Sierra I just remembered the phlox for you...

Thanks for posting the pic, Gil. Yep thats what mine look like too. :-) Are you sure you didn't photoshop them in...you have so many. :-))

Sierra

LMAO - yes that's why they all look the same... you got me. *dying laughing*

- glad yours are phlox. more might show up later - some of mine are still germinating even though they're under the lights.

Today I planted:

Caster Beans
Gazanias again, as they didn't germinate the first time.
Cypress vine

Also planted up 4 cannas and 3 elephant ears. This was all I could salvage as a lot of them rotted and dried out. Hopefully the ones I do have will grow......got my fingers crossed anyway!!

Gillian, how are your Cypress vines doing? You had mentioned that they were drying up, have they come back at all?

Laurie

I did a few more today,

Red Peppers and Yellow Peppers, both from seeds collected from grocery store peppers so we'll see what happens. Not sure if they will come true or not, but I guess I'll see at some point! LOL

Also I had taken up my Anemone 'de Caen' about 2 weeks ago (? give or take ?) and I was starting to think that it was goners. So, I dug around to see if the bulbs were OK or not and I ended up disrupting some roots! I popped it right back in and watered it really well. *** fingers crossed that it will be OK *** I could totally kick myself for being so impatient! LOL

~Ang~

I have sprouts on all the following

Dianthus deltoides "Arctic Fire" Dianthus
Heuchera americana "Dale's Strain" Coral bells
Potentilla thuberi "Monarch's Velvet" Potentilla
Primula prohonicensis mix Primrose
Ramonda myconii
Rhodiola atropurpurea
Sempervivum mix Hens & chicks
Viola hyb. "Angel Tiger Eye"
Violet Sylettas
Viola x williamsii Red Flame Angel Viola
Viola x wittrockiana Pansy "Black Eyed White"
Viola x wittrockiana Pansy "Penny Orchard Frost"
Viola x wittrockiana Pansy "Springtime Cassis"

Ramonda myconii only has one lonely sprout so far.
I am still waiting on Heuchera sanuinea "Ruby Bells"

I saved a couple of Mirabilis jalpa in the fall and let them dry out in their pots.
I recently started watering them and am seeing a little growth.

Ian

Another interesting one, Ian. Ramonda myconii. Where are you finding all of the seed for these interesting plants? A definite must have. I love it.

Shauna

Hi Shauna,
That one I got from Gardens North.
I checked her website and itÂs marked as sold out.
ItÂs a pity that Gardens North wonÂt be putting out a catalogue any more.
I like to sit down with the catalogue and earmark things I might like to follow up.
Stumbling around the website is not at all the same experience.
Ian

Three weeks ago I started celery seed. I soaked it overnight and these have not yet germinated. Any hints? What can I do? Should I try another batch? The seed is from Veseys. Thanks.

I started celery in Feb. I can't remember if I soaked the seed or not........I followed what ever Veseys planting guide said or stokes catalog.......They are slow to start and grow but I think you should see something by 3 weeks. I would start some more just in case...better to have to many than none at all. Mine are now in 4 inch pots and a good 6 inches tall.

I checked on the caladium again yesterday.....some of then have rotted. So I took the remaining good ones and replanted them like begonias.......on top of the pot. Then I put them under lights.

Started two kinds of beans yesterday and did a lot of pinching. Hopefully I will have time to get more stuff started before the end of the week.

Ohhhhhhhhh and I have a few butterfly flower sprouts now.....what I did was cover the seed with a bit of soilless mix and just left under the lights for days......maybe even a couple weeks. LOL....I just ignored that bowl except to throw some water at it....

Kind of did the same thing with the phlox LOL. Think I could talk Gil into photoshopping a few more phlox into that bowl though?

For some reason the coleus is growing a lot faster for me this year.....I had to move it from the cell paks to 4 inch pots yesterday as well. I also moved the lavatera from cell paks to 4 inch pots.

If all goes well.....the greenhouse will be built this weekend....along with a potting bench. Keeping fingers crossed. LOL!

