I wonder if they make tubers, if you cna dig the whoel thing up and put it in apot and then let it die back naturally over the winter in the house or someplace cool, where it wil still get water and fertilzer. Wonder if it needs a dormant stage of some sort just not a hard freeze.
Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #16
Well, I shall see. That's exactly what I am doing with a few. Don't know about the fertilizer tho. Why fertilizer? No heat, about 48 degrees, no light, just water once a month or so, depending on the need.
Jeanette
BTW, did you know corckscrew vine is pollinated by ants? No ants, no seeds......
BUDDLEIA ALTERNIFOLIA
Last year, someone on the Piggy list expressed interest in Buddleia Alternifolia. I now have a well rooted cutting for him/her. If you are the one who requested it, please D-mail me.
Thanks,
Maggie
Really Tuink? Wow - okay, no more ant traps! Thank goodness DH never put any around the vine.
Why fertilizer in the winter. Because during the winter, when things are still in pots, even thiugh their is no foliage growth, they busy makign those tubers and th roots are still feeding and actively growing. Once the nutrients in the soil are used up, then the plants start using the nutrients stored in the tubers to keep themselves alive and then come spring they have less energy for producing foliage and flowers that what they could.
Producing flowers and seeds especially, takes a whole lot of energy and small amount sof fert during the winter helps keep em healthy and not stressed.
Well that is a new one on me. I never fertilize plants that I bring in and only occasionally water. Fertilizer diluted a lot might not be a bad idea. Anyone else have any more ideas on this subject.
Hee hee - I hear ya Bug - I can't see the label with my glasses on, so when my nose is just brushing the label with glasses off, it seems like I'm painting the side of a barn. Yes I did recently get fixed up with new specs by my very human ophthalmologist...let me not digress about my vision peculiarities any further. I do know whacha mean, and I'll try to do better in the barn-painting business.
Seandor, interesting about the corkscrew vine - I have a few seeds from Elsa I'm hoping to try - am all ears about how to grow it - thank you for sharing all that experience, Star, Critter, Tuink and company.
Meredith, wherever you wind up, you will never have to go without interesting seeds and plants around us. If you have less land, that Tiny Garden forum looks promising, along with the Rock and Alpine forum. Those gardens are perfect for the most incredible gems, and do keep the imagination going.
I don't know if this has been anybody else's experience, but both pre-soaking (until the seed swells) and heat (80 degrees F) seemed necessary when I've germinated corkscrew vine seeds (Vigna caracalla, just to be sure we're not confusing it with Phaseolus caracalla, as both plants are called snail vine and corkscrew vine). There's a long thread that keep popping to the top in the propagation forum about it.
Thank you for the encouraging words everyone! I really needed it and you all have brightened my day : )
Your right Indy. A diluted watering about once a month is about what good for them. More than that and you wil get foliage growth going again.
Meridith. Y aknow we all here for ya.
Thanks to the folks here for your assistance when I was getting ideas together for today's article! I decided to make it a really basic introduction on collecting seeds, without lots of botanical terms or exhaustive lists/examples... I figured my purpose in writing it was to get people excited enough to go out and start poking at their plants, and then they could get into the vast amount of info on threads like this and over at the seed collecting forum. Hopefully there are a few useful tips in there for more experienced folks, but it's more of a "getting started" article. Hey, we all have to start somewhere! :-)
I'm hoping it'll bring a few more people into the fun of collecting and sharing/swapping seeds. Thanks again!
By the way, if there are any native plant fans here, I think there are still a couple of slots open in the swap taking place this fall in the native plant forum. They're a friendly bunch, and they've been very patient with my not being sure if a certain plant was native or not... nobody has jumped on me over there, quite the contrary, and I'm gradually coming out of "lurk mode." :-)
Jill -- could you post the link... i may be interested in some. [too many darned forums... half the time i can;'t find what i'm looking for.]
terese
Native Plants & Wild Plants: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/wildplants/all/
Interest thread for swap: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/890163/
Actual swap thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/901859/
thanks Jill.
i do recall reading this a while back... but at that time, Chatnoir had a MUCH earlier date.
gonna read the other links to see what's being offered.
Terese
Yes, the date got pushed back to accommodate slowpokes like me and (more importantly LOL) late-ripening seeds.
