WinterSown Sprouts

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Even after 7 years of Winter Sowing, I'm still amazed, every single spring, with those first ambitious sprouts. It has been freezing or below every night for the last week, 30's F during the day, and yet, here they are!
I'm doing the happy dance!

These two are always expected to be the first to win the race:

Poppies


and Bachelor Buttons


This is what they looked like a few short weeks ago:


If you don't know what Winter Sowing is, you can get more info from here, WinterSown.org, and here, GardenWeb's WS Forum. There is still plenty of time to give it a try if your still getting pretty cool weather, especially with annuals. Go for it!

Happy (first WS sprouts) Growing!
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Chop!

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It was time for the first onion seedling haircut . . .



Snip!



The second container got their greeness shortened, too. They grow so fast that it won't be long before it's time for haircut number two.

Happy (ouch!) Growing!
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Coleus - First Color

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The coleus I sowed on February 1 are starting to show their first colors:



This one is from a packet that I bought. I usually harvest and save my own in the fall, but for some reason I didn't do it last fall. I'm not sure if it was because it got too cold too quickly or I simply forgot. Both reasons are equally likely.

I'll probably end up with a dozen or so plants to spread around the shade garden and containers. With the trees having to be removed every few years, the amount of shade in my yard is shrinking quickly. The last, a large maple that got hit by lightning last summer and a tornado a few years ago, may have to come down this summer.

I'm glad I whined about not seeing much of the flock of robins that stayed around all winter - maybe they heard me since they've been showing themselves a lot more lately. Ok, so it has nothing to do with me, they're more interested in searching the mulch pile for bugs. That pile is apparently heating up pretty well as it's the only thing for miles that's almost bare of snow.



And some sad news - I think there's a hole in the liner of the bottom pond. Argh! I'm so mad!
That'll be something to deal with come June.

Happy (coleus) Growing!
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Lights, Camera, Grow!

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Yay! The plant stand is up!
:)
Of course, the only thing on there so far are the onions, but those 3 shelves will start filling up quickly in March.
I can't wait!
It'll be little green things everywhere. Winter doesn't get any better than that.



Since the light from window sills just won't cut it for healthy seedlings, we made this one from the plans at T's Flowers & Things three years ago. Very easy to set up and cheap, cheap, cheap.

The only problem we found with this design is that the upright sides should be much longer - there was very little room for plants as they got taller, like toms. We simply bought more PVC and cut longer pieces. Problem solved!
No matter how big or small the space you have, with a little measuring the plans can be changed to fit in just about any area, including closets. You could also add more levels if you have ceilings high enough.

The best thing about this design is that you can put it together so quickly (it took us all of 8 minutes to put up) and you can take the whole thing apart and store it in a very small space when not in use.
I labeled the parts, so assembly is a breeze.

What do you use for inside seed starting?

Happy (inside sowing) Growing!
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Schlumbergera Seed Pictorial

Since people seem to be really interested in how to grow Schlumbergera from seed, I thought I'd put together a quick pictorial.

This project started over a year ago when I hand pollinated a few flowers. Since I couldn't bare to pull a flower off any of the plants and destroy it, I moved two of the plants close together and gently 'smooshed' the pollen from the pistols onto the center stamen of each when the flowers were at their very freshest (one or two days after opening).



It didn't take long for the base of the flower to begin to swell and form a bright pink, hard seed pod.
This was left on the plant for one year to mature. You definitely need patience for this step. Even though it still looked very firm and hard after a whole year, when squeezed it was soft and pliable. A bit like a slightly over-ripe blueberry.



The pod was gently pulled from the plant. If it doesn't come off easily with a gentle tug, it may not be ready.



I sliced the pod open with an exacto knife. As you can see, these make many seed.



The seed are very small and a little hard to separate from all the 'goo' that holds them. Just remove all the goo possible and wash them off as best you can with plain tap water.



