Seeds are tiny, not much bigger than grainy dust. Oops! Maybe those were seeds! :) If you can find another dry flower spike tip it upside down into a brown paper bag and shake it/beat it around a bit. You will surely get at least a few seeds out it. Tip - look for new mullein plants around the base of this year's flowering plants. There will certainly be some babies around within 10-20'. While they do transplant, in my experience they resent it and refuse to grow to full height/size after transplanting. They will still flower and produce copious amounts of seeds - and mullein plants will be yours for ever more! Seed can also be had from the online vendors like Richters and Horizon Herbs. FataMorgana

Hi Monarda -- You got me wondering about St. George and when St. George Day is. So, here's some useless (but interesting info about it.) With Valentine's Day coming up maybe we should adopt this system...... Taken from the net of course, St. George's Day - April 23rd St. George's day is celebrated in and around Catalonia. St. George's Day has been celebrated since 1436. St. George is the patron Saint of Catalonia Catalonia : In Catalonia St. George's day coincides with the Fair of the Book and the Rose. On this day every man offers a rose to his loved one (wife or fiancée), and in return she gives him a book. The book is in memory of Cervantes. This custom was started in 1926, to commemorate Cervantes death (authour of "Don Quiote"). Barcelona : Book and Rose Fair. The St. James Square and main streets are lined with stalls selling books of all shapes and sizes. There is also an exhibition of roses in the patio of the Palace of the Autonomous Government as a symbol of the arrival of Spring Sant Climent Sescebes : Procession to the magic rock According to a local legend there is a magic rock near the village that leads to a huge treasure and the spell may only be broken on the night of St. Georges day. The people from the village form a procession and bless twelve loaves of bread, then they share them out among the crowd. The Legend. The 23rd April is a date that has always been linked, either directly or indirectly, to literature and popular traditions. The Catalan knights that set off towards the Orient could never have guessed the repercussions that their tales would have with relation to a local saint: St. George. Later the tale would be changed to fit in with the mediaeval traditional Knight in shining armor fighting evil. The legend that was born is infamous: St. George fighting the wicked dragon that held the princess captive. Finally St. George kills the dragon and on the spot where the dragons blood was spilled a rose grew as a symbol of love and friendship. But what has really given importance to this date is that it is now considered to be the "World Book Day". The role played by the "Renaixença" in the resurrection of the "Jocs Florals" Thanks to the insistence of Antoni de Bofarull among others, the literary competitions were revived in Catalonia in 1859. It was from then on that there began to appear new authors and ideologists and there was an important increase in the number of newspapers published as well as political and ideological works. After the interruption of the "Jocs Florals" because of the Civil War they began to become very popular again from 1978. The idea of these annual literary competitions was basically to stimulate young people to cultivate and take a delight in the Catalan literature and language. Ever since then this tradition has been celebrated and is actually one of the most important in Catalonia, it has gradually spread to the Spanish language and also to the English language. In 1996 this Catalan tradition became an International one, taking one step more towards the unification of peoples all over the world, even the mythical rose was given in the United States, Japan and France as well as other countries when a book was bought. Why this date? April 23rd was not only famous because of the legend of St. George, but also because it is the anniversary of the death of two great writers:: CERVANTES and SHAKESPEARE. These grand writers have passed into history for their great works, becoming an important symbol in their respective countries. One way of acknowledging the work of these genii was to name this date as being the Book Day, and so it happened like that. On 23rd April books are sold in the streets on long stalls prepared specially for the grand occasion. Many people take advantage of this day, even though they may not normally be regular readers, to buy and enjoy a book. It is one way of encouraging people to read. This is also a popular date to launch new novels onto the market and many authors take advantage of the fact in order to promote their latest book. Last, but not least, there is nothing nicer than lovers exchanging a book and a rose. Carlos Estrada St. Paul's School, Barcelona ------Fascinating!

Hi, kimmsr, Thanks so much for replying. I got a soil test in 2012, but I've added some organic matter since then. The pH was 7.7; the organic matter was 3.2%. When I dig a hole to plant a tree and fill it with water, it drains at what I imagine to be an average rate. I can't remember exactly, but it didn't seem super fast or slow, I think a hour or two to empty. It holds water pretty normally too. If I water 1 to 1.5 hours one morning, the next day the very top of the soil looks bone dry, but just underneath or within a half inch there's plenty of moisture. There seems to be an earthworm under almost every weed I dig up. Once the lupines get going there are bees everywhere, and I see ladybugs, ground beetles, and little spiders every so often. The soil smells great, in my opinion. It's good-looking soil, nice and black when wet, with a good texture, not too crumbly or too sticky. A layer of reddish-brown clay becomes prominent about 10 to 12 inches down. I haven't noticed hardpan. In the soil test, nutrients were (in ppm): nitrate-N 8, phosphorus 45, potassium 167, magnesium 294, calcium 2099, sodium 25. Soluble salts 0.2 mmhos/cm. Per their recommendations, I added elemental sulfur to the vegetable garden, but I haven't amended the flower beds. By the way, there's an underground irrigation system, and I just paid a guy to come out and replace the heads along the fence with "shrub heads" 16 inches tall and move some of them closer to the fence. Thanks This post was edited by myrmayde on Thu, Jul 24, 14 at 14:30

that blueweed looks like bugloss we have around here. I think they are pretty. the ones I saw were growing next to the railroad tracks. I don't understand why people spend so much money putting chemicals down to get rid of moles, voles, weeds and such. I mean they spend all this time and money to get a lush green lawn only to have to mow it constantly because they fertilized it to death. I mean what is up with that? don't people realize that by eradicating these things they are throwing everything out of balance and wonders of wonders they wonder why their grass is dying when there is a mild drought. And of course by killing off the beneficial insects and rodents they have to extra treat for pests on their lawns, and of course these are toxic and cause all kinds of health problems and enviromental damage you don't directly see, and in fact they found that many people were getting sick from pesticides which they didn't attribute to the pesticides until all other things were ruled out. I have dandelions, our bees just love them, we have violets growing in the lower pastere, of course I wish they didn't take up so much space away from grass. I like sweet joy pye weed, and all the goldenrods, and I love those ironweeds, and honeysuckles which grow in the woods. They smell wonderfully all summer long. I like the fact that my grass doesn't have disease or pests problems or problems when we have the occassional drought, while everyone is watering like crazy when it doesn't rain for a while I don't have to everything keeps growing all I have to do is mow occassionally. I have moles voles bugs galore and yet no problems that I know of or can see. the little voles are cute, I used to have horses and I put the manure in the corner of my pasture, and they took up a home under the pile after it aged awhile, and when I went to dig up some to put on the garden, there must been a hundred that came from under the pile. they ran every which way. I have moles too as I can tell by the raised parts, but that is no problem when I mow it flattens those spots. there are few weeds I don't like, even poisen ivy is not a problem as I seldom react to it and when I do I do so only very mildly. I love virgina creeper for it's leaves and how it changes to red in the fall and how it tally's up the trees and is red while the trees are still green, quite beautiful. they also hide the ugly posts that line the pasture. Anyway weed I would love to have around is the queen of the prairie it is quite spectacular, and of course I would love the giant reed type grasses I see growing around here they grow more than 10 feet. I feel like I am walking in a jungle. RR