Hi, I'd be interested in the following, I do have some seeds to trade depending on what you're looking for. annual flowers: nasturtium 'whirly bird cherry rose' annual vines: sweet pea 'chatsworth' veggies: pumpkin - small new england pie (2006) ornamental corn 'painted mountain' winter squash - green acorn 'tuffy'

i have mixed hot pepper seeds that im offering on this forum, if you want some please email me, i can send you a list of some of the possibe species you may get thanks your friend joe

Properly stored, corn and many other vegetable seeds definitely are viable for much longer than one year--often 3-5 or even longer. The only seeds I know of that we are urged to buy fresh each year are parsnip and onion seeds. I never in my 45 years of gardening have bought fresh seeds each year! What a waste of $$! Now, each successive year of storage the germination rate from a given packet may drop, but most seed packets provide way more seeds than a home gardener will need for several years. (By then often we want to try new varieties, anyway! LOL)

I am kind of a haphazard gardener, to be honest. I just plant what appeals to the butterflies, bees, moths, and other beneficials. Of course, along with all of those we do get the ones that are not so beneficial as well. Mother Nature has a way of balancing things out, though. In planting things that attracted all of these "pets", I attracted many others that I didn't plan on, but were welcome anyway, like the beautiful sphinx moths, and the hummingbirds. I never had put a hummer feeder out until the hummers began to show up to nectar on many of the same flowers and shrubs that attract the butterflies, like the passion flowers, Verbena bonariensis, Pentas, Lantana, Cypress Vine, Mexican Sunflowers, and many that are considered tropical here and only grow one season in pots. A couple of years ago I began to get interested in growing natives, because they attract a lot of birds, butterflies, bees, and other beneficials, and many are host plants for butterflies (they lay eggs on specific plants). Monarchs will only use milkweeds, Black Swallowtails only use parsley, fennel, Rue, and other apiaceae family members. Our native passion vine is host to the Gulf Fritillary, as well as a few other passion vines. Aristolochias (pipevines) that are natives are utilized by the Pipevine Swallowtail. Three of these are native to Oklahoma. Native asters host Pearl Crescents. Native sennas host Cloudless Sulphurs and Sleepy Oranges. Native False Nettle hosts the Red Admirals and Question Marks (so does stinging nettle, but False Nettle does not have the stinging hairs). Wild Indigo (Baptisias) host the Wild Indigo Duskywing. Plantago hosts Buckeyes. Verbesina encelioides (Golden Crownbeard) hosts Bordered Patches. Coneflowers (Echinaceas) host Silvery Checkerspots. Goatweed (Crotons - native not the decorative houseplant) host the Goatweed Leafwings; Tulip Trees host Tiger Swallowtails along with a host of other trees, including Wild Black Cherry. Sassafras and Spicebush host the Spicebush Swallowtail. Wild violets and Passiflora incarnata (natives) host the Variegated Fritillary (not a true frit, but rather a longwing). Daturas (the native and others) host the Tobacco and Tomato hornworms. Virginia Creeper host many, many moths like the beautiful 8-spotted forester and lots of sphinx. Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) hosts the beautiful silk moth, Cecropia. Native honeysuckle and viburnum host the Snowberry Clearwing sphinx moth (resembles a large bumblebee). Hackberry and Elm trees host Question Marks and Hackberry hosts the Hackberry and Tawny Emperors. Willow hosts Red Spotted Purples and Mourning Cloaks. So you can see the list is endless almost. I get lots of ladybugs, green lacewings, and praying mantids. This is all good, but they do eat their share of butterfly/moth eggs and caterpillars. Such is life in the garden, tho. I find lots of insect activity on all the plants I mentioned. Most natives are loaded with nectar because it hasn't been bred out of the plant in the breeding process. For instance, you might find some activity on the old species roses, but you don't on cultivars. They just don't produce nectar. So the more hybrids that have been made up the line, the less nectar the flowers produce. Natives are wonderful. They have proven they can survive almost any adverse condition or event. Some are quite beautiful, too, but their purpose is often a bit more esoteric than appealing to the eye. Also, butterflies generally like flat top or single flowers because they provide a better landing pad for them. All of those new doubles cultivars make it almost impossible to obtain nectar so I try to stick to these. Kenna has survived the scars of being traumatized by the pit bull exceptionally well. She still loves dogs, cats, and, of course, butterflies, and hasn't displayed any inordinative fear of them. It probably helped that both her grandfather and I both love animals and have them at home. In fact, her GF has 3 Rottweilers that are watch dogs. They have grown up with her, though, and she doesn't hesitate to interact with them at all. I, on the other hand, am a bit more cautious cuz I am not around them much. Susan