My hardy roses had a good year, I think my Persian Yellow is on it's own roots now as it has pushed up a sucker. I have been trying to limit the Black Spot that it gets. I sprayed Sulfur before bud break and that helped it make it to fall with leaves. We have good moisture in the soil now which should help next spring as long as it is not a wet Spring also. I haven't grabbed an hips yet, I will do that this week. All the rose seeds that germinated ended up damping off, I need to use a courser mix I think.

Wayne, that’s true, as a plus I probably won’t have to do the extra deep watering I usually do before winter. Every Persian Yellow I’ve seen has had blackspot, it’s good to hear sulfur has worked for you to control it. Gorgeous rose though. That's very unfortunate to hear about your seedlings. I had the same thing happen to a batch of basil and rock soapwort. For rose seedlings, I added a lot of extra sand and perlite to the potting soil and that seemed to help. It went down to -10C a few days here which is why I harvested my rose hips early. They are now a moldy mess in sandwhich bags. At least they are sorted though! I think I might need gloves and even a mask this time!

Horrible, horrible growing season and why I've been rather absent from the forum. The central region of Alberta has been completely dominated by low pressure that continues to soak us pretty well weekly! County of Lac Ste Anne, situated to the west of me, was declared an agricultural disaster, eighteen or so inches of rain in July and August had completely drowned the crops. Leduc county also declared a disaster, farmers can't get into their saturated fields and I think something like 50% of the crop remains out through the entire central region. Each and every week since the beginning of June, we've been locked under a depressing solid blanket of grey skies and rain for three or four consecutive days, then proceeded by one or two days of HIGH winds followed by clearing skies and temporarily improved conditions for only a brief day or so .... THEN, repeat the cycle all over again for pretty well the last five months!

I had one of the very poorest gardens ever, probably only about 1/3 the amount of tomatoes and then only that much because I had tented them over with plastic to shield from rain and much increase the temperature. Cucumbers were lousy and corn quite pathetic, but did at least get some. Potatoes produced about half the normal crop and was surprised to get as much as I did! Should have been a big strawberry crop, though pretty well every last berry had rotted.

Today, I harvested the last of the rose hips for about 120 hips total. Outdoor breeder plants had makeshift greenhouse slapped over them in mid August and provided with heat on overcast cold days and frosty nights and I was rewarded with mature hips. I'm now extracting seeds and later will plant them in the fluffy fibrous soil I obtain from a low spot at the back of the property. Funny, but with this soil, I have never experienced damping off problems with anything whatsoever, must have some beneficial properties or something to do with ph, I don't know! I must get a few pails before it becomes too late to do so, though likely soooo wet down there that it's under water, might have to wear rubber boots and dry the soil out in the basement, I NEED the soil that badly!

PNR, when it comes to immature hips, I always treat them as cuttings with 5 or 6 inches of stem. These I place in glasses with water I've added a few drops of bleach and then set in the sunny south window. Once a week, I recut the stem with an exacto knife and refresh the water, Most hips will continue to ripen as normal, though some will insist on shrivelling and these I behead where the stem meets the hip and place them onto a thick bed of paper towel moistened the water / bleach mix, then cover the container with plastic and set in the window.

FrozeBudd, that’s terrible to hear about the conditions for your area, it looks much worse than here. I wonder how much food costs will rise in grocery stores, restaurants & bakeries because of this. I hear areas of Manitoba also had drought, followed by late heavy rain, and then deep snow storm.

Your fibrous soil sounds interesting - the perfect balance for germinations. Does it come from decomposed leaves? Or is it a wetland type of area? Sometimes on rural walks I have seen the most amazing rich soil, I might give it a try one day.

Next year I hope to try row cover fabric. Slugs and cabbage worms were plenty this year. It was disheartening to have to harvest all my Sungold tomatoes early, to learn that they don’t get the same sweetness as ripening outside on a living plant. But if we had left them, they likely would have been damaged by hail. I also aim to have a decent pea crop, they just didn’t come up for me, perhaps because I soaked the seeds overnight. Oddly, we had a fantastic potato crop, but that may have had to do with the high 18”+ hilled beds they were planted in.

