I would love to trade with you as well! I actually dont keep my list up to date at the moment, I wanted to know if the different varieties of violets are edible, I have jerusalem artichoke rhizomes i harvested this month plus sweet italian basil also harvested from my garden, the one you use for caprisi salads, yum, I'll email you a more detailed list. for medicinal and culinary herbs like white sage that one came from my school garden as well as vine plants like passiflora incarnata I am interested in your, Solomon's Seal - Polyonatum multiflorum, Skirret, Yarrow, Red, Basil 'Lettuce Leaf' (if the violet varieties are edible i would love some of those as well!) - Stephanie

From the Missouri Botanical Gardening Website: "Best grown in light, medium moisture, organically rich, well-drained loams in full sun to part shade. Avoid wet or poorly-drained soils. ÂAstra Pink is easily grown from seed. Division and transplanting are possible but tricky because of the fragile, fleshy root systems of these plants, and it is probably best to leave plants undisturbed once established. Deadheading spend flowers generally prolongs the bloom period. New season plant stems emerge late in spring, so gardeners must be careful not to damage crowns by early cultivation (leaving old plant stems in place throughout winter to the point when the new growth first appears helps mark plant locations). No serious insect or disease problems. Root rot may occur in overly moist soils." Another website offered "Astra" would do better with a little shade. Sometimes that can be accomplished with other plants around them. My experience is only with the standard platycodon variety - believe simply called "Blue". It's in full sun, decent well draining soil and they get water basically when it rains. This plant has modest water requirements so I tend to pair them up with daylilies, sedums, TB Iris, Siberian Iris and things with similar requirements. I'm not a regular supplemental waterer. Mine are old, planted in the early 70's and they've increased and spread quite nicely over the years. I neither mulch nor provide any special winter protection. I find they don't transplant particularly well - but have had much more success with large clumps vs an individual plant. Only thing I can think of immediately for you - provide some passing shade, if possible; and hold back on the water.

This is my first year winter sowing too, but here are the perennial flowers I've sown so far: Marsh Blazing Star, Purple Giant Hyssop, Starry Campion, New England Aster, Wild Geranium, Boneset, Black-Eyed Susan, Brown-Eyed Susan, Joepyeweed, Virginia Bluebells, Yellow Coneflower, Spiderwort, Wood Lily, Harebell, Penstemon/Foxglove Beardtongue, and Red Columbine. These are all U.S. native seeds that need 30 to 60 days of cold, moist stratification. I also already sowed the annuals Rudbeckia hirta and Tall Bellflower...my seed packets say they need 30 days of cold, moist stratification too, even though they are technically annuals, but they are U.S. Mid-Atlantic natives. Hope I didn't sow these too early... I'm going to wait until spring to sow the French Marigold seeds I collected. Can't say yet how well these all take to winter sowing since it's my first year in Milk Jug World, but will post an update later in the year. Good luck with your flowers too!

Aqua, I sent you an email a week ago (see above). I still have not heard from you and no seeds have arrived. I sent you another email and GW mail this morning. TO recap this situation.... *Aquadragonfly was to send me seeds (sprouts) in this swap *Aqua did send seeds to me but stated that she sent the wrong seeds. *I received the wrong seeds (Aqua refers to them as the "WOW" seeds) *I offered (via email) to return to her the "WOW" seeds and that she could send me the correct seeds that were intended for me. *I sent the "WOW" seeds back to her on September 7 *I emailed her on September 14 to see if she had received the "WOW" seeds. *She responded to my email on September 14 that she thought she had posted on this thread that she had received the seeds. She also stated that she had not been feeling well and it would be a few more days until she mailed out my seeds. *On October 20, I emailed her and posted here that I had not received any seeds. I have received no response via email or on this thread and have received no seeds. *Today, October 27, I emailed her and sent her a message via GW.............. I certainly do not need any seeds but as we all know, that is not the point! She has not kept her end of the deal...not cool! Annie