Thanks Danita, I was going to ask too, about the Porterweed, but Meredith beat me to it and saved me some effort! : )
I swear I only asked for about 40 seed pks, and here I am quitting for the night with about 140 + entered and more to go. LOL! Now I know why it is called a Piggy Seed Swap Frenzy! LOL!
WIB!
SW
Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #25
Hallelujah! My seeds have arrived!
Didn't have time to sort it through yet (am still at work) but can't wait to do so!
Thank you all for your wonderful contribution and lots of fun!
LOL Danita, I wish I had paid more attention to seeds in HS and less to boys. I'd have learned so much more :) Gardening is a late-blooming obsession for me. Probably started about the time I was ready to have kids but my DH wasn't yet. Now I get to love the flowers And my daughter (oh, and DH too).
Thanks for the info, I was really beginning to worry! They are really cool though, now that I know it's ok.
Pyro.. If you got wet moist soil. You gonan have knats sooner or later. There are evrywhere in the air and even in winter they are not killed. they will seep through miniscule cracks in the doors and windows they come in with ya when ya go in and out. If ya don't want to lose yoru babies it best to start preventive measures ahead of time.
Room temp fine as long as t the temp the seeds need to germinate.
I knw we got alot of cat people here, but don't know if vinegar would hurt a cat or not or the Bt dunks. Have to as a professional cat person about them.
Whooooooo hoooooooooo logn distance flyer arrived adn now I can get intot he rest of my piggy box and see what goodies somebody sent me. Oh happy day!!!!!!!! Oh happy day!!!!!!! Gona be exciting too cuz I think I onyl oniked for about 20 things and i know folks sent me more than that. If pigs coudl flip, I'd be doing em over the mud puddles.
Thanks again to everybody for all ya did an dfor my stuff . I hope everybody has one fantastic growing season and oodles of babies to show off. : )
Woo Hoo Tuink I'm so happy you got your seeds! Now all the little piggies have there seeds!! : )
Oh goodie. Thanks everybod who sent all them petunia seeds for the kids. Man them are appreciated.
Ok, got a copel of things I haven't doen before. What is the best way to start Rue? says Ruta gravelones on the package. And also what the best way to do Abultion.
Ella, I started some Abutilon already, that was my oops moment when I started researching things! It's up already (faster than it says it will germinate), in under a week, and gonna get big... already has it's first true leaf in just over a week! Just did it inside under lights with heat at 74°.
Not everyone has their seeds, yet, but I hope to see mine in the mail today!
Tonya
I was wondering if you had yours yet! Oh no I hope you get them today!
Star If I remember correctly Rue is easy, it should germinate at room temps.
OhFudge. Sorry about that Tonya. Forgot yours was in yoru town, but not at your house. Hope they delivering today.
Star, I've started Abutilon the last couple of years. I keep them like Kelly does with warmth and plant lights. Buggies like 'em, so keep an eye out. Some germinate fast and others take forever. Last year in late winter I started A.vitifolium blue and white.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/725/
The white came along quickly, but it was July or later when the one and only blue one sprouted. I've read A.vititfolium may survive winters here, can't wait to get some cuttings going to experiment with! The regular large flowered Abutilons I started were all fairly quick and easy.
Thanks Ella! If it's here in NB, I'm sure they will deliver today. Has everyone else gotten theirs? I hope so!
Tonya
Glad to wake up to the Abutilon conversation. I put mine in a damp paper towel just last night and plan sto stick them in soil today. The damp towel was a stab in the dark. I think they take quite awhile to bloom (or am I wrong Neal?) so I wanted to give them a little head start.
I bought some vermiculite, thinking I could use it to cover seeds. I forgot about the fact that it should be fine grade, but remember star said it can be put in the blender. I may have to do that. Now can I use it to cover all seeds or only ones that need light to germinate? I've always just used the mix so advice would be much appreciated : )
Meredith... i've also heard of using a coffee mill/grinder
I know i've used it for strange things... i have a few, one is for coffee beans and the other for those odds and ends that need to be ground. [got a cheapo at WalMart for about $10 yrs ago] Works great for those water-sorb crystals too.
Oh cool - I actually have an old one I saved for odds and ends things! (I sometimes use it to grind up whole peppercorns) Thanks
A few threads back I posted about making my own seed starting mix by putting MG and perlite in an old blender. It worked beautifully. Nice and fine and light.
Maybe I should try that - I got multi purpose Pro-mix and it isn't as fine as ones I've used in the past.
La, they (Abutilon) were kinda slow for me, but getting them started this early they should be blooming by July or maybe even June- some of mine grew quite a bit faster than others.
Meredith - remember Suzy got some of that Pro-mix last year and it ended up not absorbing water at all for her - annoyed the hooey out of her. I hope yours isn't the same...aren't I just a little bubble of good news??
