Hi Christie, I WS'd Liatris pychnostachya, L. ligulystylis, and S. perfoliatum in 2008. My records show sow dates of Jan 4th, Feb 4th, and Feb 14th and all 3 sprouted well between April 11-19th. AFAIK, these seeds do not have to be sown fresh - fully dried seeds sprouted fine. The seeds that need to be sown fresh are hydrophilic - many of the woodland plants for example - and they need to stay moistened by the soil and leaf litter until they sprout. I purchased some seeds last fall from Prairie Moon nursery that were packed for the year before and they sprouted fine. If you wait a little later in the season, then they are packed for the current year. Don't worry too much about the date on the seeds - even if they are a year old, no doubt the seed company stored them under optimal conditions and I think they are required to perform germination tests on the seeds they sell each year. My experience has been that seeds last much longer than references say, when stored well. I store them in a produce drawer in the refrigerator, with the humidity lever set to low, and throw those dessicants from vitamins, packaging, etc. in the drawer. I've been storing my seeds in the fridge for nearly 25 years and routinely sprout seeds that are 10 years old or older. For example I've sprouted the same Big beef tomato, basil, and parsley seeds the past 3 years that were packed for 1998 - 12 years old! - and herb seeds supposedly have a very short shelf life. And they sprouted like crazy!

I have not been on much this year...have had a summer full of family visits and a long vacation in Europe while DH was working, but came home refreshed and ready to put my heart back into my business next year. This year I had too much Neon Dianthus. I sell to a very small group of people and after about 3 weeks of a flower no one wants it again, thay want something different. So once again my problem is not to plant too much of any one thing, but to keep different varieties coming on. Spring bulb flowers start us off about the first of March, but this year most of my beautiful tulips were virused. They were beautiful Colorblends tulips so I think the virus falls out of the madrona trees that form the border between the street and my garden. I think it is just a plain garden variety of Botrytis, rather then the Dreaded "Tulip fire", and so I am cutting way back on tulips and mostly growing the viridifloras that seem more resistant. THe few others I plant will be in crates(Prefereably early tulips to force) or in sunny spots completely away from any trees! Clarkia and neon dianthus were big space wasters this year. I think about a dozen plants of white clarkia to use for fillers....another dozen neons, and more white lacy things would be a better use of space. I also have poor luck with the annual chrsanthmums "Merry maids" but could probably sell all I grow. I grow a lot of dahlias and they are my mainstay in the autumn but I need more fillers to use in their bouquets. Favorites I never get tired of are Delphinium Blue Bouquet, the cloud larkspurs, and snapdragons. I grew 3 kinds of snaps this year and will do the same with possibly a 4th kind next year. The Madame Butterflies open the season for me and give me buckets and buckets of lovely azalea type blooms in wonderful color combinations. THis year I tried "Snappy Tongues", not sure where I got them, but they have a white trumpet with bright colored crown,,,very striking! THen the wonderful Costa II'S, that have lasted, rust free, until frost. We had a cooler and greyer summer then usual here so the zinnias did not do well...but even what we had were very useful. I will move them to the sunniest spot available next year and plant lots! I need more summery foliage and fillers like dill, fennel, etc. And much as I Love Cosmos they do not sell well here at all. OH yes, I use lots of lilies, roses, and other bulb flowers and plan to plant atleast 500 butterfly glads next year. And I will be opening a stand at my home, and trying to switch my customer base to buying direct, and enticing in "Cut your own bouquet" customers. Also more advertising about subscription service (I deliver) and about doing weddings and parties.

Tony Ransdell here from GBE Packaging; Please forgive the interruption. I just wanted to take just a moment to introduce our services to you. I had found, and was impressed by your website and quite frankly your company is just the kind of organization we would love to do business with! We have been absorbing many of the 23 annual price increases we have received already in the first half of 2021. We are known as a low-price leader on the web and we need sales more than ever if we want to stay in business. This is a serious situation for all of us! I was hopeful we could network with you or you might have some suggestions, advice or be able to refer us to other companies that you know that might need a great packaging partner. I hope you can bookmark our site for future reference or pass this on to anyone in your organization that is involved with finishing / shipping or purchasing. I started GBE Packaging to provide boxes and packaging supplies to print shops and businesses of all sizes and really any industry. We have over 1200 sizes of stock shipping boxes so having us as a partner is like having a custom box store in house. Taxes - Many states are now charging sales tax but we are still only charging sales tax to orders that ship to Wisconsin. If you are in any of the other states you can save by not paying sales tax on our orders. We have special local delivery rates if you are close to our warehouse you can have a truckload of packaging delivered to your loading dock for $59 local delivery. We also offer pick up service available at our warehouses in Elgin IL, Dallas TX, Hazleton PA, and Atlanta GA. We try not to use Pay Per Click Advertising as we would need to raise prices to pay Google. Maybe you have that same problem? We prefer to pass the savings on to you thru lower prices. We would love to connect with companies that need a loyal business supply partner and appreciate good service and low pricing. We have hundreds of great reviews on our home page and we work hard to ship all order the same day or next business day. In business we are all partners! Please feel free to call on us if you need packaging or advice. You can email me anytime and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you for your time! Tony Ransdell GBE Packaging Supplies www.gbepackaging.com www.productpackagingsupplies.com info@gbepackaging.com Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GbePackagingSupplies Twitter https://twitter.com/GBEPackaging Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbepackaging/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gbe_packaging/ This is a one-time mailing from your website or LinkedIn contact information and not part of an organized campaign. No need to unsubscribe. I just would love to do business with your company! I don’t want to be a nuisance.

Around here the smallest strawberry pots (red terra cotta) are $10 at the big box retailers but I found some at a large greenhouse way out in the country for $7. If mine sell well I intend to purchase quite a few more. Herbs like Thyme are easy to grow all winter long so they really fill out a pot. I would like to think up some other herb combo to use in them but small thyme plants seem to work out the best (even though Thyme tends to rot here, but you can usually keep the plants alive for a few years). I tailor the combinations towards Italian foods just to give it a theme. I would like to do tea herbs but most of them get so big it just wouldn't work and I doubt anyone will buy one of the bigger strawberry pots. Sales tend to weaken when the prices are over $20 at an open air market. I am keeping my eyes open for one of the dark blue glazed strawberry pots. I have these variegated strawberry plants that would look stunning in a colored container - but most that I find are so expensive, I just don't think they will sell (and I charge a lot for the variegated strawberries also). I once saw a small wire holder that held 4 small clay pots with a basket handle across the top - it was cute enough that I think folks would buy it, but I haven't found that picture and have no idea if it was home made or store bought. I toy with the idea of growing herb collections in plastic bulb crates and "rent" them to folks through the summer (they return the crates when they are done harvesting the herbs). But they aren't pretty and I doubt enough people would buy into to it to make it profitable. I volunteer and help out with a few public garden and gardening enterprises around town and they let me have the surplus. I can get a ton of free plants this way also - but mostly things that are hard for me to carry over til spring. I also host two big plant swaps a year and a seed swap in the winter which bring me all the cuttings I could ever want (plus it gives me an insight into what types of plants people really like to grow).