aquawise, columbine sounds good. Mixed colors? What can I give to you? Margez, all of those sounds great. I can trade you one flower type for one lettuce type. What do you think? onedaylily, doronicum, anemone sylvestris, geranium macrorrhizum = yes! Trade for 2 packs of lettuce and one pack of orange pepper? Shoot me an email: muffypuffie@yahoo.com

I often start perennial and biannual seed in July. Right now I have shasta daisy, sweet william, foxgloves, painted daisy already germinated and am waiting on delphinium, columbine, salvia and sage to get started. I find it much easier to get them started outside when the soil is already warm and the temps make germination faster. If you start seed in July you can expect the plants to flower the following year. Some perennial and biannual seeds are very easy and some are hard. I follow directions on back of packet as far as if the seed needs to be covered or needs light and some need to be frozen for a while, set them on wet miracle grow potting mix, water well, but gently and put in a shady place until germination starts and then I move them to an area that gets a few hours of morning sun a day. Once their first set of true leaves is out I will move them into a place that gets 4 or 5 hours of morning sun. When their second set of leaves shows up the seedlings will be moved to either a nursery bed in my veg garden or for some into their permanent spot right away. The bulk will go to the veg garden and those I might cover with shade cloth if it is very hot (it will be in Arkansas in August). The hardest thing is to keep the soil moist while germination is going on and when they are vey small. Sometimes I have a complete failure, but for some like shasta, sweet william, foxgloves, painted daisy, gillardia they are so easy you will get dozens of plants. Almost always I get at least a few. Well worth the couple of bucks the packet of seed costs. Hope this helps.

I do it because I get unusual plants/exotic colors only catalog seeds can give me. I do it because I like doing it. Yes, you can get earlier bloom with some plants. With others (like cosmos and zinnia) I find they do best planted directly outside. You learn from experience. Lately (after doing it for 30 years) it's become a bit of a chore so I stopped doing seeds that need to be started before March 1st and buy those plants in the nursery. I use an 8 tray light setup with two shop lights next to each other on each level, each light with one ordinary 40 watt tube and one full spectrum tube. Keep a list of when each plant needs to be started (by weeks before last frost), keep the lights no more than an inch from the plants, and always have a fan or slightly open window in the plant room to prevent fungus. Try to water from the bottom and without soaking the top of the soil. Have as much fun with this and go nuts obsessing over whatever you feel comfortable with. Rewmember, it's for pleasure!

Many, many plants are poisonous. Azaleas, laurel, lily of the valley, larkspur, bleeding heart, daffodils, the foliage of cherry and apple trees, leaves of tomatoes and potatoes, lantana, mayapple, baneberry,, all parts of the horse chestnut, columbine, jack in the pulpit, hellebore, elephant ears, iris bulbs,ivy, passion flower leaves, and calla lilies as well as monkshood, and foxglove to list just a few. The deal is that the poisonous parts also taste terrible. And a single bite, even if swallowed, is not going to hurt a child, cat or dog. It takes eating 100 to 200 grams of azalea leaves to poison a 55 lb child. A whole salad of them. And remember those leaves taste awful. And think about how many houses have a row of azalea and/or rhododendren bushes. Perhaps just put in plastic flowers and rubber mulch. Oops, rubber mulch is toxic and pine needles can act like fis bones. Better use a sand mulch.