it and hundreds of babies all went crawling every which way. The babies all will be allowed ot live. Th spiders kill alot of the bad bugs and they also are food for the lizards and the bees and wasps. All a part of the cycle of life.
Critter is right though them saddleback caterpillars are the wickedest things I have come across. There sting is even worse than wasp stings.
Had alot of praying mantis this year, a nest last year that I thought was from spider actually turned out to be from a mantis.
LeBug.. Do ya happen to have a pic of your redrockets. They sound pretty. This seed I gathered is a pink and yellow bloom, don't know the name of them but they act like a perennial down here, not sure about north ways though.
I had to look those saddle back caterpillars up, I have never seen one of those around here. Those are funky! Those monarch colored tussock moths cats are supposed to be one not to touch but I didn't know that at first and I've picked them up and so has my dd and so far we haven't had any problems.
Lea, I've had an occasional snap to overwinter, but usually our winters are too cold for them, especially in a container. You may be able to keep it in a basement or garage over winter, and it would probably need some moisture while stored. Certainly worth a try.
There are seeds that look ok in some of these snapdragon pods I have, although they're clumped together and kind of dirty looking. I believe I'll take a few and see if they germinate, that should tell me if they're worth saving. I believe the bugs did have something to do with the problem.
Yesterday I got a bunch of drying seed separated from chaff and in envelopes, I needed the space and couldn't deal with all those trays any longer. Now its time to gather some more!
I posted this on the seed saving forum last night, but I think we get a lot more trafic over here.
This has to be the seed, there isn't anything else it could be, LOL. But since I've never collected these...or any rudbeckia for that matter I thought I'd ask to be sure. I hate to trade away a packet full of wood chips.
(The first picture is not mine, I borrowed it from Wyevale Garden Center's website.)
And here is what I believe to be the seed. Sorry, the picture is terribly blurry.
Yup-that is the seed:)
L_J -- that looks about right.
when i did my BES [rudbeckia hirta] i just took the flower head and banged it into a can of sorts... all the lil 'wood chips' fell into said can. these are TONS of seeds per head.
Terese
La, it's kind of hard to tell from the picture :) But I think those are the seeds, They kind of look like cones. I think I've managed to save a few on my coneflowers, not many only had two seed heads on my new ones and what few finches I have this year has been on them I think, I have those two seed heads somewhere around here, haven't gotten to them yet lol Not sure if they will come true, my Sundown I planted from seeds to one I had didn't come true :( I lost the sundwon that I had in the ground but I have new ones from the coop that Fairy had. Here is the seedsite that you can check your seeds out with they have almost everything:
http://www.theseedsite.co.uk/db14a.html
If you don't find what you are looking for you might find them on here:
http://www.frsa.org/plateindex.htm
Don't have a picture of the Red Rocket, couldn't find a decent picture on the net, sorry but they are huge flowers and they say they get to be 36", when it was first growing I though it was going to be a dwarf but not lol In my basket I have them in they are two foot and beautiful! A really dark red, wish I knew where Suzy got the seeds they might have a good picture of them. Wish Suzy would get on here lol
Oh, my bad, was that a rudbeckia? Those seeds are easy just like tcs said just bang the heads and little seeds will come out lol
Lea -- i do think L_J posted a pic of a coneflower head, where the seeds are rudbeckia.
coneflower seeds are almost triangular 'wood chips'. but i think you collect them the same way.... bang into a can.
i think it was "Al" who told me he uses a coffee can.... put the heads in there... put the lid on ... shake the dickens out of it and shazzam... you have seeds.
Lea -- i do think L_J posted a pic of a coneflower head, where the seeds are rudbeckia.
coneflower seeds are almost triangular 'wood chips'. but i think you collect them the same way.... bang into a can.
i think it was Al [Bigcity] who told me he uses a coffee can.... put the heads in there... put the lid on ... shake the dickens out of it and shazzam... you have seeds.
Thanks for the coffee can idea-much easier snce I get poked trying to get them out w/ my fingers:)
Nope. The "flower" is Rudbeckia Wizard. It's kind of an oddity which doesn't really get petals. The first pic I posted is all there is to it.
