That's a good idea! I was thinking about doing one of these slips with petunia seeds, too, but I'm not finding any seedpods on any petunias except one kind, Dolce Flambissima or something like that from Park's Seeds. I guess the rest of what I grow is sterile hybrids or something. I wish I knew more about this -- which seed I can save becuase it will come more or less true and which I can't. I think I had a Dolche petunia reseed this year and bloom from that reseeding. (It bloomed in March and reseeded in April-May and that seedling has bloomed -- all in one season) The resultant flower is white with splotchy stripes of the same color as its mother. Not unattractive, but not too terribly attractive either, especially if it didn't have the mother as a complement nearby. :) The whole thing is such a mystry and nobody puts enough information on their seed packs. :))) Lime

Hi - I have tons of a short zinnia mix [they did REAL well!] and also 4:00's from your wishlist [yellow and rose pink, some fuchsia] and would like to make a large trade for your larkspur, blackberry lily, balloonflower, sweet william and both iris. Just let me know how many trades, and of what, you'd like. Doreen.

I heard that hummers liked canna. I noticed that my neighbor had many humming bird feeders. I asked if she saw any hummers. She said not at her feeders but lots at her canna. I said that I would love to have hummers. In the fall she left about 20 lbs of canna rhizomes at my back door. I was perplexed. I put them in the basement and planted them the next spring. I had hummers all over those canna. When I dug them up in the fall (no small feat, and wrecked my beds) I had about 4 times as many as I planted and I understood why this neighbor gave them to me. That fall I dropped canna rhizomes off to everyone who I knew that had a garden. In my zone (Z6) they are not hardy and are quite a bit of work to dig up, prepair, store and plant the next spring. However, they create an impressive, lush, tropical feel in the garden. Canna are very out of place in my mid-atlantic cottage garden. I plan on replacing them with native canada lilies (when I find a good source for healthey reasonably priced plants. They are apparently good hummer attractors, hardy in my area, more appropriate for a cottage garden, and MUCH less WORK!. So to answer your question...they do attract hummers!. JD

Mike, Wildseed Farms has amazing prices on some common seeds, both wildflowers and ornamental garden-type flowers, and also some herb seeds as well. You can buy in small or huge quantities. I spent about $4 on two packs of Laura Bush petunia seeds a few years ago, and have had purple, pink and white Laura Bush petunias ever since. They cost me nothing because they reseed everywhere. (Laura Bush is an heat-tolerant ornamental petunia that blooms all summer long even when the temps are in the 100s, unlike the more heat-sensitive bedding plant petunias you buy in stores.) Every time I see the pots and hanging baskets of petunias in stores in the early spring I want some. They're so pretty and I'm so starved for flowers at that point. Then, I remind myself to be patient and my Laura Bush reseeders will pop up out of the ground and be blooming before I know it.....and they do. I've planted a lot of flowers, both wildflowers and then others like cultivated varieties of cosmos, sunflowers and zinnias from Wildseed Farms and have been happy with every single one. Almost all of them reseed for me, which means I'm not running back and buying more seed every year. Right now, I still have 5 containers of the purple-flowered Laura Bush petunia in bloom. I dug up the tiny seedlings out of the garden path last March or April and put them in the pots. Periodically I shear them back to stimulate new flowering growth. At night, I roll or drag them into the garage. Sometimes, I have left them out with temps as low as 10 degrees though, and they haven't frozen yet. These few flowers keep my spirit nourished in the winter when they aren't any native flowers in bloom. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Wildseed's Website