I didn't bother to dry them off since I was immediately spreading them onto damp medium. I used a very tiny pot, then popped the pot into a zip lock bag and sealed it. They sat in a warm room under a plant light that was on for 16 hours a day.



They germinated in seven days and these are one week old:


Here they are at 3 weeks, still under the plant light:


As you can see, they are very slow growers. I slowly opened the baggie to let a little more air in each day and finally took it off completely.
Now the challenge becomes keeping them alive and happy.

Happy growing!!

Cacti Seedlings Update

These cacti seedlings are now one year old - ain't they cute?




Happy growing!

Thanksgiving Cactus Seedling Progress

So far so good on the breeding try!
The progress so far:
The pod had been on the plant for exactly one year.



The seeds after removing from the pod with a quarter for size. Sorry, I know it's blurry :(



The Thanksgiving cactus seedlings on 1-5-10. Too cute! They germinated in 7 days and these seedlings are one week old.


The poinsettia seed experiment didn't turn out so great last year, but since the plants are sporting pods again this year, maybe I'll give it another try come spring.

I hope everyone is getting geared up for spring. Yeah, I know it's only January, but it's never too early to think spring! Especially with the current ridiculous cold snap we've been stuck in.
I've been puttering and 'over loving' all the houseplants. I also sorted through all our seeds and since we saved most of our own, there are only a few things I'll have to buy. Good thing since D still hasn't found a job. I'm wondering if this year is really going to be any better than last year or not.

Oh! I got 10 packs of 'extra' seed from someone for just a couple of stamps. (Thanks, Tom!!) He sent me Yvonne's Salvia, which is something I've been wanting to grow for years. I'm so excited!

Almost time to start Winter Sowing in my recycled milk jugs again, which is also exciting - but it is every year, even though I've been doing it for 6 now.

Happy growing!

Quick Update

This post is a little pic heavy.

:)

My daughter stopped in and I got her to take some pics for me with her cell phone. The plants would probably look much better with a real camera, but I'll take what I can get and be glad. The sun set before she could take all she wanted to, but she got over 50 for me, so I'm very happy!

Everything was looking so fabulous . . . and then we got slammed with a devastating storm. The blue borage was lying totally flat on the ground and had to be ripped out. It was looking so good and was in full bloom. Our 12 foot sunflowers got blown down. The celosia was almost 4 foot and taller than the rose of sharon, but is now lying almost flat to the ground.

At least we didn't get hit quite as hard as some people did who got hit by lightening along with the wind and lost power, siding and shingles off their houses and roofs. My Uncle couldn't milk for 14 hours! Poor cows.

:(

The new (this year) front bed. There are tons of plants crammed in here - that's what happens with wintersowing - more plants than you know what to do with. Here's what is crammed in there, somewhere...

Mammoth Sunflower

Sunflower - vanilla ice

Sunflower - cinnamon sun cross

Borage (was)

Nicotiana

Foxglove

Celosia

Coreopsis

Balloon Flower

Canterbury Bells

Rose of Sharon

Gloriosa Daisy

Blanket Flower

Sweet William

Black Eyed Susan

Cleome

Cosmos (regular and seashell)

Lavender

Snapdragon

Portulaca

Chamomile

Nasturtium

Marigolds

Spirea

Fennel

Parsley - flat leaf

Parsley - Italian

Calendula

Strawflower

Blue Fescue

Aster

Zinnia

(and probably a few more I can't remember)

Shade bed. I'm in love with the balsam impatiens this year!

Blanket flower with a very happy bee.

Cinnamon Sun sunflower cross. (and another happy bee)

Center of the front bed - everything got blown flat :(

Asters and snaps. I adore the purple against the yellow snaps.

Black Watchman hollyhock (thanks Kim!) backed by the weeping pea tree. Between the bugs and the hail, the leaves don't look so hot, but the blooms are fantastic.

One of the Rhodos I started from seed. Or maybe it's an azalea. I didn't do so hot with the tag organization. I know - dumb, dumb, dumb!

