A friend sent me seeds she collected off her purple majesty millet..I sowed them on wednesday and the nest day they started to germinate..this picture is from this morning...savona
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I don't expect anyone to remember this but last Sept. long weekend, we went to Saskatoon and I came back inquiring as to what kind of orn. grass were in the city's half barrels. I got the answer back from Sharon that it was Pennisetum setaceum Fountain Grass. The funniest thing happened today - OK, not that funny. Taking my son to school, I discovered I had a flat tire. I changed the tire and went digging thru my glove comp. for sales receipts/work orders, etc. on any tire purchases for said vehicle. When I pulled out the plastic envelope they were in, I noticed all of this fuzzy looking stuff in the envelope. Looked closer and here was all of the Fountain Grass seed I collected when we were in Saskatoon. Planted those up right quick, today. After I went and bought two new tires, of course. : ( There goes more of the garden budget!

Better check your car and your purse, all of you seed snatchers! Don't want to miss planting something your forgot about.

Shauna

So further to my complaint about the Seed Centre, I phoned them today and the fellow was very nice and apologetic, and apparently their spam filter sometimes blocks good e-mails and also lost my order. So I faxed it and he swears up & down it will be shipped Monday. That would make me happy! It's a bit of a hassle but the place was SO cheap, free shipping and good selection.

Hopefully they do come through for you Gil.

My boys have Venidium sprouts this morning.......thank goodness!

Things have really started to take off here.......and seeds that are being sown seem to be popping up in two day...eeekkksss.....slow down will ya.

Whats with the Delph seeds I got this year....I have sowed them twice and still not a single sprout....the ones in the pic in the gallery I started from seed with no problems. Hmmmm

DH and I filled 14 blooming bags this weekend...when we were done I found one more. LOL. Now they have to hang for a couple days to settle, I guess, before I can start planting them up....I'll probably start planting them tomorrow.

Gil.....I have to tell ya....I found phlox seed twinkle mix on the weekend.....and yes I got them and started them this weekend too. See you paid me back. LOL! One more try...now how does the phlox dance go?

Sierra :-))

Sierra, I think I have a couple of blooming bags in the shed somewhere, I really need to dig them out this spring. Thanks for the reminder ;)

Today, I indoor sowed Verbena bonariensis, will be WS'ing some too ;)

Sharon

The little grandguy's bachelor buttons have sprouted already, and i'm going to bring them to school for him tomorrow for his show and tell. :) The gazanias i planted the other day have sprouted too, but i have no room under my lights right now. Dh was making some more brackets for the new lights i bought but he hasn't finished yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

I'm really disappointed in the pansies i sowed awhile back. Very few have germinated. They were in the dark for about a week, but when the sprouts started, i uncovered them. But the ones that had sprouted are the only ones. >:(

Re: bloom bags. How do you water them? I tried putting a piece of hose in mine (we put nail holes in it first), but it hasn't worked too well. Someone else said they dunk theirs in their pond. Last year, i lay mine in a seeding tray and watered that way, but i'd like to hear some better ideas! I only have one, and last year i got the bright idea to root impatiens cuttings in it, and it worked. So i'm going to invest in a few more of them this year to hang along the back of the house.

Finally with the turn around in our weather I got the woodstove going in the greenhouse..what a relief to get some flats out there to make room under the lights to start more seeds and to transplant some of the others.
Marcia I saved seeds from my own pansies last fall but some of the seeds looked light in colour and I didnt trust them to be fertile..I figured to give them a week and if they didnt start germinating I would buy seeds...I was at a nursery and bought some seeds anyway..but needless as mine did come up nicely, I transplanted 6 dozen and gave a couple dozen to my neighbor to finish up in her greenhouse..I do the same thing..as soon as a couple germinate I take the cover off them and give them some light..hope they are just pokey and will still come up for you...savona

These were sown almost a month ago, so i guess there's not much hope. I guess this weekend, i'll consolidate what has come up into a couple of four-packs so i'll have more room for other things. Time for tomatoes and peppers soon!

Marcia,

To water the blooming bags.....I use a water wand and just tuck it into the back of the bag and then turn on either soaker mode or shower mode lightly till the water starts running out the bottom of the bags. They are a bit of a pain that way, if you arn't careful and forget to turn the water off...it can ruin the plants in the top of the bag. I water the pots the same way...tuck the wand in under the plants and then turn it on gently....it can take quite a while to water this way. While I am standing there, I dead head and have a nice close look at the flowers...so it all works out well .........