A new bloom and probably the last of my plants started from swap seeds :)
Ahhh. Ain't that a pretty little lady and showing her stuff. What a nice cherry plant on such a cold and rainy day. Makes ya wish winter was over with alredy and spring just a breath away.
Just got the plastic up on my gh and got my tuber begonias in there. Colelcted some pods off plants yesterday.
I also foudn a very easy way to harvest passiflora seeds. Last year I had tried to take them out of th epods and clean all the gunk off them and they stil turned in a rotten moldy mess.
While I was picking pods, I noticed tiny small bugs that were eatign the jelly sacs from aroudn the seeds. They had cleaned just about one whole pod for me. I thanked them as I snatched it away.
Then I got the other pods and split them open and was gonan clean them and got busy and didn't want the jelly mess all over the kitchen counter so I put them on a dinenr plate and put outsid eon the porch in hopes that some mroe of them littl ebugs might come and eat the sacs.
Well, the littl ebugs didn't come but the rain did. I went out and every single one of them seeds is whitsle clean. brough tthem in gave a good rinse and bath and put on small plate to dry.
No fuss, no muss was fantastic.
wind -- my "citrus cocktails" are still blooming like crazy!!
I deadheaded once over the summer... probably August ... I've even got babies blooming from the seeds that fell.
these things grow like weeds!! I"m sure next year i will have tons of them, even if I do not plant any.
I think the only seeds I collected today, aside from MG's were Red Flax.
I did a bit of weeding too. Tomorrow should be another beautiful day... so i'll get more done.
OH and I planted a Red Trumpet vine and Wild Blue Sage [??]
Well . . . it's down to extreme measures to save the corkscrew vine seeds! I have put some white wire border edging around the base and filled that with dried leaves to insulate the base of the vine - and I drape a fuzzy blanket over the fence and the vine hoping to insulate it from the near freezing temperatures we are now experiencing at night. Daytime temeratures are in the low 60s. If it gets much colder at night, I will have to resort to old sleeping bags!
Pods are very long and very fat - but still green! I wish I knew how long it would take for the pods to mature . . . .
Seandor. Just make sure the blanket doesn't touch the vine. The spots that the blanket touches will get frost bit and die. Best if ya cna get it even a couple of inches taller than the vine off the leaves.
Hey Seandor, just went and clicked on th e PF ya had put up and started reading all through th epost people ha dmade about the plant to see if somebody had posted about the seeds. I finally found one.
On Jan 9, 2005, PudgyMudpies from Stockton, CA
(Zone 9a) wrote:
This is a must if you love beautiful flowers & wonderful fragrance. This is my third winter with this vine & while it does die back, it returns in the Spring ready to awe me all over again. I had to pick the seedpods green this year due to early freeze, and let them dry indoors. I was sure they were not viable, but of the 8 seeds I planted on Jan 1st, 2005, 6 are already sprouted. The seeds need to be nicked and soaked overnight in the hottest tap water you have, then planted in a seed starter mix & given bottom heat, mine stayed at 69 degrees.
I have been told this vine does not do well in shade, mine gets full sun in the morning and then again mid-late afternoon & thrives.
Hope that helps ya.
good luck Seandor :)
I took in most of our porch plants today (plumbago, Gartenmeister upright fuschias, Shrimp plant Justicia brandegeana, Cape fuchsia Phygelius capensis, Gingers, Lemon Grass Cymbopogon citratus, etc.) our house looks a bit crowded now, as usual at this time of year. The number of pots increases annually, good thing we don't have a lot of company!
Today, I cut more Job's Tears seeds ( I love this and hope to have someone who does jewelry make me a rosary out of them) and Critter's ornamental purple peppers! Our gingers didn't bloom yet and have buds too and our vigna caracalla never bloomed.
Also, I can't find any seed pods on the lilac petunias we got in the swap. I really like them too, they have really large blooms. I really admire everyone who trades seeds from these hard to find seeds on plants!!!
Maybe it would help to plug in that blanket!! LOL, good luck. Hope you get those seeds to grow. Don't forget ants are the secret I think on them.
Jeanette
OH -- would anyone like any Star of Yelta morning glory seeds for next year?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/51638/
I also posted in the Trade forum and the Hurricane thread. I just have so many.
