I could not pass good seeds being offered there.

Now it would have been great had I not been doing this

what did you score for seed?

I went for streakers as usual. Fire and Brimstone, Powder keg, Pinstripe sister, Cairns wedding?

Then some Geske mixes/ people that own Uniquely now. They have loads of their own streakers in their display gardens.

Linnea and Debra, since I know you are close enough to me, happy to share seedlings if you want some.

I culled twice but still too many to grow.

Rest of it will go to plant swap, happy to say we are running it once again, this year on Mother's day in Evanston Unitarian church parking lot, if anyone knows gardeners near Chicago...

thanks for the offer, but i am full up. i only have space in my house for one rack and three shelves, and they are full up.

looks like you're getting plenty of streakers to satisfy your itch.

Lindalana, if I had known, I might have joined you at the meeting! It would be nice to meet. What care do the seedlings need? Would they be able to be planted in May? When’s your plant swap?

debra

Debra, that would have been fun!

Lets aim for next winter for sure. I do not stay in hotel so usually miss hostatality night on Friday.

But it works out anyway as one gets plenty of time to mingle. Food is great too.

This year swap is May 14, apprx 3 to 5 pm or so in Evanston IL. It might be our 15? annual so things usually run well, we get about hundred people coming, just bring  what you have to share and take whats available. We do have preswap page on another forum so people can specifically ask for wants.

As any indoor grown seedlings they will need to be hardened off once the weather turns warmer.

After that planted as any hosta, I usually keep pots for a bit but this year I am making seedling beds.

Hosta_maker, how do you manage your set up? What amount of seeds you start and how do you cull?

Am sure some of your new introductions were shown in Josh presentation and were lots of ohh and ahh about them.

Once I have seen Jeff Miller's culling pile, it was half of my height but then he was known to grow immense amount of seeds.

I am about to start my vegetable seed production, tomatoes peppers eggplants etc. My "second name" is Tomatolady and I grow about 60 80 heirloom varieties to be given away at the swap.

So I will be running out of grow lights pretty soon lol.

Lindalana

i collected about 109 bags of seed last fall. with one rack i try to keep them on the smaller side indoors. i start around christmas a little later than most. i germinate in a small cooler with heat controls. then transfer them to cups. they are cramped in those cups until they get outside and get transplanted in pots. with tlc outdoors they catch up. a few of the best ones get their own cup indoors, the rest have to fight and show their stuff to get special treatment. i only cull a couple hundred early since they are small, it takes a discerning eye to pick out the 4-5 great ones each year.

these days i am pretty specific in the crosses on what i am looking for. working with reds is alot easier since it can show quite early in the selection process.

this one got special treatment. as it falls in the hopeful range for blushing blues.

i got plenty of streakers with red this year, they will take several generations to get what i want.

you really dont know how good they are until the second year, so i keep more than most.

in a nutshell i start small and slow and push hard in the summer.

its getting cramped in here.

tiny tets

i have forced air heat so dry air means they stay in these boxes until it gets turned off.

80 temp 90 humid.

Lindalana, thanks for the swap invite, but I have nothing to swap…..lol lol lol
Maybe I could join you at the science meeting next year…..we are so close to each other.

debra

Djacob, we usually  get good mix of new gardeners and experienced ones.  Some have nothing to offer and some have carfull of give aways. I think this is reason why we keep going and have been successful at it. You will be surprised, people bring cuttings, houseplants, rootings, divisions, pots, etc.

Hosta_ maker, makes perfect sense to me, wish I had thought earlier. I started way too early and now my growing lights are full and I need them for my veggies.

I like your idea about potted boxes too. Air is dry here as well. I think I can cover entire stand with plastic sheet.