Hmmmmm last time I looked at the bowl of pansy seedlings...I was thinking they needed to be transplanted...uhhhhhh that was ummmmm last week, I think...guess I had better find them and get that done. LOL.

Sierra

Thanks for the tip, Sierra, but i'll need another one! We water with water pumped from the beaver pond into a 250-gal. tank, and then pumped out to the gardens by hoses. One's on a sprinkler and the other's on me! I get to drag the hose around to all the flower gardens, so no wands or anything fancy. Maybe soaking them in a tray is my best bet.

Marcia....if the water pressure isn't strong enough to use a wand.......then the flow should be just right, to tuck into the back of the bags....just a soft gentle flow so it doesn't up-root the roots or wreck the flowers. You could always just use a watering can...then you have complete control of the flow.

I drag the 100ft or is it longer? hmmm heavey rubber hose around to water the planters too.....its good for keepin me in shape in the summer. LOL!

and you know this is commin' haha.......You could always just do the rain dance.....then you don't have to worry about watering anything. hee hee

Sierra

Heh heh - i should dance up a "storm" right now and maybe melt some of the snow! LOL

Marcia,
off to shelve some more books, with a little twist in her step :)

Gasp! Marcia you aren't on GW at work are you?? LOL me too.

My Seeds arrived in the mail today! Hooray! Of to plant lobelia, delphiniums, nicotines and phlox. Some will get WSed, we'll see.

HaHa..I post from work too, but shhhhhhhh.

Gil...I dunno about sowing seeds at work though. LOL! Uhhhh the phlox I sowed and put in the dark.....there seems to be only one seedling.....you didn't tell me the steps to that dance.....see I told you I can't grow phlox. That one seedling is probably a weed seed....:-(

Sierra

Ok ok it's my day off today. But I do check in from work too. :0) Especially in the winter when it's boring.

Today I planted phlox, delphiniums, coleus and lobelia. I dunno about phlox in the dark Sierra, my seed pack doesn't say anything about dark. I just sowed mine shallow and put them under the lights. The only dance I have ever done to get phlox in the past is the "boogie down to the greenhouse and pick up some flats" dance. LOL.

I was going to mention, aren't salvia seedlings beautiful? Sigh... I sowed exactly 65 seeds and exactly 58 came up. Now that is a pretty good germination rate!! Compared to about 300:5 for Alyssum saxatile. The 5 are coming along splendidly though.

Hmmmm . . . I can't grow phlox very well, either. I had exactly one plant last year and that was w/s. I decided to try again and I also have put mine in the dark this year to germinate. So far, no germination but I think there might be some really intricate moves to the "germinating phlox" dance. But, many of the information sources that I have say that phlox germinates better in the dark. I covered mine with paper. I guess it's a wait and see?

Shauna

I've never tried growing phlox from seed but i winter-sowed some this year, just seed that i had saved from one plant. I was looking in the container the other day, and the seeds are on the surface and some of the hulls have broken apart. I wonder if i should have covered the seeds all the way, then, if they germinate better in the dark. I guess i can still remedy that. What do you guys think?

Marcia, can you put that one container into a dark plastic garbage bag? I just looked at the Stokes catalogue, for example, and it says to put the flat in total darkness. It's certainly worth a try. I think that's why my germination was so bad last year.

I may be wrong, Gil, but it's just what I've been reading. It's one I checked specifically on because my germ. was sooooo bad last year.

Shauna

Oh I'm not saying you & Sierra are wrong Shauna, just that my seed packet didn't mention dark so I didn't know. I will give the darkness a shot. How long? Until they sprout? Or what? I'm guessing they want to be warm-ish too?? Please advise!

I was just thinking that i could stick them in the barbecue because no one uses it. Hah - that would be about the time someone would decide to barbecue wieners or something. Barbecued phlox! Okay, i guess i'll do something else - maybe stick a large pot over top of the container or something like that.

Whew, IÂm exhausted and my back is killing me from bending over transplanting several kinds of seedlings into 4" squares and jumbo 6 packs. My racks are now filled, its time to start the alternating method every 12 hours tomorrow.

According to my journal last year I took many flats out to the greenhouse on April 15th, thatÂs when IÂll start the tomatoes and the rest of the tender annuals since IÂll have more room downstairs by then.

