Happy, I guess I could do that. How about the tulip bulbs? Has anybody else kept them in the fridge successfully? My DH can give me sawdust. He has a woodshop. LMK & TKS.
This message was edited Jan 22, 2009 1:49 PM
Think Spring! SWAP discussion thread for Feb. 21 seed party
Will you have a warm spell? Here it will be warmish on Saturday. I still have one bag of bulbs I haven't gotten in; I was going to plant them then. I think the ground here will thaw enough to do that.
If the ground thaws here in Pennsylvania, then I will definitely plant all of them. It is in the 40's here today. Will see what it's like tomorrow & Saturday.
Oh, definitely, if you can dig in the ground, go ahead and plant the tulips and dutch iris. I wouldn't plant bearded iris rhizomes until spring, though... just store them somewhere cool.
"Withered" bulbs may have been no bargain. I'm not sure soaking will help. Or did you mean the iris rhizomes? Dutch iris (bulbs) and bearded iris (rhizomes) are two very different things.
Oh, and in case anybody is wondering... I'm not going to worry about chat, although I hope people will try to stay somewhat on topic. When this thread gets too long, we'll just start another one... Closer to the date, we'll try to get more serious about posting have/want lists and at that point staying on topic will make stuff easier to find.
I divided up a clump of Dietes iridioides (not hardy) Iris I got in Florida years ago. I will be bringing 9 plants. Pix included. I will also be bringing tiny Amaryllis (houseplant) bulbs that my seedlings produced, too many to count. I guess I will have to bring a box of baggies & labels. I would suggest everybody bring plastic grocery bags (for potted plants), and stickies with which to put the name of the plant and from whom you got it. (for smaller cuttings & such). My seeds will be in tiny plastic baggies & labelled. Hope this works out ok. I will also be looking for a shoebox with which to decorate & that I can put my seeds & other goodies in.
This message was edited Jan 22, 2009 4:10 PM
Any idea what color the Amaryllis might be?
Judy - is that Amaryllis fragrant?
I don't know anything about the Amaryllis cause I started them from seeds a couple years ago & they grew but not large enough to bloom, just produced a lot of tiny bulbs with tiny grass-like foliage. The seedlings will take 3-5 years to bloom, so I have another year or so left to see. I suppose they will probably be red. LOL.
no offense but I got tired of my red amaryllis offsets so they're now an experiment in amaryllis hardiness. If they all croak I might splurge on a really good amaryllis for Xmas.
Sally--
Do, by "Amaryllis hardness" do you mean leaving them out all winter in a bed to see if they will survive and bloom????
I can vouch for that--as mine did. It came back and bloomed--even if sparsely--for 2 years. Last Summer, I did not see any leaves or blooms. Thought it was dead.....
Then--late Fall--there were a couple of leaves that came up. Will see this Summer if it survived....
I have it planted next to my Rose Bushes near the house and my AC unit in a bed.
I have so many pots of Amaryllis that I thought I could sacrifice a couple as an experiment....
I was inspired to try this because a man I work with told me he has had a clump of Amaryllis blooming every year in a bed by his front door. He lives in Dundalk.....
Gita
You guys are in zone 7. I'm in zone 6. I doubt if mine would come back up. Owell, maybe we could sell them on an online auction. ;-)
Buttoneer: It is supposed to go up to 49 degrees here today, and it won't freeze tonight. I bet you'll be able to plant those bulbs!
Ok, cool Gita. Yes I left them out in a few places with mulch. They weren't growing well under my direct care so I thought I'd try Mom Nature plus compost etc. I had the first bulb for years like 15!!!! so I got my money's worth. I put th three best ones on top of some daffodils. If it works, the daffs will bloom, and the Am foliage will take over and blooms later. Or the frozen, dead Am bulbs will rot and fertilize the daffs.
Anyone interested in quantities of rice hulls for use as a perlite /vermiculite substitute? I have a beer supply guy who will sell to me. His standard price is $! a pound when customers come in and he scoops and weighs it out for them. They are light and fluffy. I have some from Pinetree Seeds Co. Pinettree's bag was $5 for 2.5 pounds. I will take a wild guess that a pound will about fill a gallon ziploc bag, to give you an idea.
I think the hulls are used like a filter substance in the beer process.
Sally, just bring the beer & forget about the hulls. ;-)
LOL... Sally, did you mean $1 per pound? I'd take a few pounds to lighten seedling mix (2 to 5, whatever you can manage).
Sally: I'd love some rice hulls too -- ditto to Critter -- whatever you can manage.
Sally- I'd like sone rice hulls, too = 2 lbs or so if possible. Thanks I'll be glad to bring extra baggies, too.
Critter
I am interested in getting 7 of the 606 Jumbo Size insert sheets for $5.00, please. I will also be bringing pink cleome seeds I harvested this past fall. As I'm new to this see swap, how many seeds do I put in each little baggy?