I need some help, I grew shasta daisy from seed I got free and there was no specific info about their height. They were from the burt's bee seed mix that the gave out free, so I am assuming they are just a straight species type. My question is how tall should I expect them to get? I have them planted in front of some bearded iris that a friend had given me and I am wondering if I should move them to behind them. I don't know how tall the iris get either, lol. I cut the foliage back after I planted them and it has grown back and they aren't much more than 2' right now. It seems like the average is 3', is that a good height to go by? I was out changings bed around, and making some bigger, even though I don't know if I'll be able to enjoy the results, but gardening keeps me sane. Thanks everyone : )
Mer-I would worry about it-your shastas won't come in til after your iris are done blooming:)
The irises should be higher than the daisies......
Okay thanks gals. : )
I know everybody busy collecting seeds , but fo rthose of us that are seed aholics. Here a go.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/914909/
ahhhhhhhhh **shielding my eyes**
I need no more seeds.... I need no more seed
pries a couple of fingers up and says lookie!!!!!!!!! hehehehheeh
Me either but I got some new and differnt things. I would like to get some vines, but don't know what ones will grow and bloom in the first year and that aren't too invasive.
If anybody wants some, let me know, I just harvested these passiflora fruits. Got the seed all nice and clean , all the goop gone. I don't know what kind it is, but do know it has edible fruit and that the monarhc butterfiles lov the heck out of it which is why I grow it. The cats wil eat the leaves and other butterflies drink from it.
Got some up for seed trade, but got some here for ya all who wants some first.
This the pic early in th espring, when it was growing in my daylily bed and up the fence.
Star -- i did see your post in the Trade forum.
How big do these get? I"m trying to attract more monarchs. Had a lot more than last year - thanks to all the Milkweeds I have now.
Star, I just harvested some Cardinal Climber seeds (I think that one was on the co-op list), but from what I've heard I'm guessing the "invasive" potential is pretty high in your zone, and the same goes for Cypress vine... both grow quickly and flower wildly, and then they drop seeds... so you could end up with it along an entire fence in a few years, starting with one plant.
TCS.. If they are just planted in the yard with no support they get about 2' tall and kinda spread out aroudn the ground. If you provide them with any thign to climb on mine get about 6' tall on the fence. I like it cuz it not too tall.
I have some growing on my fence and some just in the yard in different spots all over so that all the monarchs can get some food and also so that when they cacoon then they spread out so predators don't get to them as easily.
I have a bunch that I have growing all in between the Gerber Daisy bed and those didn't get any higher than the Gerberas either but I don't do anythgin to mine. I don't fert, or water. All they get is what nature gives them and they was the most drought hardy plant I ever had. They survived, flowered and fruited on just not even one inch of rain from May til just a few weeks ago.
LOL.. I noticed yesterday that my milweed plants have busted out all over the place . I let mine go where they will. I got one section that so wild and it all for the butterflies. Only probablemis is make sit hard for mowing, cuz I don't want to mow any of their plants down. That my excuse anyways for not mowing and why I know looking at switchgrass and weeds as high a smy knees. LOL
Cat.. That what I afraid of. I know the Cypress is very invasive here but didn't know about any othe others.
Does anybody know how long sweet pea seeds are viable? I'm wondering if I should consider purchasing them from ValueSeeds (probably last year's seeds, as I understand it at that site) or pay more elsewhere... ?
Critter,
They're viable for quite a long time, at least five years but probably a lot longer!
Jill, I've recently read complaints about sweet pea seed purchased from Value seeds. Some folks were saying the seed for those needs to be fresh to be viable (on the Watchdog). That was the main complaint I read about them though; other seed from them got pretty good reviews.
Thanks! My DMIL just got a teepee trellis she wants to use for sweet peas, so I'm looking for some fun and fragrant ones for her. I have not had much luck with them -- some critter munches them (slug or bunny) before they really get going -- but might try again, perhaps in a container. I've got a half-barrel planter with an obelisk in the middle that I grew 'Painted Lady' runner beans and Asarina up this year. It took a while for the vines to really start growing, so I'm thinking the sweet peas would have time to do their thing before being overrun.
Hmm... if I were buying just for me, I'd probably roll the dice, but I don't want to promise mom plants and then not deliver... maybe I'll buy "extra" seeds from ValueSeeds and get a couple of full price sweet pea packs elsewhere.
Thanks, Neal. I don't know why I didn't think to check Watchdog!