Thank you for the tip on the bleach, that is a very helpful! I find Snow Pavement/rugosa hips to be sticky and quick to mold. Looks like I have about 100+ rose hips as well, I may try drying and freezing some seeds as I have no idea right now where I would plant them in the long term. I also brought my Lewisia Elise into the sunroom and pollinated the flowers. Hopefully the seeds will be viable.

Summer lasted like 2.5 months here. Awful. Froze on June 19th (June was record coldest) and October has been near record cold and is trending to be the coldest ever. Can we get some global warming, please?

PNR ... yes, we'll all pay yet more at the grocery store and so will farmers when slapped with higher crop insurance rates. Combines were going last week before yet around dump of rain received. Time is running out and we're only ever getting a sprinkling of nice days and that does little when daylight hours are short and ground saturated. Hopefully, in November, we'll get a solid ground freeze combined with dry snowless conditions to enable combining.

Slugs were bad here as well and I made many nightly rounds picking the buggers and diligently removing them from the cabbage, otherwise they'll make their way deeper into the head and continue to chow away while heads are in storage. BTK is very effective for cabbage moths and only needs to be sprayed twice during the season. Peas were surprisingly good, though I also had very poor germination despite an early sowing. I dislike the use of chemicals, though have noted much better success when having used treated pea seeds. Yes, I'm sure the 18 + hills significantly contributed to your potato success, rained soooo much here that no one had gotten a chance to hill theirs. Did you cross pollinate the lewisia or simply brushed them to assist with self pollination?

Yes, the awesome friable soil I collect is mostly made up of decomposed leaf litter shed by a thick canopy of trees, in places it's 4 to 6 + inches deep, it's nutrient rich and most all seedlings love it. It's also great for containers, though best mixed with perlite and whatnot.

Clark, just a few more days before temperatures really tank here as well.

Hey Lane: yes I’m sick of the world getting record setting hot months with the Rocky Mountains area one of the only spots on the globe with below average conditions, late frosts and snows and brutal falls And coldest feb in my lifetime. Snowing right now: awesome. The long term outlook is brutal after Friday. All far below average.

Rain and high winds yet again and snow overnight, the trek of low pressure systems across the province just continues on and on for nearly five months now! Since early June, never have we experienced a favorable pattern change that has stuck around for more than a mere few days! Though, for months and even as recently as a couple of weeks ago, The Weather Network has been prediicting the jet stream to finally shift and become locked in to favor Alberta .... HA!

FrozeBudd, thank you for the tip, I’ll be on the lookout for leaf litter based soil in the future! For the lewisia, I only have the plants started from the Elise mixture from Park Seed. I like the colour of this coral one, so am spreading it’s pollen on the rest.

This white one is also standing out, it is very floriferous!

That would be great to have the jet stream be gentle on Alberta this time. Today was lovely here, albeit windy. I hope for better weather for everyone next year!

It was actually not a bad gardening year in Saskatoon. I put a drip system in the vegetable garden and had the best tomatoes and cucumbers ever. This was the first year I didn't have blossom end rot on my tomatoes, although they weren't as flavourful as prior growing seasons.

I grow as much as I can vertically and also make use of mesh cover to prevent pest damage. We have been working to rejuvenate the garden soil with lots of compost and it's starting to produce good results. We have also converted to no-dig which is much better for moisture retention and soil structure.

That coral lewisia is a beauty! I've not yet gotten such a color, though "had" several very nice oranges I've kept seed from, won't be long before I can start those I guess. I also found the whites to be especially heavy flowering and eye catching!

I guess, I have a bit of mild zone envy! Conditions change sooo quickly here from first autumn frost that blacken the plants to HARD freezes that begin to penetrate the ground. I mean, as soon as things get toasted, I'm in fast forward mode cleaning off the garden and soon afterwards cutting back perennials and hauling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrrow off to the compost pile, a LOT of compost gets made! Donna, yes, compost is fantatic stuff, my garden soil has gone from silty and lean to rich black and productive with the copious amounts of compost having been applied over the last ten years or so.