Sharon

Hey Sierra, you sowed your phlox about a week ago right? When your one seedling appeared did you bring it all into the light? Would that stop any more from sprouting? I have mine in a garbage bag now but I might also bring them upstairs where it's warmer.

And the dance, isn't there a backwards rotation of the left arm? Were you doing that? And the twist in the step?

Just wondering, has anyone here successfully sowed phlox drummondii? And if so how?

-Gillian (who is afraid of being phlox-less!)

Sharon......I have been doing the 12 hour alternating for a little over a week now. LOL! Who ever says gardening isn't excersize needs to try actually doing this every spring and summer. ;-)

Gil.......Yes I sowed the phlox last weekend. No I didn't take the lid off, nor did I put it under lights, when the first seedling appeared. I was suspicious this one seedling wasn't a phlox.....I did spray the seedling with chamomile tea every second day though so it didn't dampen off. Yesterday I took the lid off and placed beside the lights not under the light. Might put it back in the dark today. LOL!

I have tried several dances ...with no luck. :-( I only sowed half the seeds.....so if someone comes up with steps that I haven't tried...I'll sow the rest. I'm about to try the forward seed catapult into the garbage can. LOL!

All of the blooming bags are planted, except for the last one...which is only half planted. LOL....I ran out of good sized seedlings for it.....so will have to wait a week or two for some of the smaller seedlings to catch up. I ended up with two trays of small impatiens that have to grow a bit more.....then I can finish the last bag. I also will use these seedlings to plant the tops of the bags once the bags can be hung.

Transplanting, transplanting......Oh DH my b'day is comming up....and I really need that greenhouse. LOL!

Sierra

I often refer to the Vesey's planting guide when I'm unsure of germination requirements of annuals. Veseys says for annual Phlox to cover lightly, provide darkness and a cool soil temp of 60-65F. Sounds like a good candidate for placing on a basement floor.

Thanks Pudge, I also found a guide this morning that said 55-65F so I will put them back in the basement. Now I'm worried that the garbage bag isn't blocking out all the light... well I have half the pack of seeds left if I screw it up.

I have annual beauty mix phlox and candy cane phlox germinating now..I have done phlox several years now. I dont do anything special..just press the seeds into the soillesss mix and cover with plastic and then under the lights..where it is usually fairly warm..I sowed these march 21st and could see the roots pushing into the soil and starting to lift the seeds on the 24th..I believe Thompson morgan says to not exclude light as this might be helpful with germination..it can be so confusing on what is the right way to start some seeds
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I am very pleased on how fast the Torenia are coming along after reading they are slow to grow..I couldnt bring myself to pinch back a couple of the plants as I could see some buds on them and wanted to see what they looked like when they bloom..I sowed these Feb 1
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I'm having so much fun 8-)...savona

Well as of today I have one phlox sprout!! Yaaah! I covered them with a garbage bag and put them back in the basement where it is currently 17*C.

Also today I indoor sowed my sempervivums mix, jovibarba mix, geum triflorum, and creeping thyme.

I'm having fun toooooo!

Aaaah! I checked my phlox again and it's about 1/3 sprouted - I can see the little roots all heading for the soil. Thanks so much for your advice Shauna & Sierra & Pudge. What on earth would I do without this forum, I ask myself regularly.

In case anyone cares, they were sowed on the surface of wet soilless mix and kept under lights for one day. Then I put the dome on and covered with a garbage bag and kept them at 20C for one day, then returned to 17C for one day and they sprouted within one or two days of that. The compost was very wet and the humidity was high.

Savona, I'm glad your phlox is sprouting for you too. I wonder why the range of acceptable conditions, yet the reputation of being hard to germinate. Oh well.

Oh and yesterday I also sowed Saponaria ocymoides (Soapwort). Marcia I will have it cascading over a wall yet - LOL!

Hi all! I decided to join in the conversation. What I do is a combination I guess of indoor and winter. I have an unheated sunroom that faces south. I have cups and pots and bowls and all sorts of stuff starting out there. I use a combo of cheap soil and jiffy start mix, depending on what's handy. The sunroom does have heat lamps in it (not grow but oh well) if the night will be too cold. (As an aside I had tomatoes at Thanksgiving from there last year!)

