Yeah, Chelle, whatcha got in that big box?

I still need to plant:
--6 cultivars of Orienpet lilies
--3 types of Allium
--5 cultivars of Amaryllis
--Crocus 'Blue Pearl'
--Narcissus Double Mixed & 'Decoy'
--2 Dutch Iris (Sky Beauty & Symphony)
--yellow tall-bearded iris
--Snowdrops
--Summer Snowflakes
--5 types of Tulips
--Clematis virginiana
--P. virginanum (mountain mint)
--Passiflora incarnata

Need to sow:
--Bigleaf Aster
--white beebalm
--Echinacea pallida
--Zizia aurea
--Silene regia
--Spiraea tomentosa

Okay, I think my garden is now officially full!

Cool! So you are just planting them now.... Good to know it can be done that way. Edit: that was a response to Chelle. My goodness, Robin, that is quite a list!

It's going to be an interesting year here. It's beginning to look like even though I have created four new beds, I am still going to have a space problem!

A lot of seeds seem to benefit from being sown in the late fall, and then having the winter to stratify, then ready to sprout up in the spring! I also have some seeds I'm going to wait till spring to sow--like cosmos.

Hi All. Chelle!!! It is so good to find you here This season I was so thrilled with my experiment to grown lilies in the shade, so this fall I jumped at the chance to get more. I got a few of the same ones that Chelle did - Anastasia and Purple Prince, along with Friso, Olympic Torch, Salinas, and a double oriental mixture. I actually got them all in the ground Wednesday evening after work. I had always thought lilies only performed well in sun, but someone told me that they have been successfully growing them in shade so I tried it. They did great and it was so fun coming home to the different cultivar blooms - they were staggered throughout the weeks. Keeping them diligently sprayed kept the deer at bay too.

That's very good to know about the shade.

Hey Terri!! It's great to be here!

It's good to hear that your lilies are doing well. I've had that same first batch of Casa Blanca bulbs in the shade of deciduous trees for at least fifteen years now, and they haven't been touched since I planted them. Sure, they lean if they aren't staked, but they look (and smell) so good in that summer-dark space.

I am Not. Allowed. To. Buy. anything from seed catalogs until after Christmas.

But, but but but, they keep showing UP! In the MAILBOX! And yeah, sure, I did order them and I even ordered more, but it's just cruel.

Today was Seed Savers Exchange. And no sooner did I flip it open than my eye fell on a page of lovely lettuces. Reminding me that I have no lettuce seed and have not even put lettuce on my list. This shall be remedied.

I have decided my first wintersowing will happen the week between Christmas and New Years. This is because my cousin/housemate will be away that week, so I will be able to get my system down and make the messes and clean them up and figure out how to organize it all, without her around for me to worry about will she be upset by the temporary chaos.

It's always a bit different in a different space, and I've always been living alone when I did this in other places, so only had my own self to worry about making it all clean for after planting. Which I did, of course, just without being concerned for someone else's floor and carpet and what all.

Anyway. Soon! And once I get into that, I'll feel more like I have a handle on this project. I think.

Meanwhile, putting lettuce on my list.

I did give my sister a few seed names on my Christmas list, but those were ones where I don'tcare a whole great lot about variety etc. Unlike lettuce.

I know--I ended up buying some more seeds, too! Ack!! Someone stop me before I buy more!

I just started reading this thread tonight. I'll have to go back through it when I am not so tired, but just the first page grabbed me.

I know I suffer greatly from rose lust, but was surprised that once one is infected with any kind of plant lust, the infection becomes rampant ..

I think I am beginning to have a serious case of the I-wants and if I got the stuff I want, I wouldn't know where to site it or how to grow it.

It was a joy just reading part of this thread tonight.

Smiles,
Lyn

I saw a picture of a "handkerchief tree" (Davidia something or other) and it's all i want from Santa....

And yes, the catalogs, the catalogs (think Hunchback of Notre Dame)... Why can't they just have a box you can check that says "One of everything please?" (and a great 80% discount for doing so?)

RE: Wintersowing. I had absolutely no luck with this when I used containers. They either dried out or something (usually curious cats) got into them. My cats think any container with dirt in it is a porta-toity.
This year, I cleared an area in the veg garden, mixed in some coarse sand and sowed some seeds late in October. I put a piece of hardware cloth (metal mesh) over it to keep out birds, etc. I only tried purple coneflowers, hollyhocks (which already sprouted), and helianthus. We'll see

Lyn, I had to call a halt at rose lust, earlier this year, when I was on the verge of plunking down about 40 dollars for a couple of pretty pictures online that had me drooling.

Next year, with luck, I'll be in a position to indulge that level of plant lust.

Annie that's awful about your WS containers! Did you have covers on them? I'm banking on their being far too many to interest these cats here as a facility for their personal use. There may be a little destructive curiosity but I think that will be all. In previous years I had stopped sealing the tops closed, but this year I might resume that practice. Or I may be too lazy, and only do that if I find damage.

Handkerchief tree:

"Davidia involucrata (dove tree, handkerchief tree, pocket handkerchief tree, ghost tree)"



"A rare handkerchief tree has blossomed in Leeds...."
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-...