The strong El Nino winter of 2015 / 2016 was phenomenally WARM and we had something like a zone 5 b winter in the Edmonton region and Calgary even milder! I have a few buddleia tucked up against the foundation of the house and that particular winter, these had remained semi evergreen and flushing out in new growth all up the stems! The painted lady butterflies love the buddleia, though early this autumn, there were few of them likely due to the continuous overcast and wet conditions. Did though see plenty of larva on some Canada thistle and globe thistle and even on some hollyhocks, so of course had left them to be.

Now, just need to take a few afternoons to protect some of shrubs and young trees from the deer and moose damaging them during the long winter. Then, I can call it quits for the garden season and wish I'd be flying off to a nice tropical place for the next four months, but no! Though, won't be long before some seed catalogues begin to arrive and should have rose seedling emerging in December.

Donna, I like your tip in using mesh. I definitely need to improve my method for next year. I had some beautiful flowering kale and cabbage, to only see them destroyed by cabbage worms. They would have been beautiful in all this cool weather. I've heard great things about drip systems and the time they save. I’ve adapted some methods which made things easier such as tossing weeds without seeds on top of the soil and not cutting most things down until spring.

FrozeBudd, yes it seems like this is the time of year I move towards indoor growing. It sounds like you’re close to wrap up. Rose seedlings in December?! Thats incredible. I don’t even have my rose seeds all extracted yet. I’m looking forward to seeding time soon. I’ve collected seeds from Elise lewisia, hardy geranium 'Max Frei', variegated geraniums, and a tall yellow iris crossed with a tall purple iris. I’m planning my order with Stokes seeds, I plan to give begonia 'Illumination' you suggested a try. I’m debating on going with the lemon/yellow, or the mix. I’m still holding onto the 'BIG' begonias I started in January. After they got damaged by the night time hail in late September, I cut them down and bought them into the sunroom. Now they finally look like they‘ve recovered:

I'm also getting back into houseplants, and have started a little collection of hoyas and some other trendy plants. It’s very interesting - there appears to be an explosion of interest in houseplants among the millenial and younger generations. Houseplants are so popular on Instagram and Facebook now! My theory is that plants are one of the furthest things from technology, and they can bring a lot of peace in this ever increasing hectic world. It’s ironic to me that a lot of this interest is driven by technology. I hope these houseplant enthusiasts eventually explore outdoor gardening as well one day. Maybe then there will be a resurgence in roses.

The weather had allowed just enough time to get fall chores wrapped up and that includes the sxteen five gallon pails of wonder soil from down the hill. Wouldn't be such a problem obtaining that, but for the very steep incline that makes it a heart pounding workout!

By the end of December, the bulk of rose seedlings will have had two months of cold stratification and should then begin germinating. Otherwise, I'm now down to just a small handful of hips that continue to ripen in the south window. I think I had about 95% success with my forced ripening methods, as long as hips have progressed to at least a certain stage of maturity upon collection, most will make it.

Yes, am also again getting back into houseplants, winter is tooo long not to have some living color going on! Hoyas are about the perfect plant, I only have two at this time, a slightly sliver splashed one and 'Chelsea'. Never before have grown a agave, though could not resist the variegated 'Desert Diamond' and 'Kissho Khan' and the unique looking aloe 'Pink Blush'. The 'Hawaiian Punch' series of hibiscus have impressed with their compact form and individual blooms lasting four or five days! I continue to keep a few 'BIG' begonias over the winter and have some T budded roses pushing into growth in the south window. Also, have starts of a Ficus Benjamina from my doctor's office, these grow tall, narrow and thick and without leaf drop even under the low light conditons there, must be a newer variety. Had grown Ficus Benjamina in the past and nothing but a headache with their constant leaf drop and dead dry branches, these new ones should be better I'm thinking!

Geranium 'Max Frei' is an excellent plant, blooms for a long time and a few seedlings sprout forth here and there. It's been awhile since I had grown Illumination 'Golden Picotee', though these beauties had those large well formed blooms I had mentioned and just enough color variation between plants to keep things interesting. Would like to again grow these and others, though really need to cut back on the runaway number of containers I've been tending!

