I have aster lady in black that has seeds ready for collection. Is anyone interested?

ishareflowers said: I have aster lady in black that has seeds ready for collection. Is anyone interested?

I'd bid on that

Ok, now I'm curious. What's your first gardening memory?

Mine is being about 2 and my older sister of 12 throwing raked leaves raining down on me while I squealed in between helping Dad plant tulips. I put the bulb in the hole he dug. I always associate planting bulbs with helping my dad and I always will.

I'd also be interested in aster lady in black.

SameOldBrandNew said: Ok, now I'm curious. What's your first gardening memory?

Mine is being about 2 and my older sister of 12 throwing raked leaves raining down on me while I squealed in between helping Dad plant tulips. I put the bulb in the hole he dug. I always associate planting bulbs with helping my dad and I always will.

My first memory of actively participating is when I was about 4, following my grandfather and dropping corn seeds in the "hill" he made for each group. "One for the farmer, one for the crow, one to rot and one to grow", he had me repeat so that I got the correct number. I remember the soft earth filling my shoes as I followed the plowed furrows.

SameOldBrandNew said: Ok, now I'm curious. What's your first gardening memory?

Mine is being about 2 and my older sister of 12 throwing raked leaves raining down on me while I squealed in between helping Dad plant tulips. I put the bulb in the hole he dug. I always associate planting bulbs with helping my dad and I always will.

Mine aren't happy memories. Being yelled at for picking a carrot in my parents garden when I was little, being told not to touch anything in my Aunt's garden, and watching my cousin get excited because she picked an eggplant for my mom from their garden only to get in trouble with her mom for picking it and then listening to my mom talk horrible about my cousin for doing that and how embarrassed my aunt must have been. Even now, I sometimes have to force myself to pick things when they're ready, because I don't want to get in trouble, lol. I'm 48 and know it's okay because it my flippin garden!

Need more zippie bags! Packed a lot of seeds, but .... Walmart was out, argh. Worst case, I'll have to fold paper ones. Walmart online says they have different sizes in stock so I'll keep trying.

Have to transpose my scribbles to the trade chart here. I was thinking of being organized and inputting them to a spreadsheet at the same time.

I have never been able to get asters to germinate. They aren't happy above zone 8, so I wont bother. I still have to get the hang of gardening in Hades - everything seems upside down in the underworld.

Still can't see any ruella seeds. I grab some browned flowers while walking the pooch. Challenging to gather seeds before landscapers hack the plants back around here.

SameOldBrandNew said: Ok, now I'm curious. What's your first gardening memory?

Mine is being about 2 and my older sister of 12 throwing raked leaves raining down on me while I squealed in between helping Dad plant tulips. I put the bulb in the hole he dug. I always associate planting bulbs with helping my dad and I always will.

Feebean, it's a miracle you're enjoying gardening now despite your unwelcoming introduction. Way to overcome!

Before the marigold experience I mentioned earlier, my Dad's dad had a wonderful garden and brought me out with him to harvest zucchinis for supper. He also took me on his exercise walks, and the goal was to get to a neighboring garden to admire the hollyhocks. They seemed so HUGE because I was so little. (I finally started growing my own hollyhocks just a few years ago. They seem smaller now , but I still love them.) Also, a lady down the street from my home would cut flowers from her garden for me to take home to mom. It started when mom and I were walking by and I was saying how much I wanted those flowers (Zinnias). Mom told me to go knock on the door and ask the lady if I could pick some. That wonderful neighbor said "No", but she would cut some for me. As she cut them, she carefully explained that picking flowers without scissors could pull up the roots and kill the plants. In future visits she also explained how to cut flowers properly, to avoid damage to future blooms. Eventually she handed me the scissors and let me demonstrate what I had learned from her. After I started growing my own marigolds, I stopped asking her for flowers.

GardenQuilts said: Need more zippie bags! Packed a lot of seeds, but .... Walmart was out, argh. Worst case, I'll have to fold paper ones. Walmart online says they have different sizes in stock so I'll keep trying.

Have to transpose my scribbles to the trade chart here. I was thinking of being organized and inputting them to a spreadsheet at the same time.

I have never been able to get asters to germinate. They aren't happy above zone 8, so I wont bother. I still have to get the hang of gardening in Hades - everything seems upside down in the underworld.

Still can't see any ruella seeds. I grab some browned flowers while walking the pooch. Challenging to gather seeds before landscapers hack the plants back around here.

Do you have a Michael's arts & crafts store near you or maybe order on their site? I'll attach a picture of the baggies I buy for my seeds from Michael's. They make bigger size baggies but I use these and I can fit up to 20-30 large seeds like beans, canna lilies and nasturtiums.