The 2nd pic is the same plant after it's done "blooming". It does resemble a coneflower in many ways, but it's a rudbeckia not a echie. They're pretty cool plants simply becase they're so unique. They look quite fetching planted in with Black Eyed Susans.
tcs, sounds like that would work with my Tithonia seeds too, they are so prickly lol I've only done three seed heads and my fingers are sore already lol I'm such a wimp! lol
LOL LeBug -- i can be a whimp tooo.... though Gaillardias hurt my fingers.
L_J -- thanks for clarifying... neat looking flower... i'll have to get that on my list. Is it a first year bloomer?
TS I'm doubting if the Wizard will bloom the first year from seed. I got mine as a plant and I can't remember if it bloomed the first year or not, but I'm kind of thinking it didn't. I'll have plenty of seed though if anybody wants to try it.
hello :)
I have STILL been planting and I stopped for more pots today! I guess I won't stop until our first freeze lol.
I finally planted 2 ox-eye daisies, 2 baptisia purple smoke (from LeBug) and 7 Sea Holly plants in a border. Critter's Gomphrena lavender is still blooming, it reminds me of tall blooming clover :)
Be sure to save seeds from the Gomphrena... I haven't had it reseed on its own (watch, I'll say that and for you it will pop up all over your yard next spring like dandelions, LOL). It does somewhat resemble that big red clover. :-)
ok
It is just one plant with only 5 or so blooms, but it has been blooming for quite some time now, I'll keep a look out for seeds - thanks.
Speaking of seeds, I need to check the basil to see if the seeds are ready. I hope I'm able to gather some of the Italy one from you Critter. We didn't leave that many plants to set seed. Whereas, the lemon basil...tons of seeds! I never went back out to pick the rest of the lemon. So if anyone wants to try lemon basil next year :) JLMK.
I also have a really nice light blue small MG (exactly like Heavenly Blue but only 1") that is the perfect compliment to Heavenly Blue MG, Apple Mint and Queen Anne's Lace. The apple mint looks like the tops are brown, I believe that is where the seeds are. I can try and harvest some of that too, if anyone is interested.
Yes! I have 4 purple smoke baptista (also from LeBug) to plant but mine are only about 5 inches tall - is this normal for first year plants?
I'm overwintering so many tropicals this year that I'm really going to have to limit my seed starting next spring *cough* *cough* due to lack of space in the house. But the one area I know I want to expand is the herb garden, so I will definitely be up for just about anything anyone offers. :-)
Mints don't necessarily come true from seed, although you might get something close... they're pretty tough, so sending plants in the mail is easy (they'll travel in a BE). You're right about the lemon basil setting lots of seed; the lime basil does the same. I don't know if I trust my Italian basil to be true this year, as there were a couple of others (a lemon and a rogue of some sort) that popped up nearby, but I may harvest some seed anyway... any that don't come up with the crinkly leaves should be easy enough to weed out of the seedling tray. I will have seeds from 'Magical Michael' and a "hot & spicy" basil from Sumatra that are pretty well isolated.
Gomphrena seeds are the dried flowers... if you pull out a dried petal, you'll notice a hard lump in the base of the petal. That's the seed. Weird.
My baptisia are only about 5" long too, but not even upright...they are somewhat flopped over. I planted them anyway - hopefully they take.
I had all my basil in the same garden area so the seeds will all be a blend then if they cross. I didn't think to plant them in separate areas.
Critter, do the gomphrena just dry up on the plant eventually? Was the hot and spicy basil, hot and spicy? just curious
Yes, the gomphrena will dry on the plant, but if you want any of them to keep some color (they're pretty in wreaths & vases), pick them sooner rather than later (they'll turn straw-like but still have color). The hot & spicy basil was like a spicy version of Thai basil -- nice, but I'm not sure what to do with it in terms of cooking, since we think we like the "sweeter" Siam Queen basil better in stir fry... it has a great aroma, though, and it's a pretty plant with smaller leaves than regular Thai basil.
L-J -- i'd love some of those seeds.
Speaking of Sea Holly -- mine did not germinate. *sniff*
I did get all my columbine planted ... 7 containers.
I think at home all i have is 1 container left... but i did start them late.... more of an early summer "sow".
it's a "blue" something, maybe a .... sage.??
lea -- that Bronze Fennel ... how do i harvest seeds? MY neighbor wants some.
Terese