The impatiens in the bench planters were wonderful this year. They looked so nice combined with the snaps until the storm showed up and made the snaps lean and blew their blooms off. The petunias popped up all over the place in the pathway, so I just left them to do their own thing. The Balsams stood up to the storm very well!

These Poinsettias are cuttings from the ones I got last year for 50 cents. (3 plants for 50 cents - can't beat that!) They aren't doing too well with the crappy summer we've had, but it will be a nice winter experiment to see how well I do getting them to bloom. I think I've absorbed every tidbit of info I can get on doing it!

Sweet Pea (white) and Spot (red) with a few Golden Orfe. Everyone else are usually the camera hogs, but were nowhere in sight. The water looked like crap all year with this awful weather, but I don't use chemicals to clear it - I'd rather have happy, healthy fish.

Gloriosa Daisies in the second front bed. I got quite a few doubles this year that I'll be saving seed from to see what shows up next year.

Zinnias in the front bed. Some got broken and blown flat, but most made it. For once, I'm glad I really packed them in there! Surprisingly, the Cosmos behind them made out well as the Zinnias worked as a grand wind break.

My daughter's favorite. The stem got a little bent from the storm, but it's still a gorgeous bloom.

The tree bed. The Lobelia was very happy here this year. The foxglove and columbine should bloom next year. The Polka Dot plants are some I got from a hanging basket (that had tons of stuff crammed in) on clearance at Lowe's for 50 cents. Go me!

My son's hot peppers. Damn storm! They looked so wonderful before they got blown sideways. At least he'll still get peppers! And yeah, they're hot. :)

I have more pics, but I'll save them for another day.

10 Degrees And Tomatoes

Yes, ten degrees. Ten freaking degrees on March 25th. We're suppose to be somewhere around mid forties during the day, but it ain't happenin'.
Global warming, my ass. Yeah, I wish my ass was warm. :)

On the bright side - the sun is shining. Is it a sign when the hubs asks, "What the hell is that strange, bright, shiny, orb thingy in the sky?" I luuurve the sun! Welcome back. (snow is coming but I'm ignoring the forecast - what I don't know, I don't know, ya know?)

The tomatoes are up. Yay!

Large Yellow (came from wintersown.org, so unknown but delicious - according to the fam)
Rutgers
Yellow Pear (some I received in '06. thanks Kim!)
Beefsteak
San Marzano (another thanks to Kim)
Ace 55
Large Red Cherry

Ok, so it's weird that I'm psyched over growing tomatoes and don't eat them because I don't like them. Shhh!

I still have to get the buckets washed out. Half will go to my Aunt D. Since her MS is progressing, she can't bend down anymore without falling over. If she sits, she can't get up. So, hopefully the buckets will raise the veg plants up enough that she won't have so much trouble, and if she'll turn one over to sit on (the woman can be so stubborn sometimes!) she should be able to stand back up a little easier without falling over.

The peppers I had to resow (thanks to that dern James Mouse) are germinating. I'm not too concerned. We still have 8 weeks to last frost and I usually don't put them in the ground until a week or two after that, just to be on the safe side. I received a packet of leftover seed last year from one very kind man and there were a few of Parks 'Whoppers' seed included. I tried germinating half of them last year but got nothing and assumed the seed were too old. I tried again with the rest this year and got 2 to germ! I'm excited to see what they'll do.

Everything seems to be doing pretty well. The Hungarian Wax already have little peppers on them. Very cool!

I'm suppose to be hardening off my onions as of April 1 to get in the ground sometime around the 8th. Not gonna happen unless we get some kind of freak heat wave soon. Hey - I can hope!

Mouse In The House

Again. I've had to deal with them before, but that was in the fall when they were scouting for winter homes.
Yup, mouse (or mice? Ugh!) in the house.
~sigh~
Though I do adore living in the middle of nowhere, I don't enjoy living with much of the wildlife. We sort of draw the lines and tolerate each other. Although they seem to just smirk at my lines as they waddle/slither/bounce across them.