Now, hope to see some new and interesting perennals for 2020 !!

FrozeBudd, 16 pails?! Sounds like the work out is worth it, that soil must be incredible. I’ve been mostly using Pro-Mix HP these days, but the best price I can find right now is $34 per bale at Canadian Tire, but that adds up over time. I was considering reusing the mix in my containers, but am now finding myself trying to overwinter many of the plants in them!

I still don’t have all my rose seeds extracted. That‘s amazing your rose seedlings sprout so early. Do you still do a warm stratification with them?

The Hoyas I started with are obovata, kerrii, and 'Krimson Princess'. Hopefully I can get them acclimatize to this dry Alberta air. I’ve seen pictures of 'Chelsea', it’s one on my wishlist. Good to hear there is a ficus Benjamina which can grow in low light, I remember the same about them dropping leaves. Love variegation as well. I picked up ficus elastica/rubber tree 'Tineke' and I’ve been delighted at its foliage!

I’m debating on setting up grow lights upstairs for the iris and pelargonium seeds I had cross pollinated. It’s be nice to get some light during these quickly darkening days, plus not hang out in the basement to examine seedling progress.

Well, a foggy one here today, though otherwise sure has been nice the last few days, yesterday about 8 C bright and sunny and great for soaking up the sun while sitting on the deck. PNR, where have you been acquiring the hoyas, here and there? I picked up the 'Chelsea' from Walmart spring '18, wasn't cheap, but a nice big healthy plant. 'Chelsea' is a sport that likes to revert and do funny things. Sometimes it produces stems with strange unattractive thick rough textured foliage, this growth I nip out. Though, it also has thrown a shoot with new leaves of a gorgeous dark purple black that later turn dark green, I now have a small rooted cutting of this, will snap a photo when it gets larger. Yes, the variegated rubber tree sure is a beauty, I had it for myself several years, only wish this species was better able to branch with pruning ... nope, mine just shot up straight to the ceiling!

I haven't utilized my growlight bench in years, really should get back with it! I tend to super cram things in the south window and with good results despite lack of room, stuff later going into the sunroom in April. Will attempt to restrict the number of bedding plants (been saying that for years!) and free up window space for what hopefully will be a very large number of rose seedlings. The times I've used warm stratification, I've had some super early germinations, like almost immediately and really not yet wanting to deal with a few baby roses in early November. So, into the fridge seeds go for the two months, Arkansana crosses still though receive two rounds of warm stratification. I really need to get back to working with a selection of this I had been given, it blooms all summer and of course is very hardy and makes a fine front of the border plant.

Don't you wish you could visit this lady and bring home some (okay lots!) of these geranium beauties!!

Another favorite video from this lady.

FrozeBudd, I’ve picked up a few Hoyas from the garden nursery nearby, online stores, Facebook, or Etsy.com. It’s interesting to see many small scale houseplant sellers filling the mail order market. It seems like the economy is cycling, or interests popular in the 70s and 80s come back to style. For example, I learned macrame is back in style, but this time as huge artistic statement pieces, or cross stitching when combined with bits of dry humour and trendy sayings.

Home Depots in the Calgary area have recently brought in small pots of Hoya 'Krimson Princess', which has lovely variegation & pink stems, although I’ve read to check these carefully for mealybugs. I was delighted to find Hoya macrophylla the other day at the nursery.

Love the videos, her Westcott Appleblossom geranium/pelargonium is stunning! And the ones trained as standard tree form at the show are incredible! I was quite disheartened by the rust on all mine this year. I think it may have possibly come from ones I picked up from BC, 'Crystal Palace Gem', the rust started on them and was the worse. I ended up cutting everything down low & stripping any leaves. I’ll likely repot in the spring as well but there’s a chance there are spores everywhere now. Hopefully with drier conditions and maintenance I can at least prevent it from happening next year.

