Same here. Memory is a short-lived perennial, at best!

My seeds are in the mail! Alleged expected delivery date: Thursday Sept. 15.

However, speaking of short-lived memory ... drat!
I had Fuzzy Bean Vine seeds on my desk at work, ready to be slipped into two bundles.

And they are still on my desk, even though the Flat Rate Priority Envelope is in the mail already.!

Strophostyles helvola, edible, "Trailing Wild Bean"
@Littlecheryl and @SeedNerd, I owe each of you a packet of these.
If you TreeMail your street addresses to me, I'll send them along. Sorry!!

@rickcorey, don't worry about it. I have plenty of seeds

What's the best way to get pepper seeds? I want to save some and last year with ghost peppers it was a nightmare!

I see there's only four days to get them to DND for re-mailing, and that's too tight for First-Class mail. Maybe in a future swap I can slip them in? Sorry!

Ghost peppers: yikes!

Latex gloves, goggles or glasses, plus maybe a filter mask! Be very careful about touching your face or eyes!
Maybe @cycadjungle will offer some tips, or even write an article!

I saw a documentary about a restaurant with "very hot pepper" specialties. The chefs wore protective chemical garments!

Here's all I really know from experience:

If you grind dry chili peppers in a coffee grinder, enough dust leaks past the lid to gas you out. Eyes and lungs are not really happy being in the same room, even
If you wipe a finger or a glove on a napkin, throw that napkin away right away!

DON'T set the napkin down where you might forget it's contaminated, or you might use the napkin to wipe your bare fingers, then touch your face near your eyes. From experience: you don't want to do that.

Plan ahead where you are going to set things down. Maybe lay down paper first so you can throw that away.
I did NOT think ahead, and turned my kitchen into a bio-hazard zone for DAYS! I never knew what spots were "hot", and wore gloves for a few days. It made life exciting.

All I can really think of is: cut them open and scrape seeds out.

Immediately either throw away or carefully put into a dishwasher everything that you used or might have been touched.

The "oil" inside those ghost peppers is mostly the "hot" ingredient, capsaicin.

RickCorey said:I finally found where to enter MY address! (It doesn;t seem to carry over from one swap to the next).

Seed Swaps
Viewing DnD's ALL SEEDS SWAP (Int'l)
Left-hand column: "Manage your swap profile"
"Your full name and address "

Thanks for letting me know. I thought it did. I'll go fox that now.

bxncbx said:DND you should have received my seeds today. Did you get them?

Yes, Elena, I got yours yesterday or the day before. Karen and Jim's came today. (Plus a third without a return address...I hope the name is in it when I go to open packages!)

I'm getting caught up here, everyone, on my day off.

Just in from mowing the lawn (my hubby doesn't like that I do it because he worries the neighbors will think he's a slave driver of a husband or something. ... Well-intentioned, but I would rather that than the neighbors worrying we're trying to convert our property into a suburban jungle.)

Back out to mowing...

Rick was talking about address and mail difficulty , probably Rick's a day early with no address , it got erased along the way . The handling dept was reading this and got even

Rick look forward to getting an empty envelope in return , with your Box Address label on it ,
The Handling Dept

My box MIGHT have arrived a day early. But I put several layers of wide tape over my return address. Hmm, I bet there IS no "Rick Corey" inside the box, unless it is in the individual labels: "TO XYZ FROM RCorey".

Next year, I'll flag it for myself: Include my name and return address inside the box!

Well, there is ONE way to Dick-Tracy it out. I bet I'm the only one using a Flat Rate Priority Envelope who put their seed bundles inside a huge Generic Cheerios bag!

(That $6.45 envelope held what would have needed a $10.50 Medium box!)

I will keep (or Get ) a large flat rate envelope if I am back next season , I started to donate but as being only fair at packing boxes (the small one ) only I ran out of room ,
I hope to have much more to offer next season , With of course some of the usual standards
if things those hopes are ,,

Only playing with you some Rick , Hopefully a nice dry fall about you in the next week ,

Only one miss I know of To val , the Blue Ballon Flower , It is sitting here beside me I missed putting it in the seed Baggie ,
Type me back in a while Val I will see what is here . We seem to have a bunch of the same though .