I woke up to trashed seedlings on the bottom level of the plant stand. Grrr!
The little b*****d chewed the top leaves off. And of course, he had to be picky about which seedlings he chewed.

Only stems left on 1/2 the pansies and impatiens.
A third of the peppers Hungarian Wax and Jalapeno M) are chewed right to the soil. He left the poor severed, wilted leaves just laying there.
:(
And (of course) he dug the moonflower seeds right out of the soil. Yes, the chewed and discarded remains of seeds were left in an obvious position on the tray of coleus seedlings right next door. I had a slight disaster last year with the moonflower and only ended up with one flowering survivor last summer. I'm hoping the little SOB overlooked a few of those seeds.
Lilies - about half left.

Thank goodness I put the cole crop sprouts on the top level of the plant stand where they can't be reached.

This is war - now I just have to decide on my weapon of choice. It would be my bare hands...if I could catch the little f-er!

Why?

A friend visited last night. She walked in the door, took one look at my box full of seed and a plant stand full of sprouts, shook her head and said, "Why?"

Good question.

Why is my youngest daughter enamoured with the color pink? (she'd dye her hair pink if I let her).
Why is my youngest son so 'into' comp tech that it will eventually be his occupation?
Why is my husband so wrapped up by cars that he only has to listen to one run for a minute or two to tell you what's wrong with it?

Well, I can't answer their obsessions, but I know the answer to mine. Amazingly, it's easy.

I'm a nurturer.

It's what I've always been and I suspect it's something I'll always be.
In the very beginning of my life, on the farm, I nurtured all kinds of plants and animals (including insects).
In my teens, I nurtured friends.
As a newlywed, I nurtured my husband.
As a Mom, I've nurtured 4 children.

It's my calling, it's who I am. Add in an obsessive compulsive personality and - oh, boy.

Now that my kids are mostly grown, my nurturing has turned to plants. Well, seed.
Since my patience has grown thinner with age, plants were probably a good choice to return to.
Compared to the rest of the nurturing list, it's almost like instant gratification.

Think about it...husbands, kids and animals take years, and compared to that, plants can be nurtured from one seed to massive seed production in the blink of an eye.

I'm sure it's something I'll be until my dying day.
As they age, most people fear disease, pain, alzheimers.
Me, I fear not being able to nurture something. If my kids stick me in a nursing home, someone please bring me a houseplant! I swear, I'll remember to water it.
:)

On The Plant Stand In February

As I've mentioned before, my husband built me this fabulous plant stand (modified a bit) and I love it.

On the plant stand in February:

Flowers
Lavender 'Lady'
Lavender 'English' ?
Hibiscus 'Luna'
Coleus 'Chocolate Mint'
Canna
Pansy
Daylily 'X'
Dahlia 'Dwarf'
Cardinal Flower 'Lobelia cardinalis'
Lily 'yellow Asiatic'
Impatiens
Rhododendrons
Azaleas

Veg
Pepper 'Hungarian Wax'
Pepper 'Jalapeno M'
Pepper 'Red Cayenne'
Eggplant
Onion 'Bunching'
Onion 'Sweet Spanish'

This weekend I'll start the sweet bell peppers, head lettuce and cole crops - cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts.

And it will finally be time to start tomatoes next month. Yay! Nothing else I start gets me as excited as tomatoes.

I Grow Weirdos

I must. There is just no other explanation.

Remember when I was complaining about not being able to grow lavender 'Lady' from seed after three tries and only got one little sprout?

Well, I think something is wrong with it. Not bad wrong...weird wrong.

I mean, here I was doing the happy dance to get one measly sprout, and babied that sucker like it was my own child. (My real children didn't even bat an eye at my behavior - I wonder what that says about me?)

Ermm...it grew. And grew. And hasn't stopped.
By the time the foliage hit 4 inches tall, I had to transplant it to a larger pot because the roots were literally cramming themselves silly. I couldn't believe the mass of roots on that plant. If you just looked at the roots and not the plant, you'd have thought it was a full grown tomato.