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/946019/
Hi Froggy- I gotcha on the rice hulls. Everybody else, see that thread above to please , I just started to help me keep track of rice hulls.
Buttoneer, I would love one of your Hawaiian spider babies if you have enough.
I hope to have enough.
If B doesn't I do. And did I say my pigs ear is in good shape for a cutting? It even has some tiny babies on some leaf margins, as some other Kalanchoes are known to do.
Oh, good. I'll still try to get a cutting or two from my pig's ear... such a cute plant!
Speaking of those "tiny babies"... if anybody wants "mother of thousands," I've got lots (thousands! LOL) of those little plantlets to "seed" into pots!
I'd love to have a pigs ear. Please keep one for me & thanks. Critter, did you get those mother of thousands from me? They sure do multiply, don';t they. I picked up 3 more plants from Lowes today: a croton for 50 cents, a little bulb type thing and a variegated plant for 25 cents each. Keep on looking.
LOL... I've had mine for a few years, and now they're popping up in a lot of my overwintered pots! I remember you handing out little bags of "seed plants" last year. I've got a couple of tall, plantlet-laden stalks that I need to cut off, so I thought maybe somebody would want a few babies.
I'm adding columbine seeds. found a nice packet of seeds from this past spring. Parents would be a solid blue and or some doubles from critter year before last. McKana? I'm screwing up my eyeballs trying to picture her writing on a smushed hunk of six-pack, laying in the garden all season....my typical record keeping method.
I was thinking of bringing a few small stacks of old gardening mags. Do you think anyone would be interested?
Bring in what you want. I am sure people would take them. If not, the Chinese restaurant workers could take them home & put them in the powder room to read or use.
I have some Mammalaria cactus babies - about 20 of them that I will bring.
Better check with Jill before doing that...she'd know what the "workers" might be interested in better then us. We dont' want to overwhelm them nor leave things behind. Very sweet idea Holly...but maybe see if you have takers first or as I said wait till Jill chimes in...I'm not sure what's appropriate or not.
If no one seems interested in them I'll take them down to the extension office they run a program called Garden Wise every year. It's real nice, an all day seminar with lunch about 8 different speakers and door prizes. They always have and old book table with books and magazines. They sell them for a bit of change.
Froggy, those sound really sweet, but we need to try to really limit the potted plants because of the restaurant location... so unless they can be bagged like cuttings or left in the car (swapped in the parking lot), it might be better to save them for one of the spring swaps.
Holly, I think the gardening magazines would be fun to look through, but I don't think the restaurant folks would want them, so if you bring them please take unclaimed ones back with you.
I'd think most potted things would survive traveling in a large, un-iced of course, 'cooler' to keep from chilling in the parking lot.
Personally I think I'd like a Mammilaria baby. continuing my life quest of getting a cactus to bloom.
Sally, that's a great suggestion... I use coolers when transporting tropical fish in the car, not sure why it didn't occur to me with plants! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for weather that will facilitate a parking lot swap. :-)
Froggy, you could put the mammilaria babies in ziploc bags & bring them in, but please wear gloves. (LOL) I am bringing my cuttings in ziploc baggies. If they have roots, I will wrap the roots with moist paper towels & put a rubber band around that to keep the roots moist. Just make sure you label them with genus & species if you know that & your DG name. That way, we know where they came from. In our Hobby Greenhouse club, if members bring in plants for the raffle table, we have to put on the tags name of plant & our nameso if they have any questions about the plant, we can contact the donor. Just remember good people, May is plant sale day. May date has not been finalized yet; keep checking back: http://www.landisarboretum.org/calendar.html
The family of mammillarias is huge - I know when I had a rather large collection that getting ID's on many was nearly impossible esp. w/o a bloom. Froggy - if you don't have that info - I think just putting mamms and your name would be sufficient. I have found with cactus the easiest way to transport is regular lunch paper bags unless you can find smaller ones. Protects your hands and keeps moisture from building up like it would in a plastic bag. Just a suggestion - you might have known already. But that's how I did all my cactus trades after receiving one that way.
Buttoneer: You are talking about a sale in NY?
No in PA. May 16 & 17 in Landisville, Pa, very close to Lancaster, Pa. It is really cool. I'm bringing a shopping basket on wheels. Everybody brings their wagons, etc and buys plants from the Landis Valley
I will be bringing the Mamm babies in litte protected paper pouches. They are fairly small and I will only detach them from the mother Mamm right before I come to the swap. I could bring the original plant in a small cooler in my car if anyone wants to try and ID it. I tried but there are too many types out there. Also, Sally, I 'm interested in some of those Columbine seeds if you have enough. I didn't get an answer about how to divy up my seeds - how many per bag? Also, can I bring extra seeds from packets I bought (as opposed to one's from my garden)? Sorry about so many questions -this will be my first seed swap and I can hardly wait.