Lots of cool links offered by Google -- it's still rare, they say, and it takes a while for one to bloom....

Very pretty!

Annie, have you used gallon jugs for wintersowing?

You cut it around the middle and then tape it up so that squirrels and cats can't get inside. I have a pretty bad squirrel problem, but they can't get into my wintersowing jugs.

Also, you need at least 3 inches of soil. The soil dries out and needs constant watering if you don't have enough.

And another important thing is to keep the containers in the shade so they don't dry out.

If I have no choice but to put them in the sun (my backyard is really sunny), then I put a plastic liner underneath the jugs, kind of like this: http://www.agardenforthehouse....

I've had containers in full sun most times, they did fine. But I also saturated the soil pretty good before sowing. Later in the season it's worth checking that they're not drying out too bad, however.

Kyla ....

>>>>Lyn, I had to call a halt at rose lust, earlier this year, when I was on the verge of plunking down about 40 dollars for a couple of pretty pictures online that had me drooling.

Let me know what roses you are lusting for and I might be able to help you find them at a much better price or help you get cuttings to propagate and teach you how to bring them forward. Bringing cuttings forward is different from planting an established plant

Re: Winter sowing ... I'd love to try it, but haven't because if I happened to be successful, I wouldn't know what to do with the plants that made it.

I have a bit of a handicap other than my garden soil and climate, when it comes to things like that. I don't have a visual memory. It's kind of like being color blind. I can recognize my favorite rose. I can describe it. However, if someone were to say, "Visualize your favorite rose", I come up with a blank ... no visual memory. The only reason this is a handicap is that I can't figure out plant combinations that will go well together and have had to fix so many siting errors that it takes the fun out of gardening. I am hoping you guys can help me out with this, too.

The only thing I have to trade at this time are California poppy seeds and rose cuttings, but I truly would love to play with you guys in the plant swap even tho' I live on the opposite coast. Oh, I can share what I know about roses. Kind of limited, but it's a start.

I read recently, altho' it is recommended to sow poppy seeds in October, that one would have greater success, if s/he waited until after the first killing frost because the seeds would have a chance to go through their natural dormant stage. It makes sense to me. I have a lot of volunteer poppies popping up out of the ground since the rains started and I know they will be frozen when the night temps drop. I wonder if this is true for winter sowing, too.

Last year, we had a foot of snow on the ground this time of year. This year, the night temps have only dipped into the high 30s a couple of nights. No killing freeze. The weeds are loving it and the leaves I'd use for mulch are sopping wet.

Annie ... the hardware cloth is a good idea. I've found that I can use hog wire ... has bigger spaces, to protect my daffodil bulbs from the squirrels and it has kept my cat from digging in my one flower bed that he loves to use during the winter since he doesn't like to get his feet wet. Up here, it's cheaper than hardware cloth.

btw ... I still haven't been able to plant my new daffys. The soil is still way too wet. More rain is scheduled every day for the next 10 days. I am thinking, I am going to lose those bulbs.

Smiles,
Lyn

Oh darn about those daffs.

What about planting them in containers and setting those outside? I think that is what I might do. They can do their thing in the containers and then, whenever you find the soil and other conditions amenable, you can plunk them in the ground.

I would love to receive rose cuttings and your skilled advice about growing them! We'll talk. (I presume spring is a better time for that?)

That will be really wonderful, Lyn. Thank you!

As for poppies, I think winter is when they're best planted. I've seen pictures of (successful) poppy gardeners sowing them in the snow-covered ground by just broadcasting them.

Hmmm....I may try that winter broadcast sowing of poppy seeds.

RE: Wintersowing: Yes, used gallon jugs. yes, in shade. yes, wired them shut, etc. Nuthin. *sigh*

Broadcast sowing--doesn't that imitate best what happens in nature?

Catmint20906 said:Broadcast sowing--doesn't that imitate best what happens in nature?

Yes and no ... In nature, the California poppies create seed pods soon after they have flowered which is in mid-to-late spring ...depending on the weather ... and early summer and then they are done. I've found that if I dead head them after every bloom period and save the seed pods, they will re-bloom all summer. All of the plants get killed off once we get that killing frost and, yes, there are seed pods I've missed, so there are volunteer plants all over the garden. Especially since I don't bother dead heading them in late fall.

In nature, they have spread their seeds after their initial bloom period.

Poppies do not like to be transplanted so broadcast sowing the seeds is the only way to plant them in other areas of the property.

In these two photos, I was trying to take photos of the rose 'Ralph's Creeper'. The first one was taken on May 21st. The bloom period for the poppies would be completely done before the second photo was taken on July 22nd.





I've collected enough seed pods to broad sow up on the slope and down in one of the street beds for this year. I can collect more seeds to share with anyone here next year.

Smiles,
Lyn

PS ... I am still learning how to take photos, so I can't say these are the best quality, but they do show the poppies.

Kyla ...

I forgot to answer your question about the daffs.

Yes, I could have planted them in containers, but I didn't buy any potting soil this fall and don't have enough on hand. The garden centers are closed for the year, so I can't go to that plan B.


Maybe I can find a spot that might be dryer than others, but I haven't been working outside in the rain ...

Smiles,
Lyn