Now it's in the biggest pot I have inside at the moment. I am sooo not digging through the snowbank for something else! In less than a few days it has grown at such a ridiculous pace that it's cramming itself against the lights. Dang, they're already as high as I can get 'em. Radishes don't grow this fast!

It's not happy growing like it should be eating my house - it's decided to bud. Yes, bud!
Now, what the hell is that about? The stupid thing is either gloriously happy with the above-and-beyond care it receives or is some kind of lavender mutant.

It's 8" tall for pete sake! And at only one month old (exactly 1 month!) it has decided to bud out. I'm not complaining, I'm just bewildered and unsettled at it's growth habits and I don't like to be discombobulated by plants.

Why can't I ever grow anything at a happy medium?

And the English Lavender seed I started just for the heck of it - 9 sprouts. I wonder if they'll be normal or I'll be grinning from ear to ear over more mutants?

Maybe This Year

I forgot to add this moon/planting chart with my post the other day:

Outdoor Planting Table For 2008

(Be sure to change it to your own location)

I think I might give it a try this year. And then again, maybe not. I'll probably just plant things as the mood strikes me, as always. I really detest rules in gardening.

Watering Plants With PH

This should have been a no-brainer, a duh-moment, a slap-the-forehead thing.
Apparently, I've been suffering from a "Wake up stipid! You're killing your plants!" brain freeze for the last few....forevers.

Do I know that most plants prefer to grow in a certain PH? Ummm, YES. (Is this a trick question?)

Do I know the PH of my rainwater? Well, surprisingly, YES. (I have koi for pete sake!)

Do I know the PH of my groundwater? Ermmm, YUP. (See above mention of koi, but is it a winter or summer measurement you want? Waaaay different!)

Do I know the PH of my yard and garden soil? Well, DUH! (Of course, this is Central New York, so step over 2 feet and it'll change).

Do I know that the PH of the water that I'm watering my plants with (from rainwater, tap or hose) will affect the PH of the soil the plants are growing in? <----That, right there, was my "Wake up stupid!" thought a few weeks ago.

How could I have been so oblivious for so long? I have been gardening for 30-some years. 30-something freaking years! Has this thought ever appeared in my brain? Uh, obviously not. Why not? I dunno!

Our bedrock is composed of -
sediment stone
clay
gypsum
limestone
pumice
travertine
alabaster
granite
slate
sandstone
marble
and even diamonds

Whew!
Anyway, depending on the groundwater pressure and raising or lowering of it (especially in spring), the PH of our well water can change drastically - and fast.
It can sometimes be as high as 9 (though it occasionally tests off the charts) and drop to a 4.5 within the span of a few days.
Top this off with a rain water PH of sometimes 8 (yes 8) and this doesn't make for a good plant watering combination.

This high of a rain water PH makes absolutely no sense to us as we're suppose to be in one of the areas most directly affected by acid rain. Nope, we don't understand it, but that's what we've measured it at on some days.

Am I going to test and adjust the PH every time I water my plants? No freaking way! But does knowing that this is going on make me more adept at dealing with watering them? You bet.

Case in point:

My poor Rhododendron and Azalea seedlings were unhappy. But why, I wondered.
They have excellent soil with adjusted PH at transplant, Hollytone, they're kept moist but not soggy, perfect light amount and I tell them how cute they are (yeah, in baby-toned babble) every day. OK, sometimes a few times a day. And they just weren't those happy, strong seedlings they should be.

So, what the heck is wrong?

Duh-moment: It's the water, stupid!

I tested: OMG! I've been watering them with groundwater at a PH of 9! So, what's happening to their soil? Duh! (yes, I actually slapped my forehead.) It's changing the soil PH.

Have I read to water them with distilled water only? Oh, yes. Many, many times.
Did I want to spend the money on it when I have water flowing from the tap for free? Heh- not this cheapskate.

I gave in. I bought the damn water, flushed their soil, and waited.

