Vikki, Linda started round 2- on another thread! It's already in progress! I think the title is 'Another Spring round robin'.. Ok, The box is here- in it is... Leaves of Picasso Senk's blue cascade Sansaucy coco Laini Grape glory Cirelda Bishop Apache war bonnet Looking glass Ann Island hideaway Buckeye country charm Harbor blue Sky of Mars Opt. Ever joy Myakka trail Marching trail Rhap. Deborah Untamed heart Rob's Galiwinkle Naomi's after slou? Ness crinkle blue Galactic storm The madam Silverglade plums Ethel's explosion Ness satin rose Steel blue Kentucky bride Ma's flammable water Couple of strep leaves-blue mars, Neil's Danica, Lil' tequila! And a devils backbone. Some of the leaves have one, some two! Thanks Everyone for such a nice RR!! I'm thrilled with all the varieties! See you again in the Fall! I'll host another RR! And if someone's wants to do 2- we will have Two boxes going! I have a feeling we are in for a long, HOT summer! Happy growing! Hugs, Deb

Okay, inquiring minds! Here is what I got in box 2: Alison's Laughter, Apache Brave, Blackberry Jam, Bob Serbin, Buckeye Cloudless Skies, Cajun's Fascinating Fury, Cajun's Royal Knockout, Cirelda, Designer Star, Dumplin, Heartland's Lime Sherbet, Jolly Gold, Laini, Little Ebony, Looking Glass, Maas' Janet, Mardi Gras Madness, Mountain Mist Trail, Ness' Jesse, Optimara Michele, Optimara My Sunshine, Orchid Magic, Pixie Blue Trailer, Primulina Kazu, Primulina Ms. Beige, Rob's Argyle Socks, Rob's Whodunit, Sansoucy 'Julie Marie', Senk's Blue Cascade, Spring Kiss, Streptocarpella Blue Angel, Streptocarpella Concord Blue, The Martian. I did pretty well, didn't I? Box 1 coming up! Linda

The seedling photo there is too low resolution to see much. But such as I can see in that photo is consistent with my photos. I still don't get what difference you see other than high resolution photo vs low res. Those leaves are a bit rounder than my seedlings, but the volunteers vary widely in how round vs. elongated the leaves are. The first true leaf in that tiny photo exceeds the size of the cotyledons by more than mine do, which I am quite sure is an indication of the growing conditions: Better growing conditions make the first few leaves larger. But I'm not sure if that is sun, water or fertilizer. Maybe lots of plants do the following things, which seem to match between that tiny photo and mine, so they don't prove match, but I don't think mismatch: The first leaf lays down at right angles to the cotyledons. The second leaf lays down opposite the first and is much bigger than the first. In that photo, I think I see the third leaf starting in a way that matches other observations (but this might be confirmation bias). Each leaf starts as a nearly vertical tube like shape, then opens to a leaf as it grows and lays down. The third leaf lays down above one of the cotyledons. For reference, if you magnify that low res photo, what I think I'm seeing is: First leaf pointing up and right. Second leaf pointing down and left. One cotyledon pointing down and right. The other cotyledon and the start of the third leaf blurred together pointing up and left. BTW, in my photo above, I believe you mostly can't see the very small plants started either from root fragments from transplant or runners. You see overlapping rosettes, most of which are plants I transplanted individually in June. I put them pretty close together because the rosettes were smaller in June. Then one surprising behavior was that each rosette wilted away during flowering and each plant grew a new rosette in the fall. But each of those new rosettes was offset about an inch from where I had put the original, and either Murphy's law or some weird behavior caused plants to pairwise migrate together, leaving more gaps and overlap than the way I transplanted them. I expect this cluster will do a better job filling itself in than I could do giving it more attention. But I would like a larger total area there, so I'll try more transplants. The other place I tried to build a cluster did only a little worse while flowering, but much worse after. Only half the plants grew new rosettes in the fall and it wasn't practical to protect those from snow. The snow melted last night and none of that second batch still have leaves above ground. I think the volunteers usually lose their leaves under the snow and still recover in June, so I expect some of the second cluster will recover. But to have enough to look right will take a lot of transplants.

To follow up on our discussion of Helleborus foetidus with Karen and Judy at timestamps April 1-2. Our concern was to what degree the problems with dividing it extend to transplanting as a reflection of possible sensitivity to root disturbance. We are pleased to report that the extracted single plant that we obtained from Judy has done very well. It was first kept in a pot in deep shade the whole summer and watered well, even putting on some growth: It was planted out in the first week of November slightly raised with an extra layer of soil added around it (because of root competition in that bed). It is blooming right now: A couple of additional backup plants, obtained in that same batch but kept together in one pot, didn't make it through the summer, indicating that they are still quite sensitive to growth conditions, similar to the earlier batches that were planted out immediately in spring and died. In addition our plan B, to scatter in a number of locations the seeds obtained from Karen plus collected from local sites, turned out fully successful: we got germination of multiple seedlings at each location. So we may finally get some H. foetidus growing.