Anyway, after the other half finally built shelves, this is my beginning-

Liatris,
coleus,
brocolli,
brandywine and yellow pear tomatoes,
a couple zuch just for S&G,
foxglove,
snaps (the first set I didn't freeze, but the room did so...they're sprouting anyway)
some shade mix with viola, impatiens, forget-me-not, torenia, mimulus,and colensia;
some generic salsa peppers mix (if I can get them to grow why not- plants are expensive!)
and a blue columbine

The wood shelves are about 6 ft each long, the side board is about the same-- now where can i put that TV?
and to go: Oh I better not even start that line of thought-- I have 3x5 files full of seeds--

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UGH...I am sooooo far behind this year...stoopid snowmobile and house renos...
Oh well, I still have plenty of cold weather before they can get planted out so I'll start this weekend!

Sure you have time Hunner, lots of time and you won't have an overgrown jungle like some of my plants!

Vrie what a great sunroom! You're so lucky to have all those south windows - my house only has 3 and one has the kitchen sink under it.

Just wondering if I'm flirting with disaster. I was having trouble keeping my very tiny seedlings watered so when I had to be away for few days I set them on a watering mat. Now I've returned and I'm enjoying the fact that I don't have to water several times a day. They are staying damp. What do you think? Good practise or bad?

North43 ff it's not broke don't fix it. I would just check regularly that they are doing their job.

Yesterday I indoor sowed:
Verbascum nigrum
Dianthus superbus "Snowdonia White" (Thanks Sharon for both!)

And my Jovibarbus is up already - 2 days, wow!

Sorry North53 you lost 10 somewhere ;0)

9 weeks till "planting out" time! Whoo-hoo!

I've done some tomatoes. Package said "6-8 weeks" but I'm sure one extra week won't hurt!

LOL...if hubby came home right now he'd totally have me committed!
I am giving my starter pots a "bath"! I have the tub filled with a bleach solution and I am soaking the pots to clean them. I have to go to work in 15 mins so I'll just leave them n there until I get home. Good thing I'll be home before him or he'd lose it!
Can't wait to get started for real...I just did some of those wave petunia kits and am soaking some pellets for one more...I had a bonus when I opened up the red pack...there were 2 of the little seed mats in there so I'll have lots of red waves...or more to fry whatever the case may be!

I spent half of the morning and half the afternoon transplanting impatiens, coleus and the little grandguy's bachelor buttons. This time of year when i'm surrounded by seedlings, i often wonder where my mind is.... LOL In the garden, of course!

Hi all

I thought that I would post a couple of pics and let you know how things are going with my planting. These are pictures of my planting room in my basement and so far everything is going good.

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Today I will probably spent most of the day in there transplanting and starting more seeds.

Will be starting today:
Hybrid Marigold --Golden Jubilee
Tomato-- Sweet Gold TMVF pvp
Tomato-- Lemon Boy
Pennisetum-- Purple Majesty
Nemesia-- Carnival Mixed
Schizanthus-- Hit Parade

No woodworking today:( !!!!

Cheers Al

A whole room! Wow! Do you have lights over where your big potted plants are?

Now, let's see... If i could get rid of the freezer and some more of the junk in the laundry room..... :>

oh wow! I have enough trouble getting to use my sunroom for plants! My old man would have me committed (or buried IN the garden!) I don't think he would agree to convert that room to a starter area when he really wants it for a cvomputer workroom LOL!

That's the thing,Vrie - a MAN converted that room! I'm counting my blessings that i might get a greenhouse, but i wouldn't hold my breath on a whole room for seed-starting!

WOW Al, that room is awesome and I must agree with Vrie and Marcia ~ LOL ~ Pretty cool that a MAN converted that room! Right on!

I just finished adding another table infront of the Living Room window and did some:

Tomatoes - subarctic 'Plenty'

Basil - I think its Italian sweet basil ??

Marigolds - 'Canadian Sunset'

Ameranthus 'Velvet Curtains'

Coleus 'Rainbow Mix'

Xeranthemum

~Ang~

My wife thinks that it is a good idea to have a separate room for starting seed as this keeps the mess in one area. The room is also used for storage and is very small (about 5x10). I also plugged the heat vent so that it keeps cool and the plants do not get leggy.

Marcia - I do not have a light over the larger pots as these are my cannas and are just coming up now. They will go to my greenhouse in a couple of weeks so I do not worry about having any light over them because when they get into my greenhouse they really start to grow.

