iVE GOT THAT same situation with the same plant. Makes HOS look like a hunk o somthing else.... ;>

I suppose time will tell.

"Frozen in time" is a perfect description of what's going on with the seedlings.

Mother nature has to get her act together and decide what season we are in.

Around my neck of the woods, IE, Massachusetts/southern New England, we've had ranges in temps over the past 2 weeks of 85, 75, 65, 70, 45 with the heat going during the day, and those where temps during the day. Night temps fell as low as 22 degrees and 24 degrees twice and all the containers where covered those 2 nights.

Until "Mom" decides whether we are in late winter/early spring, mid spring, late spring or just plunged right into the heat and humidity of summer. Seedlings are going to stagnate in top growth above the ground.

BUT, they are having themselves a grand ole time with their root growth, which is what WS seedlings do to begin with when you first plant them out anyways.

Trust me, 7 years of experience with WS and looking at your seedlings, tells me that they are just fine, and if "Mom" will ever cooperate for us, they will shoot up and be huge and beautiful before you know it.

My neighbors where too impatient to wait for some seedlings and went and bought some nursery grown ones and planted them. Now they are kicking themselves for doing that.

My seedlings may still be small, but they are looking good and very strong and healthy; unlike their store bought/nursery bought plants that are sickly looking and have not been surviving the sudden temp changes and drastic variations of weather with cold, warm, hot, deluges of rain.

Those babies will be fine. just be a bit more patient. Warm weather will come and they will take off.

Fran

Fran is right. It's May, and many plants need more heat on a consistent basis.

I've nearly finished planting out 2,500 containers. I've been impressed by the HUGE roots on most seedings, often several inches long. This will help them thrive in more difficult conditions of summer.

Thanks for the reassurance. Fran, are you coming to Annie's swap in NH? Would love to meet you. I'm still used to Georgia weather, and this early spring is throwing me for a loop and making me think we are on Georgia time. I'll wait, and be excited when they begin to overperform!

Hi Deanna,

No I am not attending Annie's swap. I have my annual swap in Billerica the day before hers, with the rain date for Sunday, the day of Annie's swap.

I've never attended Annie's swap and some day hope to be able to, but the 1 hour drive from my home to her house, is just to far for me to be able to physically handle with a bad back and lots of nerve pain.

You are more than welcome though, to join us at my swap on Saturday.

I've posted for the swap in billerica.

Fran

Some of mine are doing the same thing. Those that like cool temperatures have shot up and grown a lot. Grasses and late summer bloomers have held steady. We're finally getting some rain, so that should help. We've had a week of near daily downpours. More expected all week. It's great not having to pull the garden hose all over the yard.

Fran, I can't this year, but I'll try to visit your swap another time. If you're only an hour from Annie's, then you're only 2 hours from me. Not too far. Sounds like a nice little outing!

Perhaps these slow growers are the plants that would appear later in the year? For example, my black-eyed susan seedlings, all nine varieties of Rudbeckia fulgida, hirta, triloba, etc., are growing and looking healthy. But, perhaps Maltese Cross is a plant that comes out later once it's established, like balloon flower (thought it had died it was so late) and Joe Pye Weed. Would be interesting to know.

Token, we're not getting much rain, either. The areas south of us have been deluged, but it's just like winter--all the weather hit the areas south of us and we had very little snow. We've been on the upper edge of some of the rains, but many of them just passed us by. I'm getting to know my garden hose well, too.

Same here about the rain. It seems south of us they were getting nice rain and everything is so green, but when they would get downpours, we would be getting a couple of sprinkles.
Victoria

We're being deluged. More rain over the last week than sun, and the seedlings that haven't been planted out yet aren't liking it much. On the plus side I haven't had to water in about a week.

Caryl

Deanna, how are your Takion Campanula? One of mine has FINALLY put on one set of true leaves. And now it's stalled out there again.

I need to take a picture of it...

You won't believe this. They were seriously frozen in time. Then maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago my dogs knocked over a container. "Which container?" I hear you ask in a concerned voice. THE container. Of all my Takions she knocked over the only one with 3 seedlings. The other 3 jugs only have 1, and I WS 20 blues and 40 whites!! That's 6 seedlings out of 60 seeds. I couldn't believe it. But, I found the disaster soon and gingerly potted them again. You wouldn't believe the long long long long (but very thin) root on these babies. They were tiny 2-leafed seedlings and the roots were probably 3 inches long. THAT'S what they've been doing the whole time! I don't like the soil I sowed them in as I think it is compacting too much, and once I freed them from that soil the root leaves began to grow a bit, and now all three have one true leaf coming in. Amazing! The other seedlings still look the same. Maybe this weekend I'll knock them over, too.

I do have one brand new seedling in a jug. woo hoo. That's 7 out of 60. Officially better than 10% now.

I'm glad yours are growing. Brings tears to my eyes and gives me hope. I don't know if I'll ever WS another Campanula persicifolia again. I check the jugs EVERY DAY. I've lost a bit of my mind. I've lost a bit of my mind. I've lost a bit of my mind.

Am I repeating myself? As I said, I think the suspense has been mentally damaging.

At the rate they're going they should be ready to plant out around August.

LOL, deanna! They're perennials, right? So they'll be big for next year .... hehehe

PV

LOLOL, Deanna! I know what you mean. I check mine every day too, and I almost fell over when I finally saw true leaves! Even some of my holdouts, the ones I was going to dump, have come up and already passed these guys in growth!

Do you think they will ever be able to live up to all this anticipation? haha! Well, if we ever do get to plant one of these out and watch it grow, we will have some big-time bragging rights! :p

I've already called my local nursery to see if they'll be carrying them this summer. I had hoped for a large area of the blues and whites in front of my orange Butterfly Weed. That whole War Eagle thing, you know. I might have to sneak out a few "professional" and expensive ones and cheat. I'm still amazed at how shy they are, if not down right temperamental and spoiled. Is my garden not good enough for them to sprout? Fie on you, Takion Blue!

I have the same problem with pansies, just true leaves. My question is if they are more of a spring/fall flower, does that mean if things don't happen soon they will not bloom til fall?

I have some HOS that I WS"d and planted that seem to be doing the same thing..not dying and are green but not growing. Should I dig up the hunk and try to separate them carefully and transplant them into a nursery pot or straight in the flowerbed?

Well 3 days later, I have flowers. PATIENCE.

Deanna, I just did that with Coreopsis Tripteris. They were taking for-ev-er! So right before the plant swap I decided I would just buy the darn things from Bluestone during their annual sale. They arrived last week. I gave the seedlings away at the plant swap. Not sorry! :p

This weekend I emptied or planted out all seedlings I was still waiting on. I was sick of looking at the containers, so if they were still small, too bad. They'll either make it or they won't! I had some Eryngium, a yellow aster, and a lot of white beautyberry that did not have true leaves yet. They're in the nursery bed. We'll see.

But I did keep three containers to watch over. Yep, the Takion Blue. Boy, these things better show me something good after all this! LOL! It's gotten really hilarious now. I do have one set of true leaves on one of the seedlings. I have four seedlings total, and I got ten seeds, so I guess almost 50% germination?