Sierra

I am having an organizational problem. I use peat pellets to start seedlings. I put them in a tray, label the rows (so I know what is what), cover them with the clear tray cover and put them on a seedling mat. This set up is on my bottom shelves where there is minimal light. Now that a few seedlings are sprouting, I want to move those off the seedling mat and into the sunlight. How do I keep these early sprouters organized and know what they are once they are removed from my label rows?
Or is there a better way to transition from the germination to the seedling phase?

Thanks!

kim

kim, I like to use mini-yogurt cups [like the mini-go containers] and one peat pellet fits nicely into it, a bit snug but it will fit. That way I can label the yogurt cup and I find that it keeps the peat pellet nice and moist sitting in those plastic cups.

I have waited over 3 weeks for the buds on the torenia to open..well worth the wait..this morning I have 2 purple ones open plus a pink one nearly there. I see a bud on one of my mimulus that I sowed march 10(they started to germinate on march 4th)..so that is only a month to get to the bud stage...savona
torenia
{{gwi:739883}}

That torenia is a really pretty colour!

The anemone that I was so impatient with the other day actually is showing signs of still being alive! Phew! I can see a little green tip coming through the soil.

~Ang~

My final indoor container -- I did some Purple Basil yet. Should be interesting.

Laurie, sorry I didn't notice you asked about my cypress vines way back there. I lost most of them. It was such a strange thing how they turned white then died. Anyway I took three remaining ones and put them out in my cold frame. I thought if they weren't getting enough light or heat, or if it was fungal, that might toughen them up. They have only been there a few days but they seem like they might be greening up a little. Hard to tell. Hope they pull through.

Savona I like that torenia too, pretty colour!

Gillian, hopefully those 3 will come back for you. I'm just amazed at how quickly these guys germinated. Almost over-night!! I'm hoping the three that I have will do ok, but I did save some seed to direct sow if these don't make it. I'm really anxious to see how well they do, as the package says they can grow to 15'!

Laurie

My husband and I set up a room in the basement for growing plants. I have the following sprouting: about 20 bravehearts and about 15 broken colour 4 o'clocks, about 17 subarctic tomatoes, a big container of love-lies-bleeding, 1 bird house gourd and I think a few more are going to sprout. I also have petunias but they look kind of puny. Mystic Merlins, salvias of all kinds, marigolds. I was running out of room so I had to put some cannas upstairs, put a plank on the bathtub. There's a lot of sun coming in the bathroom. We placed an old door on two chairs in the den upstairs and put the dahlias there. I'm running out of room and I have so many other things I want to start. I'm starting to get panic attacks because I have so many other seeds but I'm simply running out of room. What to do? I have a little plastic tent with a long zipper that I got in a yard sale a few years ago. I'm considering starting some containers and putting them in there.

A few years ago, we were given some old windows. I'm considering putting them against one of the walls along the garage and putting some containers there. Am I pushing it?

All in all, I think we've been quite successful so far. I water everything with a solution of chamomile tea and plant food and we have the fan going all day.

Well, that's it for now. I'd accept any suggestions from experienced gardeners. I've been returning to this website on a regular basis and I've learned a lot and realize that gardening knowledge is never-ending.

Every year, we hope to get a perfect garden but it never happens. We hope this is the year.

Do you know anyone with bales of hay?
Stack two bales high making a cold frame as big as your old windows and you have a cold frame!
I did this for several years until my DH built a wood framed 'coldframe'. The windows eventually broke but by then he had built a greenhouse out of old windows on a cement block frame.
I still used the frame with plastic stapled onto a 2x2 and rolled it off the frame in the day time if temps were up!
Now it is a plunge pit for some of last years seedlings.
sam

Another suggestion, claubill, is to wintersow them outside. All of the tender annuals can go out now. I had zinnias up today. I've got many kinds of dianthus, bidens, sweet sultan, bachelor buttons, poppies, linanthus - all popping up. All told, over 100 varieties of plants out there. Mine are all in regular flats and the two flats are put into a blanket bag from the dollar store. Instant "mini" greenhouse. All I started in my indoor greenhouse this year were things that needed to be started earlier. It's up to you, but I'm a firm believer in wintersowing, this being my second year.

