Hello everyone!

I'm starting this thread to give a space to share our seed journey. I know a lot of us participated in Mile High Seed Swap #3 and I'm eager to share and find out updates from that swap. You are also welcome to share here about any new seeds you are trying or any other seed adventures.

I'll start by saying Thank you to @kywheeler for the Lobelia Crystal Palace. I sowed them on January 1st and they are looking good! Thanks to @Bluespiral for the Angelonia Serena White. They were sown on January 14th and almost all of them have germinated. Lastly, thanks goes to the seed swap archive so I can cheat and find out who I "bought" what from hahaha.

@Bluespiral

@ishareflowers ! I sowed the gomphrena on January 20th and am very impressed that they germinated in 3 days. I'm excited to use them in my cutting garden and a gomphrena mix for my plant sale.

So far from this swap, germinating, I have:
Reseda odorata, from @ishareflowers
Chia, from @StitchWitch
Calendula, Pink Surprise - I got two of these, and I think this one was from @Bluespiral . But I will be sowing the other one from @Mollie670 soon.

I have 3 kinds of onions from @SameOldBrandNew popping up under grow lights now. Also growing is cotton from @StitchWitch, and black Hollyhocks from @Maulwurf. The cactus seed from @Mdntnmtgmy is planted, but none sprouted yet.

Terrible photo, I know, but this is the hardest part about sowing seeds, especially the dust-like seeds of Begonias. From Janine, who collected these seeds from Begonia boliviensis hybrid 'Encanto Orange', a tiny pinch yields all these little fellers. Now I have to select 3 to grow on and discard the unloved. All of the possible permutations will remain unseen and unappreciated. Not kidding, I hate this part.

@DraDiana, you will love StitchWitch's cotton - it has beautiful flowers. It has a fairly long seed to bloom cycle, but you've started it early enough that it shouldn't be a problem. I have grown seeds from her cotton for a couple of years now - a tender perennial in my zone (frost sensitive). Never enough to think about usable cotton, but the flowers are lovely, worth growing just for that.

I tried it once before (started inside early) and never got the poor things out of 6 inch pots. It was like Bonsai cotton. Not only did they have beautiful blooms, but I got some nice cotton balls and seeds from them (Sea Island Brown variety). I plan to give them more space this year.

I have grown some lovely cottons, saving opened bolls to place in bushes in early spring. Birds use the fibers in their nests. Hummingbirds particularly do, but all kinds of birds. My fav is the Red Albe variegata that I got from Lisa a few years ago. I hope that's what I have from stitch this time, but I like the brown and green fibered ones, too.

Cotton flowers are so beautiful. I never once thought of offering the fiber for nest building but will do that from now on!

Janine,
I first got the idea several years ago when I colored my hair blond. I was sitting under a tree when I felt something on my head. It was a bird trying to yank the stringy dry mess off my head for its nest. Every time I sat in that spot over several days I got the same treatment. I compared my hair to some cotton I had grown and decided to try giving it to the birds. I have found my cotton offerings lining nests ever since; little hummingbird nests blown out of the tall oaks are almost always lined with it.
Tmi?

Thank you for making me laugh Alana...I needed that! (not tmi at all )

poisondartfrog said: Janine,
I first got the idea several years ago when I colored my hair blond. I was sitting under a tree when I felt something on my head. It was a bird trying to yank the stringy dry mess off my head for its nest. Every time I sat in that spot over several days I got the same treatment. I compared my hair to some cotton I had grown and decided to try giving it to the birds. I have found my cotton offerings lining nests ever since; little hummingbird nests blown out of the tall oaks are almost always lined with it.
Tmi?

I haven't gotten around to actually planting seeds yet but have been stratifying some from the Mile High swap and the earlier one in paper towels. Thus far, I have one little seedling of spicebush from SameOldBrandNew and 2 seedlings of Passiflora 'Frederick' from Mdntnmtgmy.

I also had some sprouting of Virginia bluebell seeds from the former trader and opuntia from the latter, but those haven't developed into seedlings yet. I'm thinking maybe I kept the opuntia seeds too cool after taking them out of their paper towel and potting them up. If anybody has experience on what works for them, please let me know, since the online opinions about that seem to vary quite a bit!

Also, some seeds of Allium schubertii from Jlee160 have just begun to sprout in their paper towel. And I really need to get my begonia seeds planted!

Seedy successes are great, but I have a seedy fail. I sowed Ipomopsis rubra, my seeds from this past season, and the same ones I offered in trade either here or in another swap, and after a month there is no germination. I grow these most years and have to start early to get first year blooms. They usually germinate in under a week.
I don't know if it is a problem with the seeds or something happened after I sowed them, but I am not happy that I traded seeds that could be problematic. If whoever has them doesn't get germination, let me know and I'll send you a little somethin somethin in this fall's swap to atone.
Sorry.

@poisondartfrog, Oh Alana, you are such a sweetheart. Now, admittedly I am not affected by this, but I don't think you have to offer other seeds. My take on growing from seed is that I have many (many!) varieties, some germinate, some don't. Even if they're seeds I've bought and I feel like they should have germinated, I don't worry about it. As Yoda said, there is another!

Kim, that's my attitude when I am growing out someone elses seeds. Some just don't and you'll never know why.
I guess I'm just mystified why always easy seeds suddenly don't germinate as expected.

There's no telling... I bought some "low germination" seeds from Baker Creek one year. The strawberries appeared not to germinate at all. 3 years later. 7 identical strawberry seedlings appeared in that pot. I guess they needed double cold stratification? The other was their Queen of Malinalco Tomatillo. I tossed all the seeds in one pot in July when the weather was already in the high 90's. I had 100% germination and had to cull a bunch due to lack of places to transplant all of them. I'll bet Baker Creek didn't germination test them at 95+ degrees. One of my swap acquired lavender morning glories popped after 2 winters in a raised bed where I had discarded potting soil from failed starter pots.

This year I finally cleaned out of a refrigerator where I had put swap seeds 2 1/2 years ago for cold stratification, shortly before I got a finger crushed/fractured, requiring 3 surgeries and 9 months of therapy. It was sad. The daylilies and even one packet of irises had sprouted and died long ago. I set the baggies on a shelf, and after 2 weeks, I remembered to dump the vermiculite into a planter. I spotted something white in the dumped vermiculite and realized that it was a root coming out of a Crape Myrtle seed:

Like a Phoenix from the ashes...

@DraDiana awww! So cute. I've never seen a crepe myrtle seedling before. Thanks for sharing.

@ishareflowers Lisa, I have germination in the rose-colored adenium. Only one so far, now let's hope I can keep it alive!