Cheers Al

Oh man for that room-- I'm already out of shelf space!

He did agree to build double shelves in the sunroom so I can use bottom to store instead of other shelf space.

Anyway, I have seeded more--

larkspur
lupine
delph i collected last fall
more snaps
blue flax

Let's see from the original I have almost all my yellow pear tomatoes up this week and that gives me hope for the peppers and brandywine. Also I have foxglove and snaps up and the one single dumb early girl seed my mother left here. Just today I found some of my shade mixture up (probly foxglove too but oh well.)

I also sent a set of 1-4 ft plant seeds all mixed up nicely for my aunt's meadow to her. In return she sent me seeds for old hollyhock and something she doesn't know it's name (but it was pretty in a bouquet I saw last summer!)

It's been so nice outside! I have been weeding already (why do the dandelions come up so FAST?), prepping the garden for the cold season veggies, moving rocks, marking bulbs that need moved this fall, and prepping a spot for those no-name roses someone is sending me (that should be hardy - they're zone 4- where I plan them to be!) and for that plum tree I need to go get!

Oh, I've also preapproved my boulevard flower beds with the city, found out they own the tree I want to kill
(darn it!- it doesnt bear fruit and it shades that native flower bed I'm making) I also found that I don't want a fence as they make me come in 22 FEET! I started pruning other stuff too!

Let's see Sat was spent away from home-- the HOME AND GARDEN SHOW!!! Of course a few more wall-o-waters and some seeds later, I had spent well over 3 hours there- in the middle of the day- oh well it was raining! I'm so proud of myself- I didn't buy a single bulb or lily (I already have a combo of about 300 of those!)

Oh my! maybe this should be in projects LOL Anyone got a spot for shelves?

What the heck!?! My Black-Eyed Susan vines are reaching 10" tall!! I followed package directions, but I think it was too early to plant them. I've transplanted them into styrofoam cups, but now I'm wondering if they should go into the hanging baskets I intend to plant them in before they tangle themselves up.

I did the same thing last year with Black-eyed Susans. I just about lost them all when I untangled the big mess. I ended up buying some from the garden centre because they looked so much fuller and compact compared to mine. Lo and behold, they had been pinching them back, and they kept producing side shoots. I haven't planted mine yet for this year, but I was going to pinch, pinch, pinch.

I've been pinching back my Mina Lobata and Cobaea for about a month now and they both have really bushed out. I'm planning on putting them into 18" pots really quick now and giving them tomato cages to climb. I've got so many tomato cages and I plan on adding them and wiring them together to make a tower, as the season progresses They will probably just take off when I give them that privilege.

Shauna

More sprouts!

Marigolds "Canadian Sunset"
Xeranthemum
Basil

gotta love it!

My Cobaea is getting long and hanging down! So far it's not touching anything yet so it's not getting tangled up yet. I keep thinking that I should pinch it back but being tall and skinny should be OK for where I plan to put it between some Morning Glories and a Hyacinth Bean Vine. We'll see how they do together!

Well......I now have 4 phlox sprouts...well if they are all phlox. hee hee and not weeds. I transplanted the one that sprouted...the first time I planted, into a cell pack......then I dumped the rest of the package into the bowl. Again...one popped up...but I ignored it.....today I noticed two more.

I also finally have one sprout of butterfly flower....geez this took forever. Still hoping for a couple more.

Been transplanting into cells and 4 inch pots...all sorts of things..

A couple calla lilies have poked up above the soil and I now have two castor beans showing. All 5 of the new cannas are growing.

Still have to start a few things this weekend or next week. And set up the glads and freesias when I find time. LOL!

Happy Gardening,

Sierra...will my hands and nails ever be clean again? :O

Sierra, would it help if I posted a pic of my phlox sprouts so you might know if yours are weeds? Mine eventually ended up having very good germination. In no way do I wish to rub it in... ;0)

So far my poor germinators are coleus, delphiniums (this might be bad seed, had no trouble with them before), and alyssum. I had a couple of bags of Miracle Gro soilless seed mix that looked like pure sawdust and contained weeds. There is now a drought of soilless mix in this end of the city, there is just none anywhere. I've been having to use potting mix. Ok so far.

My cypress vines have been doing something weird, namely dying. :0( The vines grow to about 6" or less, then all the leaves go white and the vine fails and dies. Any ideas??? They are receiving good light and water.