>> Only playing with you some Rick ,

Jim, I KNOW you are a kidder!

>> Hopefully a nice dry fall about you in the next week

That's a really nice sentiment for a seed-saver. But this year I'll only have some dusky-purple-chocolate Columbine seeds that have been rained on a few times already. I think I'll just rely on those I saved last year.

(I might also dig up and divide some Lilly bulbs, though they got some ugly black tips on their leaves this year. I'm guessing some bacterial infection due to weeds and blackberries getting overgrown and reducing air flow.)

Lily (Lilium 'Black Out')

Rick Really nice lillium I had some last year , they rotted out this spring .. all things are what they are
I am transplanting feverfew . more to do

I am wondering and hoping about more threads and people to ask if they want to look in to join ,
I keep trying to sneak it in to the conversation ,

I'm confused... Am I supposed to be sending a box?

You can send the envelope or the box Karen , The box is optional ,
and Hi ya .!!!

Here is an interesting observation. I planted tomatillos in January winter sowing them. Then they didn't grow so I attempted to see start in March and my greenhouse got knocked over and I thru the dirt in small trays so the seeds could still grow. Then a hail storm hit when I wasn't home to move them out of danger. But Lo and behold a couple survived (2 cucumber, 1 tomato, 1 pepper and 2 tomatillos survived.) here is the two tomatillos: first one is from January



Second one March:




Now this tomatillo is from the nursery. At the time I didn't think any tomatillos made it. This one is just now getting flowers!




So maybe I won't completely write off winter sowing since it's doing far better than the store bought one!

Oops. I should have sent a box. I suppose in my mad rush to catch up I did not read that. It's all good. I'm at least happy I sent a bubble envelope, lol. And I am really happy it got there. I was worried the PO would take it. Seriously. Everything I ever sent has always made it but a huge package I sent as a donation. So now I worry.

Oh and also I don't have to water the January and March one. They do great! But the one from the nursery wants to be constantly watered. The first tomatillo and the nursery tomatillo are in the same size pots, and the same dirt mixture. Interesting!!

I use the "Flat Rate Priority Envelope" when seeds won't fit into a Small Flat Rate Priority Box.

Bubble mailer ($2.32 to $3.94 last time I checked)
Small FRP Box: $5.40 ?
FRP Envelope: $6.45
Medium FRP Box: $10.50 ?

You can use a bubble mailer or padding inside the envelope if you want to, and if there's room.
Sometimes I might be able to save another $1- $2 by using First Class Parcel/Package (bubble mailer), but I have to weigh it, and pay for the bubble mailer, tracking and insurance.

Also, the USPS rules and rates and even the NAME keep changing for First Class "Flats", Large Envelopes, Parcels, Packages or whatever the name-of-the-week is.

And (last time I checked) , you could not use the USPS website to print postage for Parcels, Flats or large First Class Envelopes. That was what convinced me that the USPS really does not like bubble mailers.

And sometimes Priority mail IS faster than First Class.

I also figure that, since tracking and insurance are included in the cost of Priority mail, USPS must lose, crush, shred and drown fewer of them.

P.S. Didn't the FRP Envelope use to be padded? Now it's just thin Tyvek. Even the Post Office is run by Ferengi today!

Jimard - Even though my wintersowing was not particularly awe inspiring, I did have things that came up and actually did better than a store bought plant would. Then again, I had some direct sow that did better than the wintersowed did. The balsam was one I wintersowed and was able to keep during bloom time. I had 3 others that were direct sowed and made it to the same point. The 3 ds'd did far better than my ws'd. But I still would not rule it out altogether. This year I intend to ws half and direct sow half and indoor sow some. I'd just like to see what does better and how. My ds'd balsam was bushier than the ws'd one. It also had more blooms. All in all, worth a another stab at ws'ing this year. I'm already collecting milk jugs again. But this year I'm making a list. I do remember what did well and what did not last year.