Shauna

Thanks for your suggestions Luv2gro. Do you think it's safe to direct sow in my containers? Today, I planted the calendulas in three containers and put them in my little plastic tent but my tent is now already full.

Good news.....more phlox is popping up daily now...temperamental little buggers that they are. Lots of butterfly bush....and I am going to plant out every single one of them.....just BECAUSE! LOL!

Took I think it was 11 cuttings from the tidal wave petunias a while back...and it looks like they all took. Transplanted the original plants to larger pots and they took off like crazy again.....so will be taking more cuttings today.....guess I will have lots of petunias after all. LOL! This is the last pinching for them though.

Some of the proven winners are in....so hopefully more will be in later this week when I go to pick up what I want for this season.

Also bought a clematis this past week....

My basement looks like a plant nursery. LOL
Sierra :-)

I quit, I quit, I quit . . . with phlox. Never again. No more. I've had it. I still don't have any sprouts on my dumb, stupid phlox. I don't even want to "coo" or "dance" or anything. They are just plain refusing to come up, no matter what I do. (My rant of the day)

Congrats, Sierra, on all of your phlox sprouts

Shauna (smiling sweetly . . . grrrrrrr) : )

Sierra,

I thought butterfly bush or Buddleia davidii wasn't hardy here? Or are you talking about something else? If it will make it here I'm buying one! :)

Syreeta

Ohhhhh Shauna...that is the RIGHT dance. LOL!!!! Now just toss them to the side and forget about them for a while...throw water at them occassionally when you remember...and tell them you really don't care.....you have lots of other lovelies so it just doesn't matter. :-))

Ooooppss Syreeta no butterfly bush won't grow here LOL...Its milkweed butterfly flower....that I have. I typed the wrong thing...couldn't have been a wake yet. LOL!

Sierra

I didn't think Buddleia davidii would grow here. :( One of the nurseries in town was selling it last year. A friend bought one and I told her to try mulching or putting a styrofoam cone over it for the winter and it might make it. We'll see if it did or not here shortly, even if it did we didn't have a normal winter so it isn't a true test of whether or not it is hardy enough.

Syreeta

Thanks, Sierra. THAT'S exactly what I needed to hear. They are pushed aside. If they want to come up, I MIGHT consider planting them out but if they don't, I don't need them. (pout, pout) I only invite plants that want to grow for me to play in my garden.

BTW, I have one indoor seedling for Buddleia davidii and I was just going to treat it as an annual and see what it does. I have some w/s'd but they haven't sprouted yet. Just an experiment.

Shauna

Shauna,

I don't think your Buddleia davidii will bloom for you in the first year. When I lived on Vancouver Island mine always had to get to a certain height which took a couple of years before they bloomed. You could try overwintering it inside but I don't know where you would put a 6' bush in your house. :) Large houseplant anyone?

My Mom sent up some Japanese maple seeds that she had collected. Should I sow them inside or outside? These are going to become houseplants in the winter as I know they won't survive outside. (Hubby is going to freak. LOL) I think she said they came off of 4' trees. Anyone tried these before?

Syreeta

Syreeta, they wouldn't make terribly good houseplants since they're temperate zone trees that lose their leaves in winter. They do very well in huge pots wintered over in a cold room though - they can't be allowed to freeze, or you risk having them die back to the ground, which wrecks the shape of the tree. Then, when brought out in spring, cut them back very hard before setting out in a shaded spot, out of the wind. (They can't take the low humidity in the sun here, or the wind - the leaves are damaged by both, resulting in a lot of unsightly white marks.) It's interesting to start them up in the house before setting them out, however this results in weak sappy foliage that will suffer a lot of damage when set out - we found it was really best to cut back hard and set them out directly to leaf out. Being that they're in pots, albeit huge pots, with drainage holes, they need daily watering. DH kept some beautiful specimens for many years... until he tired of them and gave them away...where they soon met their demises, sigh.