I have a hard finding double zonal geraniums here in Canada. Brocade Cherry Night is a bit more widely available. I did stumble across one from a shop in northern Alberta, and hope to place an order in the the spring: https://shopbraeheid.com/products/old-rose-geranium-lorraines?_pos=1506&_sid=da0483fb5&_ss=r

Thank you for the tip on possible early germination with warm stratification. I finally got my rose seeds extracted & now am getting iris seeds ready for stratifying. Hopefully this mild weather holds up, we dipped down to -18C at night last week but it’s been about 5-10 during the daytime for the last few days which is nice, although I’m sure confusing for the plants. I placed my order with Stokes recently & am looking forward to growing more begonias from seed, I went with Illumination Lemon and Nonstop Joy Yellow. The Raker trial garden data has been very helpful: http://trialgardens.raker.com

PNR, I guess you haven't come across a supplier listing a substantial number of fancy leaf geraniums? I kick myself for having let go of my 20 plus beauties I believed I'd again come across in the future, I was wrong! Great to hear that some crafts are coming back into popularity, the more people use their hands instead of their phones the better! As for hoyas, never know when some might pop up here and there at HD, Walmart or whatnot, though unfortunately I have no nearby major greenhouse that stocks indoor plants. Oh, I hope your geraniums recover from the rust attack, I was

Did a bit of a happy dance today when seeing that several rose seeds have germinated, seed quality and quantity was good despite the awful summer, again can contribute such to the successful forced hip ripening, For a number of years, I've been using calcium nitrite as a germination enhancer, but use just a tad too much and it'll instead do a fine job of totally killing the seeds, this occurred a few years ago, ouch! Used correctly, germination can be greatly increased and sometimes I'm shaking my head at all the sprouts staring at me when opening the baggies, that's not a complaint by the way!

Yes, those trail garden reports sure can be helpful when deciding whether to grow a new variety, I frequently check them out.

November has flown by, helped by the sunshine and milder weather that dominated, colder now though and time for doing a bit of hibernating.

FrozeBudd, for geraniums the most variety I’ve seen is the Greenery Garden Centre in Kelowna. Even then, they only had a few fancy leaves ones, but they had a phenomenal selection of ivies, regals and zonals altogether (probably 40 types or more). There I remember seeing Wilhelm Languth, Mrs. Pollock, Crystal Palace Gem, and one which I forgot the name but looked just like Brocade Fire (perhaps Indian Dunes?). I wish there was a pelargonium society near me. The other thought I had was trying to source them from overseas from perhaps the UK, Europe or Russia, or in the US through https://geraniaceae.com/

Glad to hear you got some rose germinations already! It’s always such a relief to see germinations. I harvested my lewisia seeds yesterday and have well over a hundred, trying to decide what to do with them all!

I agree, this is definitely the time for hibernation. I hope everyone gets to enjoy some down time. I got my begonia seeds today, it won’t be long before the cycle begins for me again. Got my WH Perron seed catalog in the mail today as well. I'm impressed with the variety so far, it's a little bit less than Stokes but they offer some good stuff which I don’t see at Stokes.

I like this recent article confirming a possible milder winter for this year. Here’s some hope!: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-winter-weather-forecast-environment-canada-1.5381300

FrozeBudd, I think you mentioned the possibility of a mild winter before, it’s good to see it unfold. We had a few days of a sudden -17C for a few night last week, but otherwise daytime temps above zero. Although I think this is bit hard in the plants, some things were budding out prior to the sudden cold. Got to get some mulching done, I forgot a few plants which could really use the mulch to help keep them from waking up or drying out.

I will be glad to see most of the weather systems coming from the west coast this winter, it's about time that the weather forecasters update their seasonal guesses that were made usually way to early.

I agree, I do find they tend to project next weeks weather as often warmer up. I think this might have something to do with a psychological impact, perhaps no one would pay attention to the weather if it sounded like it was always getting worse. My understanding is anything beyond a week is often based on historical data. I do however hope the article has some validity, maybe they can make some rough quesses based on the larger systems. It got up to -2C here today, so I’m content.