@GardenQuilts - regarding the germination of asters -

Asters are now roosting among various classifications of genus (genera?), and therefore may not all germinate alike. But this swap is now offering one aster now known as Symphyotrichum novae-angliae 'Purple Dome', as well as "Aster, Nova Mix" and "Asters (Aster) that might also be similarly classified.

Evidently this aster's germination is helped by a succession of two phases: start with warmer temps in the fall, and then let the seeds continue sitting there while winter gives them its colder temps and then on into spring. You want those seeds to experience that shift from Fall's warmer temps to Winter's colder temps.

If you want to make germinating this aster harder on yourself, ignore that natural shift from warmer fall temps to colder winter temps and do not sow until after December. That way, you can hover over them for an additional two more months, ensuring they get an extended period of artificial chilling into spring- especially useful to know further south.

While I was chasing down a source for @poisondartfrog's offering of the unearthly gorgeous Verbascum 'Governor George Aiken', I wound up on www.hayefield.com , an excellent source of local, native wildflowers, upon which I am basing this post's advice on germinating this particular aster. They explain this whole germinating process better than I have here.

Evidently, Norm Deno recommended this warm-cold shift not only for certain asters, but also for some iris, and the nga Seeds Forum offers these threads on his germination theory: https://garden.org/forums/sear... .

Another germination guide that covers various types of "aster" is: https://tomclothier.hort.net/i...

Wishing us all flurries of asters in times to come,
Karen

Great info Karen. I would add that China Aster, Callistephus chinensis, seeds can have a relatively short viability window. I just searched to make sure I remembered that correctly and found a source that suggests refrigeration significantly prolongs their shelf life beyond 1 year.

Thanks Alana - you've given us nudge in another very useful direction - it would be great to know which seeds best benefit from being stored cool in a refrigerator. Maybe another thread in the Seeds Forum might be a good idea, but for now - perhaps fellow traders might like to chime in here?

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Welp - how 'bout one more list into which we could chime: Can anyone think of other seeds that might also benefit from an extended period of cool refrigerator temps? I seem to recall that this is true of primroses - any other suggestions here?

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hmm. Regarding storing seeds in a refrigerator that prefer that - which of those prefer to be cool-stored dry, and which prefer to be cool-stored moist? I once collected some seeds of white bleeding heart when they ripened, and then stored them in a 2" baggie with moist perlite inside the refrigerator door, and then forgot about them. Weeks later I remembered to check on them, and their roots were flourishing in the baggie, which also happened with Tropaeolum azureum on another occasion. (The last time I checked, www.plant-world-seeds.com was selling those nasturtiums.)

Great information Ladies!

I have a lot of aster seeds that I did not get to planting. They are from nikitovka seeds, she has them listed as viable for 4 years on the packet. I will not list any of those but I think I may just take a pot and dump them in it and see if any germinate. They have not been refrigerated but have been stored cool dark and dry. I have not had good germination with Asters from this supplier.

Would anyone be interested in commercial packs of mixed zinnia seeds? I don't want to waste time listing if players are not interested.

I am! If you make more than one listing out of the mixed zinnias, I'll take more than one pack...

On the topic of germinating China asters. I've always struggled to get them to germinate but yr I did something unusual and almost every one of them germinated except for seed that was serveral yrs old.
Here's what I did. I made a paper towel wet, places it in a container, sprinkled seed on top and put a lid on. I then placed the container on top of the fridge. Within a day you could see them begin to germinate and then I'd carefully transfer them to my potting mix. Worked like a charm for me and I plan to always use that method now.

This also works well for delphinium seed.

Which reminds me. Does anyone know of a source for Bengal Rose Frost Asters? They've been high on my wishlist but haven't been able to find them.

That's good to know theflowerlady. I use a similar technique, but I put the damp paper towel with seeds in a baggie.
It works on a number of difficult seeds.
For very, very difficult seeds, I use a tiny bit of gibberellic acid dissolved in the water I moisten the paper towel with.

excellent ideas, theflowerlady and Alana - both for their simplicity, as well as theflowerlady's for being devoid of using plastic and Alana's for adding the use of gibberellic acid to my arsenal of possible ways to sprout a seed. I think www.jlhudsonseeds.net sells it, as well explains its use very well, too.

oops - forgot @ishareflowers' offer of mixed zinnias - me too please - medium or short heights.

For me, something quick and not too tall approaches weeds with the philosophy of "If ya can't conquer them, then join them."

expeditiously - that is

Karen, JLHudson is where I got my GBA, a very long time ago. It was a small pack but has gone a long way. I even shared some in a swap one year, and I can still probably use the smidgeon I have left for another couple of years.