Sierra, so you got the picture file of the Phlox sprouts I e-mailed you to photoshop into your flats? LOL Works great doesn't it.

Doing the happy phlox dance together :0)

hee hee...yup Gil, but I photoshopped it into a Wendy's salad bowl. LOL! I still don't have as many as you though. I want to transplant them into cell paks but I am afraid if I do that no more will pop up.

Yup doing the happy phlox dance. tee hee
Sierra

Better email some of those sprouts to Shauna so she can do the happy dance too! You can send some to me as well - i had my container covered and now there's mold in it. I don't care all that much - i saved the seed last year and tried it just to see what would come up. Yeah, mold....

Ugh don't talk to me about mold.... This is the second year I have bought and tried those seed mats for the wave petunias...NEVER AGAIN... I follow all the directions they give with the package and usualy only end up getting one or two sprouts because they are so small they can't seem to push themselves thru the mat. Then the whole top of the soil goes moldy. As of now I have 2 puny seedlings from 3 packages...and those things are ridiculously expensive. Guess I'll be buying my waves this year!

These last two posts made me think of a conversation I had with a friend last weekend. We were discussing when to take the tops off of containers when the seeds sprout. I take the tops off the containers as soon as I see a single sprout....she said she leaves the top on till all the seedlings sprout and they are about an inch tall. She also mentioned that she has several loses doing this.

Hunnerbun...did you email the company to see if they will give you your money back....they are very expensive per seed and for this to happen...I would be quite miffed.

Sierra

I got the rest of my indoor sowing done on Sunday - 8 days behind schedule - they should have been in on the 15th. (Sigh). Tomatoes (6 kinds), peppers (4 kinds), statice, rain daisies (first year for them, hope I'm not too late), and a few other odds and ends. Add that to the 6 flats of petunias that are starting to bloom, the various cuttings - basil, thyme, fuschia, various houseplants for the shade garden - and my 49 wintersowing containers, and I should have a few flowers to put out. DH keeps asking where I'm planting them - I'll think of something! I'm glad the petunias are blooming. I was talking on the phone to my sister (about gardening of course) when I planted them, and wound up with one flat that was double seeded on one half, with no seeds on the other. Now I can figure out which ones are red and which ones are picotee. I'm buying a few wave petunias this year and have never tried starting cuttings from them. Any advice?
Connie

I've decided all my indoor seedlings are getting potted up today and out into my makeshift cold frame. The thunbergias have been doing well in there for weeks now, so it shouldn't hurt anything else I have - impatiens, coleus, snapdragon vines, and dusty miller. The tomatoes are still so little, but when I put a heating pad under them, they dried out and almost died on me. I don't know if it's worth another try. I realy don't want to buy anything if I don't have to.

I'm starting that next week, hoping to get down to one set of lights! My husband is going to flip when the hydro bill comes in! :)

My peppers have come up! I plan to grow them in my greenhouse this summer which will be an experiment in itself. We'll see how things go!

I've got most of my indoor sown stuff outside now in my 4-shelf greenhouse now. They stayed out all night last night and they look totally fine this morning.

~Ang~

Ohhh Ang, you are brave...I am still doing the in and out dance on the nice days...I am still too afraid to leave the stuff outside all night. Maybe starting next week once it gets a bit more acclimatized. Last night's low was -7...still a bit too cold for my liking and theirs too I bet!

I hear ya, Michele! I was just chatting with my Mom this morning (she's in Southern Ontario) and she was saying there was frost on the roofs this morning. She was floored that I had containers out all night too! One good thing is that my "little greenhouse" can roll into the garage at nights.... which I just may need to do this weedkend??? I'm keeping a close eye on the forcast for the next 2-3 days.