Yes, Perron has always offered something off the beaten path. You should have seen their catalogue of years gone by filled with l-o-n-g lists of page after page of perennials, roses, shrubs, fruit bushes and trees. Fired off my Stokes order, I exercised restraint, a mere six packs of flower and veggies, maybe I have finally learned my lesson, though have an itch to purchase some tuberous begonia seeds! Oh, and that 'Viking XL Red on Chocolate' fiberous is something else!

Now, must start plucking the germinated rose seeds from their baggies and plant up in trays, sure look forward to those first blooms that should show as early as mid March. I'm down to only one of the BIG begonias saved over, dumb me had went and left them in the unheated solarium during that first really cold night, though at least a single plant remained in the house. At some point, I might be tempted enough to order from Geraniaceae, though for now, several roses from Rogue Valley US are super tempting to utilize for breeding, when that bug bites, it sure can become very expensive!

Here's a rose seedling selection having impressed the last two years, rather a commanding plant growing narrowly upright to 5 ft tall, cupped coral pink blooms set on large healthy foliage. Might have shown this one before, photo is kinda blurry.

Rather the same forecast given for this winter as last, with the coldest of conditions to dominate the eastern prairies. Last November through to the beginning of February was actually really rather good, but then came those awful bitter conditions followed by a struggling cold spring and a ghastly non existent summer here in central Alberta! Can only hope for a better upcoming growing season, though nothing surprises me these days with what's going on with the environment!

Well, did go an place an order to Swallowtail Seeds for several of the 'Sun Dancer' hanging begonias, along with 'Chim Chiminee' rudbeckia and 'Halo' mixed hollyhocks ... trying not to get toooo carried away though! I had good results in the past growing tuberous begonia seed and would rather do so than pay bigger bucks for bulbs. I was really peeved with Botanus, two of the three begonias received were mislabed and one being rather expensive at that. They were to have been the hanging type, though were strongly upright tall plants and not all that attractive at that, I simply had later tossed them in the compost pile!

Forgot that 'Illumination Apricot Shades' was also included in the Swallowtail order, the veranda should have plenty of color this coming summer!

PNR, could you please mention what seed starting mix that you use, I took note how much faster your 'BIG' begonia seedlings had grown in comparison to mine! I want to give the tuberous seedlings a good start to enable the developing bulbs to size up a bit by autumn, tiny bulbs do not keep well!

Just when I thought it was going to be mild, we’ve had few chilly days here - I hope everyone is staying warm!

FrozeBudd, for the 'BIG' begonias I used Pro Mix BX, and did my best to follow the directions on the Stokes packaging and the culture guidelines from the breeding company (https://www.benary.com/en/product/C4130). I’ve started looking up the culture guidelines for most seeds now, it’s helped me realize why the plants sold in the greenhouses looks so good, I didn’t know the use of plant growth regulators is so commonly suggested.

I'm not sure if I’ll use Pro Mix BX again for seeding as I got quite a bit of algae growth, but I also don’t run a fan on seedlings, which would probably reduce this. I remember the pelleted seed not properly dissolving and needing to poke them with a bamboo skewer to remove the seed coat (I think this was perhaps your tip). Also, I think a contributing factor in the fast growth was the grow lights, 12 on/12 off grow lights. I learned quickly they do not like my tap water so I moved towards melted snow. WH Perron had begonia 'Sun Dancer Yellow Red Picotee' so I’ll be trying that as well. The foliage of begonia 'Viking' is stunning! Although I held off as I’m sitting on 'BIG's in the garage. I’m sorry to hear you lost some of your begonias in your solarium, I had something similar happen a few years ago to some houseplants which I left in the sunroom, some of which were from my late grandmother. But alas I try to look as these losses as part of nature, most things aren’t meant to live forever, and letting go of some plants can make room for others to flourish. I’m surprised you got mislabels from Botanus, which I would consider them more of a premium bulb company. Mislabels are soooo frustrating, I’m wary of purchasing many ornamentals now, unless I see it in bloom!

Your rose selection is very commanding indeed! The leaves are huge!

I’ve always wanted to try 'Halo Apricot' hollyhock - the fig leaves and the dark center flowers intrigue me, but perhaps I’ll try the following year instead due to everything on the go!

