You should consider coming to our local swap in april. It's in Garner. There's a post with the details, and before long there'll be a post that has special trades going on. Some folks always bring seeds, and there will be plenty of veggie starts too, more than likely. We have a good time! If you like trying lots of little bits of seeds, consider ordering from le jardin du gourmet. They have trail size packets for a pittance. Not organic, but ...

Hi again, Being I would have to see the flower, it is hard to say. But since they came out easy, maybe. It isn't that they are drying in the dead flower, they are ripening. When the flower is finished, the seeds are starting to develop. How long depends on the type of flower. For some it is very quick, 4 O'Clocks come to mind. Other seem to take forever to ripen. When flowers like marigolds are finished, the seeds as you know ripen in the base of where the flower was. You have to wait for the base to dry up before taking the seeds out to ensure they have properly ripened. So the whole process is sort of like a pregnancy. The flower blooming part is when the sex happens. Then the seed ripening time is like a baby developing. If you remove the seeds too soon, they haven't developed properly. It is like a premature birth. The drying once you remove the seeds, is because there is a residual amount of moisture in them. If you store them before it is gone, you risk the chance of moisture collecting and causing mold which kills the seed. Hope that makes sense, Remy

This thread is worth printing off, please keep these great ideas coming.. I dont' have any ideas as good as these, but here are a few Just off the top of my head.. 1.) please don't throw away any aluminum, plastic or styrofoam containers from your winter sowing, they can ALL be recycled. 2.) For seeds that are prone to getting weevils, like my hibiscus seeds, I pick the entire seed pods, and put them in the freezer for a week , sometimes longer to kill the little devils so they dont' destroy the seed. 3.) I use a paint pen specifically for plant labels, but what I have found last longest is a pencil on a plant label. I have a sedum trading friend in England ( he wrote the bible on Sedum) that sends all my cuttings to me like that, with labels written on in pencil and they have lasted for years. I also have a hard time with my window blind labels getting moved around, so for some plants, when I plant them, I sink a label into the ground by the roots, THEN add an above ground label for 'double identity' 4.) My brugmansia cuttings root best....I buy $1.00 buckets from the everythings' a dollar store, and put enough water to cover the bottom of the cuttings. I have found an aquarium stone to airate the water to work great, but this year, just changing the water constantly has given me a 98% rooting success rate. I do use my marker to write on each cutting the name, as well as adding a label so I dont' get them mixed up. 5.) Ben and Jerry's icecream containers work great for winter sowing...unfortunately only my son can eat the icecream, but I collect the cups LOL. Also using big plastic organic spinich and greens containers I get at Food City, plastic cups, etc. 6.) An old fashioned idea from my mom that she has done forever, with a 99% success rate, and my grandmother did as well. Most of you probably already know this. In the fall...if she has a rose bush cutting , she will just literally stick it in the ground where she wants it to grow...turn a mason jar over it, and surround it with mulch and leaves. In the spring, it is rooted. Call it magic, but it works for her. I don't 'do' roses, so I havn't tried it. I have traded for multiple rose bush cuttings for her though and she now has a rose garden from them.

ok, back to the computer box, since its dark out now =) took a page from oldmobies book...and copy and pasted my seed trading list to google docs. wasnt so hard =) good suggestion thanks... heres the links: my seed trading lists https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U1bx5N1Z18kTprolLuZTTZk6EbbgUmnIJ1JnFj9LVwA/edit?usp=sharing