Yipppppeeeeee! Seeds came in the mail today. Thanks everyone, going to go through them now. Later
OK you guys I need a salvia lesson. I've always grown them but I don't know which is which. I think 'splendens' is just the regular bedding salvia that you can pick up at any Walmart in the spring, yes? And coccinea is like the coral nymph? What is the annual salvia like purple knock-out? I glanced through plantfiles, but my goodness there are a lot of different salvias. And of course I can never keep my latin straight as far as what is the genus and what is the species, etc.
Can anybody break this down in easy terms for the salvia challenged?
The bedding salvia is 'splendens', and Coral Nymph is a coccinea, Lady in Red is also a coccinea. Tuink is a salvia genius, but it's probably too late in the day for her to be on. You're right though, there are about a billion of them.
'Wild Thing' is a salvia greggii and is more "dry climate" looking than the coccineas because it has smaller leaves although both are drought tolerant and have rather woody stems as they get bigger. Then there's mealy cup sage which is salvia farinacea and it is not woody at all. I've grown all three here in New Braunfels and like them all. That's all I know about salvias, so I look forward to hearing from others and increasing my salvia education!
Tonya
If I remember correctly the Mealy Cup Sage is wintersown....at least it did for me last year.
I bet it would be great WSown. The others too, for that matter. My Lady in red spreads everywhere all summer. I'm still pulling up some babies that are in parts of the beds where I don't want them!
I grew some Purple knockout Salvia last year. Didn't realize the purple was mostly referring to the leaves, LOL. It had blooms, but all I ever saw was the stalks with the seed calyxes. I was even looking for them, don't know if the blooms don't last long or if they're not showy? From all I can find, the blooms are nothing to write home about.
http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/SAPKS.html
I started them indoors the same way as all the other Salvias.
Tonya, I bet most Salvias are a good choice for southerners to wintersow- I hadn't thought of that. This far north I like to get a head start inside, otherwise its August before I see blooms. S.coccinea reseeds for me, but the seedlings start blooming around first frost.
I had forgotten about the purple lyrata (purple knockout). I am really looking forward to the seeds of that which should be in my package. It was the purple leaves that really caught my eye. I think I will try wsing that, too.
Thanks Neal. I actually moved my huge Lady in Red a few weeks ago. I didn't realize it would get so big and certainly wasn't pleasing where it was. I planted it pre-DG days so now I know better how to pan my planting. The LiR is still looking good. I guess she didn't mind the move.
Tonya.. what tiem yoru mail person come?????? Stil the same update that was on there on the 17th that it in yoru home town and had arrived at 5:30 that mornign so should have been delivered in plenty of time. You under a ton of snow or something?
Speaking of Salvias, I've been meaning to tell y'all about some S.coccinea 'Dwarf Hummingbird' I started last year. I had a few left over, and stuck one in each of my 3 hanging baskets on the deck with Red Dragon begonias and black trailing coleus. I figured they'd be in too much shade, but thought I may get a few blooms and draw some hummers. As I thought, they did ok, and the ones with a little more sun bloomed pretty good. Since the begonias and coleus looked so good this fall, I decided to bring the whole baskets in and try to keep them going under lights. The coleus seem to be suffering, the begonias look gorgeous, and I've had Salvia blooming all winter! I figured the Salvias would be the first to croke, but they seem to be loving it.
dryad - don't jinx me lol! I've had good luck with pro- mix so far, but now that I said that I'll probably have a problem. ; )
Gemini - the S. coccinea is the same way here. I had 2 plants bloom for a week before the first killing frost. I had lots of other seedlings that never amounted to anything as well. : ( So I have to start them indoors too.
I've got a bunch of Salvias in my spreadsheet.... most are Red, but there are quite a few of them. and most have different 'names'.
oh dear - no jinx!!! I think Suzy got a different kind of Pro Mix than the one she was used to....it was on sale, you see....
Thanks for all the input gang.
ThePKO is more noted for the leaf color than bloom, but it sure is pretty. It reseeds quite readily too but is easy to control but just pulling up the odd straggler here and there. I usually just let most of them go though.
How tall will the Lady in Red get? I was hoping for a container plant, but after listening to Tonya I'm wondering if they might be too big?
My Lady in Red got a good 3 feet or more....can't say I'd recommend it as a container plant. Pineapple sage may work better for that.
Just wanted to say I grabbed my envie yest and OMG-at least 2X as many as I wanted back!!LOL
I did get a bunch of veggies-and while I do like veggies, I don't have the room for them:( So if anyone wants them, LMK and I will mail them off....ooo-I wish for a bigger yard!!LOL
Yeah! They are here! I just had to wait until this evening to check the box. So much fun! Thanks again Ella and thanks to everyone else who worked so hard to get their seeds out. Such generous, generous folks. I have most of the seeds on my spreadsheet already, 'cept for the little extra surprises! So will probably be doing some WSing on Thursday and some more this weekend. Yee Haa!
Yep, my Lady in Red got to be almost 4' tall and 3' across. It would need a big pot! I cut mine way back to move it and it is still blooming a little bit.