Here’s a cheerful photo of Lewisia 'Elise' from today, I had them under lights to ripen their seeds and now some have decided to re-flower!

Tuberous begonia seedlings are now appearing seven days after sowing, though still awaiting on a few more packs of seed from Stokes. Am having soil mold issues, had somewhat changed up the planting medium and seems the mold spores are loving it, several rose seedlings have dampened off. Now, have gone back to using my own reliable soil that I combine with a bit of sand. My recent posts have up and evaporated here, I'll comment more soon again. BTW, nice lewisia plants, they sure are cheerful things, I should sow some seed today!

Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope everyone has had a chance to relax during this season. I’m glad we’re past the winter solstice, it’s lovely to see the daylight get a bit longer each day.

I wonder what changes there will be in the world of gardening and plants in the new decade. It seems like technology has opened up a lot of awareness of growing techniques and plant varieties - I know it has for me. I also like how the price of LED lights have come down, this will help my indoor gardening plans for the future.

FrozeBudd, I did get a chance to read your recent posts on this thread, but I didn’t reply in time. I’m inspired to get my begonias seeded this week! All my seed orders are in, it's now time for me to get back into the groove of things. My list to seed this week include begonias, Lithops, and pelargoniums. I hope you don’t have any more trouble with damping off of your rose seedlings, I’ve had basil and rock soapwort seeds wiped out by dampening, it spreads so quickly.

If anyone here is looking for Lewisia cotyledon seeds in Canada, feel free to message me, I have plenty of open pollinated seeds collected this year.

Pretty cold in AB right now?

Sure got that right, it's bitter and to stay that way in my part of the province for another six or seven days. Thankfully, there's a decent amount of snow to give protection to the perennials and such and to the crowns of the roses.

PNR, how's the germination of the tuberous begonias coming along? I've had good to excellent results with five of the six varieties sown, though not with the Sun Dancer Yellow Red Picotee. Did a resow of these and still only have five seedlings (one perished) of the sixteen seeds sown, that's downright poor compared to the other colors that gave up to 100% germination.

Had troubles with some of the rose seedlings being rather deteriorated even as they came out of their seed coats, most all of these didn't make it, though thankfully others have since been normal and healthy upon germination. Still am having mold issues, though I'll get what I get with these seedlings I guess! Today, should sow the 'BullsEye' geraniums, as I the pot sitting in the garage has gotten a bit frosted the last few days,

A whopping -48 C / -54 F ambient air temperature this morning at Hendrickson Creek, Alberta! My place sitting at -37 C. ... the palm trees are looking a bit stiff, lol.

L Clark, yes pretty cold, a few days of night/early morning temps of -37C/-35F. How’s the weather in WY? I wonder how far this cold travels down.

FrozeBudd, my first batch of Begonia Sundancer Yellow Red Picotee has germinated 14 out of 16, Nonstop Joy Yellow 12 out of 16 and Illumination 16 out of 16. I was worried I cooked the seeds, I didn’t check the temps at first, they were too close to the lights and were reading 28C when I finally did check. I sowed a second batch just in case, looks like I’ll have lots of begonias this year.

Unfortunately the seedling mix has some strong algae growth. I might try microwaving the mix next time, or using vermiculite. They took nearly two weeks to come up, much longer compared to the BIG begonia series.

I’m noticing some geranium pots in the garage which won’t make it too, perhaps the plants were too small/weak or trimmed too much.

Glad to hear you already have some healthy rose seedlings! My seeds went from room temp to the fridge just the other day.

Not too bad this year in WY. Low of about -15 F so far, and that was back in October. Don't worry, we'll have some disgustingly cold temps in May and June that you Canadians will be jealous of lol

Clark, that's why it's good to have you on this forum .... cause misery loves company! :)

Begonia seedlings are managing along pretty good now that most have moved beyond the microscopic stage. Today, will pick up some liquid fertilizer and begin giving them their much diluted feedings. Don't know what was up with the poor germination of the Sun Dancer Yellow Red Picotee, when all others were sown next to one another and showing excellent germination, maybe poor seed treatment was dealt by the supplier. 'BullsEye' geraniums germinated in a flash and some already being stretched seedlings only three days after placing on moistened paper towel, they must have liked the warmth of the furnace room!

