Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #25

Thanks Neal! Did you wait to sow them until it was in the 50's or did you start them earlier?

They (Primulas) were some of the first things I started, in January or February. The seeds are tiny, so I just surface sowed.

Ok, gotta go get a container ready and get them out there!

I'm adding that to my list to sow tomorrow, too.

I've downloaded all my pics to a separate hard drive, so I'll see if I've got any of the Lady in Red and Pineapple sage. The Lady in Red was in full sun, next to some Black and Blue Salvia - they were duking it out by the end of the season. The Pineapple sage came from LeBug, I planted one in a container and put the others next to the tomotoes. The ones by the maters didn't get as big - I think because they were on the north side of the maters and got shaded. The one in the container got to about 18".

Now I gotta go do something with those primula seeds....

I'm WSing some milkweeds today, and wondering, is it ok to go ahead and winter sow the tropical ones too?.....or should I wait till March or so?

Neal... i know I WS"ed milkweeds in Feb before... my fist year doing this... i had no idea what was what... so i know i sowed them in Feb. they did great.

checking my notes... they were sown on Mar 16, germinated on Apr 2nd. and 5 out of 6 seeds germinated.

Neal, I have been wondering the same thing! I WS'd the perenials hardy in my zone, but I have a couple that are going to just be annuals and didn't know if I should ws them or start them inside or what.

I tried WSing some things that liked it warmer last year about this time, and didn't get very good results. I also had to learn to be VERY patient with some things, like campanulas, as they didn't sprout nearly as quickly as I thought they would. That's one things I've got to be much more aware of this year - the length of time it takes for each seed to sprout.

There's so much to keep track of! Eeek!!

Thanks Terese! I went ahead and did the hardy ones, and will wait till next month for the tropicals just to be safe.

Chele, what annuals do you have? Any labeled 'hardy annual' or that are said to reseed themselves are fine to sow this early. If you're not sure, just wait till March. Thats what I do with any I'm afraid will germinate and then get hit with a freeze.

Well, the seed madness is on full force! I've got 20 pots sown under lights with little cling wrap covers right behind me, and just finished today's batch of wintersowing- 40 containers done now, and the seed pile is still sooooo big, LOL. Oink...snort...squeal...

Robin, I've learned my lesson about those supposed duds too, after one took a year and a half to germinate. Do you recall what species of Campanula that was so slow for you? I've got several Campanula species wintersown.

Neal - making me laugh! I have

A. curassavica - both Silky Red and Silky Gold which says tropical perennial/annual

and then I have A. viridis - which only says perennial in zone 8......should I even try this one?

Neal -- here are the 5 that germinated.... date of image 9.11.07
I do not recall when i planted them out... though i do recall that we had a warm spring and i started planting out end of Apr early May

I do recall i put the babies into a larger nursery pot until i decided where they eventually ended up ... but they were outside by the end of April early May as we did not frost again.

Neal -- we cross posted... i was busy with the image...

but BOY you have been busy. I keep thinking about sowing more... just havent gotten to it yet.

Hey Neal - I had to go back to my DG Journal and look it up :-) It was Campanula carpatica 'Blue Chips' that took longer than I'd anticipated. I sowed them on Feb. 11, and they took about 6 weeks to sprout.

And I didn't have any luck at all with my Columbines, so I've gotta figure out what I messed up there.

Robin, I tried Blue Clips last year but nothing showed. I think the seed I gathered may not have been mature. This year I've got Canterbury bells, C.persicifolia, and a couple of others I can't recall at the moment. When did you give up on your Columbine last year? I had some that didn't germinate till June. The fresher the seed, the better luck you'll have and the faster they'll germinate. The ones I wintersowed from my own saved seed did better than any others I tried.

Chele, hard to say on A.viridis, I didn't see any mention of how long they take to flower from seed. Often the perennial ones flower the 2nd year on.

Terese, those are gorgeous! They will be great for blooms when its hot and dry, and so many things are declining.

I gave up on the Columbines in late April and just sat the containers aside - sort of made sure they got necessary water and light, but didn't pay other attention to them. Eventually one sprouted a Lamb's Ear, and the other one sprouted a datura :-) I've got a bunch of seed this year, so I'm hoping to get at least a few plants out of them.

Neal... when it was really hot and dry... they wilted a bit, but a lil drink of water perked them right up again.
tough lil buggers they are.

Columbines ned the heat to germinate. They not gonan germinate til it gets nice and warm .

I start mine indoors. Have about 1,000 pots of them out there. They also don't liek to be transplanted til they really root bound. Then they sulk for abotu two weeks. Also make sure ya don't cover them, but need light.

Phew, 27 containers WSowed, and probably 30 more to go...if I can find containers for them. I'm planting at the rate that I find containers at this point. Need to get the neighbors to drink more milk ;-)

I'm starting to feel a little concerned, this is my first year doing this, and I'm putting a lot out there! Robin, if you figure out what happened to your columbine let me know, I've got a lot of columbine WSowed on my deck already!

Nervous!!!

Hree a pic of some of my columbines. These are two year olds and when ya transplant ya have to make sure the crown is up. Don't bury your crown or your plants will never grow.

Hmm, so you manage well even further south than me. That's encouraging!

Do you keep them in shade? What's the secret?! So far I've had two plants that lived a while, and then one of them didn't make it through the summer. Both are on the north side of the house. I'm hoping to have lots and lots this year. I just love them!

Rats....OK, back to the drawing board on Columbines...

In the winter and spring they stay in the full sun. Til we have a hard killign frost here they will continue to grow and i have had them blooming in the middle of winter before and not go to sleep til we get temps liek now way down in the teens.

Durign the hottest part of summer. They get a mix of sun and shade. usually sun til abotu 2pm and from then til about 6 they get shade. once they get up they like a lot of water. Durnign the summer i usualy havign to water them everyday and I also cut the blooms off soon as they done til late fall so they don't make seeds. Ocne they make seed they will go dormant durign the summer, so no baby makign on my shift til almost winter.

do we need a new thread?

I"ll get it...

Dryad. You got any tiny sowign trays around like a 288 tray or such? if so cut it up into siz e to fit into one gallon baggy and fil with your seed startign mix and just toss seed on the top i put one seed per cell and put in baggy and udner lights til they sprout, then i take them out and leave in the seed trays til I see the roots coming out of the bottom.

Here's the new thread..... http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/945140/

Danita. yes they do. They have to be dead headed as soon as done blooming. I keep mine fertilized all season too exept for like now. When small i feed with miracle grow and also off to the side put abotu a half of teaspoon of slow release fertilizer.

Now if i keep them deadheaded and the temps get way over in the hudnreds. Sometiems they wil slow down for a bit and just grow leave s but then wil be blooming again when temps stays back in the 80's and low 90's in the sun shade

Thanks Star! My mom loves the flowers so I know she'd like a longer bloom period.

It's so cool that all my fellow piggies are already starting seeds! Anyone else I tell asks, "isn't it too early?" If it weren't for you guys I'd think I was seed crazy! lol
tcs - I dmailed you : ) Is any one else watching american idol?

Was watching, try not to miss it, or at least record it.

Not too many gifted people on there tonight, the girl that already had a record deal before was really good!

Yeah, I prefer it once they go to Hollywood, though then they don't show enough of each person... ah well. I really liked the little girl in yellow that wrote her own song. She was so fun!

Oh yeah she was good!! : )

I dont watch Idol... plus it's a LOST night. [season opener]

Dont forget to move over to the thread #26

Oh so that was a rerun! I only watched one other one this season so I had no idea lol.