Ang

Ok I wasn't going to tell you but I planted a bunch of stuff out already. I have hardened some things off already, so I thought what the heck and planted them. Some of them are really potbound and I can't handle any more transplanting. I have extra blankets in case it freezes again... but it only has twice this month. I have planted snaps, columbine, shasta daisies, dianthus, salvias, and foxgloves. Still have leftovers of all in case it ends in disaster.

Disclaimer: don't follow my lead!

Oh yeah BTW does anyone know how relatively hardy Astilbes are? Can I start hardening them off?

Any perennials sowed indoors can be started to harden off.
Annuals, I would wait a couple of more weeks ;)

Sharon

I've been leaving some of my plants outside overnight for the last week. They are still looking fine. I do put them in my 4 shelf greenhouse and close the cover overnight. My tomatoes and peppers come in for the night though.
As this is my first year starting flowers, I found that some of them aren't up to my standards as great one to grow myself. My godietia are pretty puny. My gazinia and Osteospermum are small . But I probably should of started them sooner. Lobeia, Morning Glory, Cobea, Dianthisis,and Wave Petunias have really tooken off. These ones I will be growing again. I started 4 kinds of peppers and 4 kinds of tomatoes as well. They are all doing great with the exception of my Manitoba Tomatoes. This could of been my fault. Maybe I left them outside a little too long when I first started hardening them off.
What has been your best and worst plants to grow this year?

My Purple Basil and Red Spider Zinnias are up this morning. That was only 2 days or so for the zins! Wow.

I kept my indoor sown stuff out last night but it sure was windy. At 2:00 in the morning I just happened to be awake and look out the window and noticed that my 4-shelf-greenhouse had rolled/blown half way across my backyard! Yikes. So I dashed out and rolled it into the garage! LOL

Ang

I transplanted all my indoor grown seedlings into hanging pots today, and let them get watered in the rain, but took them back in or they'll drown. Some things, I have been putting i plastic tubs covered in plastic as a sort of lame cold frame. I got some nice pink, white, blue, and butterfly mix impatiens, coleus, snapdragon vines, and dusty millers. I also transplanted my tomatoes into bigger styrofoam cups, hopefully they'll take off now. Everything I sow from now on will go out WS-style, covered in plastic. We used to have a deck, now we have a nursery.

Ang, a couple weeks ago, I had the same problem with my little greenhouse. To make it more stable I put some of my extra paving stone bricks on the bottom shelf.The weight of them has helped and I haven't had a problem since. Did you lose any plants?
Shelley

Shelley thats a good idea! No I didn't loose any plants thankfully!

Ang

Well I'm done sowing for this season!

I just finished sowing all my Sunflowers seeds...

5 flats of
Helianthus ÂPacino ColaÂ
Helianthus ÂEarth WalkerÂ
Helianthus 'Cherry Rose'
Helianthus ÂRing of FireÂ
Helianthus ÂRed SunÂ

Since they're so easy to start, instead of putting them under the lights, I took them out to the greenhouse to germinate, I also took all the other seedlings that were growing downstairs under lights out to the greenhouse as well today!

Sharon

Last weekend I put all the petunias in the greenhouse. They were fine. The last couple of days I have been bringing more trays out as well. By Friday I plan on starting to make up the planters. I already have a few smaller ones done.

I started my sunflowers a short while ago..they are up a couple of inches already.

Haha....I found the bag of freesias yesterday that I bought.....so I planted two planters up with them, as soon as I found them....normally they would have been planted a while ago.

run sierra run, time is running out to get everything planted. LOL!!! I should have potatoes and carrots, and lettuce also planted by now......ohhhhhh well.

Sierra

I'm putting all the rest of the indoor sown stuff out today -- some peppers and coleus and purple basil. Oh yeah, and my salmon geranium too.

I actually planted out the Red Spider Zinnias today too. They were getting so leggy inside that I just plunked them in the garden! We'll see what happens. The WS ones went out yesterday and they looked totally fine this morning.

My living room is basically "back to normal" again -- until everything needs to be taken in in the fall again... (but we won't go there yet.....)