What happened?

Well, in less than a month, they've put on weight, gotten taller, stockier, healthier, colored up beautifully and put out many new leaves.

I wish kids were that easy to adjust!

The moral of me almost killing my helpless plants?:

Don't just check your soil PH - pay attention to your water, too!

Cardinal Flower

The Cardinal Flower seed I saved from my one plant germinated in 4 days. Yay!
I sowed half inside and half WS (just in case I screwed up with my inside ones).
They're cute little things - look a lot like the coleus when it first germed.
It looks like a beautiful carpet of green.
I absolutely adore this plant! The leaves are a wonderful coppery/maroon color all summer and you just can't beat the 'true' red of the flower in late summer. It just about glows in the bog!
And since it's now listed as Exploitably Vulnerable in NY, I'm more than happy to do my part and grow a gazillion of them. Hee, hee.

Oh, My Gosh...

The coleus are coloring up already! They only have 1 set of true leaves and are the sloooowest growing plant I've ever started from seed (OK, might be a toss-up with the rodos and azaleas), but they have the most beautiful pinky/maroon coloring beginning to fill in with the lime green edging. Maybe they will look a lot like their mom after all.

Geesh...
The things that make me happy!

Quick!

Holy cow!
The Jalapenos germinated already, in 4 days.
4 freaking days! A month to germ - my butt.

The onions are all sprouting well. Thank goodness enough germed that I'll be stocking the freezer with them again in the fall.
:)

I was pondering growing popcorn this year, but they'll cross with sweet corn, so I guess that's out. Besides, I've been doing some research on them and they seem to be too much of a PITA to get moisture content right. Ahhh, well - maybe when I'm old and gray. Strike that...I'm already gray, so we'll just go with old. lol.

I swapped my Aunt for some seed, so I'll have impatiens and pansy seed to start. Of course, I can WS the pansy seed, so more room for imps. :) Ok, with all the veg taking over the light stand, maybe just a few.

And I figured I'd try lavender just one more time, so I'll do half of the seeds in, the other half WS and see what happens. And if they don't germ - I GIVE UP!

And no caps on your WS containers, people. Tons of blogs are reporting that they're giving Winter Sowing a try, but I can't understand where they got the faulty information to leave the caps on. You need rain, snow and fresh air to get in there! Well, the seeds need it. lol. I hate to see people get the wrong information and them be disappointed that it didn't work because of it.


Some more info: A few newbie questions answered

Forgotten Peppers

Well shoot! I started the Hungarian Wax pepper seed (with 100% germ. Yay!) and totally forgot I got some clearance Jalapeno M seed to start along with them. And no, the M doesn't stand for mild - they're 4750 Scovilles. Should satisfy youngest son without seriously burning his lips off, though he'll probably tell me they aren't hot at all.

I dug through my seeds for the other SIL last night (a little encouragement couldn't hurt!) and found them. 10 were plopped on a damp paper towel last night, so we'll see what happens.

The onion seedlings are up and wow, what a fabulous blast of bright green on these dreary days. The germination rate on those was about 60% so I just ended up throwing all of the seed left in the packages in with them. Still, not bad for 2 year old onion seed, considering the germ rate usually sucks worse than that after only one year. Is there anything better than sprouts to brighten any winter day?

Well, Color Me Shocked!

My poinsettia are setting seed! Unbelievable! They have the cutest little seed pods. I wonder how long I have to wait for them to mature? Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it sometimes rewards the gardener! Guess my hand pollinating experiment worked. I just can't remember whether I crossed the salmon with the white or the red. Ut-oh! Knowing me - it was both. Heh.

And I have a lavender sprout! Yay! Only one, and you want to bet something happens to it? Poor lonely little thing. I'm knocking wood and crossing my fingers. Maybe third time was the charm.

Oh, and the peacock orchids that I thought wouldn't do all that great (because I forgot to plant them last year. Yeah, I know - I already slapped my patties) are starting to poke out of the soil. So, doing pretty good.