Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Seedling Update II

As promised, here is my seedling update:

This is where they all started; in the spare bedroom under lights. Not much going on in this earlier picture.







Now the Love Lies Bleeding are already looking red and coming along fine.



















I have found any type of salvia to be wonderfully reliable and this year is no exception. (SO easy to save seeds from these plants.)















The phacelia are moving along. Not too fast I hope; I hate doing too much transplanting to larger pots before it's time to plant in the permanent pot.







The 'Vulcan' Malopes are coming along even with their miserable germination rate.
















I see that this basil is edible (DUH!) but I only grow it for its great purple foliage.





















I'm not at all thrilled with my petunia performance. Daisy's look so much better than mine! (Insert seedling envy here). Perhaps my petunias are doing too much thinking about growing and not enough doing.


Why do I want petunias anyway? Because they bloom non-stop during the summer, that's why. I always thought of them as, (and I apologize), a "Grandma flower". But I have found out what a reliable, great annual they are; and that's what makes them popular.
I love the way the vining petunias look in my hanging baskets on the garage.



I ordered mine from Seed Savers. (This basket also included a volunteer morning glory.)




The Forget Me Nots or "Les Alpes Bleu" are doing fine and I expect them to brighten our shade garden next year.












By the way, my French cousin, François, sent me the seeds from France along with some others.














I was privileged to meet him in France one and one-half years ago during our European vacation.







I haven't tried these yet, but I will eventually. (He's a great guy, isn't he? Flower seeds all the way from France! Pretty darn cool! )















I'm thrilled with my one orange pelargonium,



but I'm wondering what's up with the rest of them - tiny little things.




We'll see if they catch up.




The castor beans are doing well of course. They're like Arnold Schwarazenegger; practically unstoppable. I dropped a light fixture on three of these and two of them are still going strong.



Love the leaves.
And they'll look great on our front porch.










Here's one on the left a couple of years ago.





Well, that's about it for now. I'm still waiting for my datura seeds to germinate. And no luck with the giant cleome. I'm leaving them in the cold frame; we'll see what happens, I usually have better luck transplanting datura that re-seed.









Oh, and Kim's tomatoes. Yeah, almost forgot them. (I'll care about them again when I'm dying for fresh tomatoes this summer.)






















Update:
Wednesday April 9

We woke up to this:




We really can't complain; rain or snow, we needed the moisture.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Petunias are great aren't they? "Grandma Flowers"? Heh, that's funny - I always thought of Geraniums that way. I guess grandma always did know best.

Katie said...

I secretly like petunias...shh!

French seeds - ooh la la!

Looking forward to seeing the castor plant all grown up this summer.

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

Ooh! OOOOOH! I love the love lies bleeding sprouts. They couldn't be more adorable in an Easter bonnet! Also love your caster bean/elephant ear combo--very Victorian!
~ Monica

Anonymous said...

Je suis bien content que tu aies encore les graines que je t'avais envoyées il y a quelques temps déjà. J'ai fait aussi quelques plantations sur mon balcon, des bégonias et des pivoines ! J'espère qu'elles fleuriront cet été !
Bisous de France,
Vous me manquez,
François,

Rosemary said...

wow your seedlings are really coming along.
I love petunias, regardless.
Don't you just hate to see the snow again.