Had needed to plant up some dahlia tubers that were becoming all too shrivelled up and yet also rotting in places and soon to perish without attention. Like most things, dahlias had struggled in our monsoon summer and tubers were compromised. I'd like to order up a bunch more dahlias, though mail order places list myriads of them and the inventory of each nursery varies widely from one another, tooo many to choose from! Though, I winnow them down by predominately selecting early varieties, heck don't want grandma's large growing old types that only just begin to bloom when frost is upon a person!

Won't be long before other things are sown such as annual sweet Wiliam and first year flowering hollyhocks, etc.

I planted some apple seeds yesterday that had started to germinate in the fridge, so some new life has began . I have different soil mix this year so hopefully not a repeat of last year. Also planted Prairie Peace seeds again, they are larger than last years attempt, will see if they are as reluctant to germinate as last year.

Wayne, I’ve read Prairie Peace seeds may sprout in the second year after planting, http://rosebreeders.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=55265 

I’ve only used Prairie Peace as a pollen parent & not a seed parent, so I haven’t tested this out yet.

FrozeBudd, this year I got hollyhock 'Fiesta Time' after being inspired by a photo of yours. I planted 'Queeny Purple' last year, but too late, they were just starting to bloom as the first frost hit. Hopefully this year will be better. The only dahlia I’ve tried is the gorgeous 'Cafe au Lait', unfortunately I planted them outside too early and they got too cold to recover.

Some other seeds I’m trying this year: Zinnias profusion double hot cherry, Queeny Lime orange & Magellan coral. Petunias easy wave pink passion & tidal wave red velour. Marigolds proud mari & big top.

Thanks for the info pnr, I've had butternuts take 2 years or more to germinate and never thought that rose seeds would be like that also.

PNR, thanks for mentioning 'Fiesta Time' hollyhock, I'm down to only a few remaining seeds and just fired off an order to Perron for more. I sow 'FT' in early February and attempt to set out stocky plants, though at times needing to slow them down by keeping cool, otherwise they prematurely bolt ... which really isn't a bad thing, cause even then, they do take a long time to come into flower, especially when summers are on the cool side. It's one of the few annuals I grow every year, just too bad they never have wintered. Not really the best lighting, though a good idea of how they perform, I usually plant in clumps of three spaced 16 inches apart. The flower is a beautiful thing to be viewed up close!

Magellan coral' is a gorgeous color, probably my favorite of the entire series. 'Queeny Lime Orange', I have not grown, though photos of the multi tone blooms sure do catch my eye! Am giving zinnia 'Preciosa' a try, suppose to be a series earlier to come into bloom. I havent ordered up any petunia seeds, though have Supertunia Vista Paradise in my sights for when the greenhouses open, will be pleased if it's anywhere close to as good as Vista Bubblegum!

Phlox 'Rainbow Dancer' is very good, an interesting color that doesn't really show all that great here, the pink is from seed I collected from the mother.

Clematis 'Viennetta', had this one growing for several seasons against the south wall of the house, required no special attention and pruned as type III, though later mostly all my clems up and died due to root issues.

FrozeBudd, stunning annual bed & flowers!!! Thank you for sharing your experience, I’m only beginning to figure out how to plant things so the timing and heights makes sense. I predict it’ll just take me years of trying different plants to understand what their growth habits are really like.

I was eyeing zinnia 'Preciosa' as well. I’ve been procrastinating on sowing seeds - with irises, roses, geraniums and now succulents on the go, the list seems to grow longer.

I tried Vista Supertunia Paradise last year, it was a very good performer, but not as good as Vista Bubblegum. The purple veined ‘Bordeaux' is also one of my all time favourites.

Pnr, your lewisia is lovely, I planted some seed last spring on the advice of froze bud and they were stunning. I put the whole pot in my cold room, barely watered, and as of today they are still green. They seem to act similar to a geranium, they go into a partial dormancy that can be revived when they are moved to better conditions.

The Queen series zinnias are stunning, you won't be disappointed.