Another Ad from Pistil:
Digger's Speedwell- Veronica (Parahebe) perfoliata. From Australia, listed as hardy to Zone 7 but I see in some places it survives colder weather. This perennial or woody subshrub is great for Mediterranean climates. It has interesting gray-green perfoliate leaves, sort of like a Eucalyptus. Mine is rather lax and floppy, I see others in Seattle that are upright, it may be a bit of lack of sun, plus the clay soil I have. I could not care less, I have it at the front of the border and it flops over the edge so I can see the pretty leaves and flowers. Used around here as a filler plant. Extremely drought tolerant, as expected for an Australian plant. Mine has flowers that are a rather intense violet, some of the photos I see on line look more like a faded lavender. Mine stays in bloom a very long time. Here are some photos and some links, I have none of the entire plant.

http://www.greatplantpicks.org...






edited to add the common name Digger's Speedwell so you can find it in the list!

Oops I listed one link twice and did not put the second one in:

http://www.rainyside.com/plant...

ishareflowers said:Joolie, I saw your red mustard seeds last night AFTER bidding. Do you have 5 or 6 extra seeds to trade with me? I can look through your wish list if you have one to find something to offer in exchange. I love red foliage in the garden and it looks like they would fit the bill.

Sorry for being late to respond, the weekend was insane (but good!). I checked for more red mustard greens but only have regular green ones. The rest of the red went into the ground, sorry!

Now the organization work starts. Does anyone have a good program for keeping up with when to sow what, by what method, when they bloomed, notes, etc?

I use PlantStep for lots of things in my garden it doesn't cover annuals and I'm spoiled by the online look-up feature for daylilies and hate to think I'd have to enter all info by hand.

If you find one you really like, let me know! I use different things, but the lack of consistency takes its toll. Here is what I've used before, though:
* NGA's own planting calendar, personalized based on your zip code (as I recall)
* Various Google sources, including this: http://veggieharvest.com/calen...
* Cell phone calendar reminders
* The latest source I'm likely to use is this:



Which includes plant care on some common plants each month, like this:


And a planting calendar that includes zone-based planting dates AS WELL AS best dates to plant based on the status of the moon (which I didn't know was a thing, but I'm interested in trying):

I'll ditto the consistency comment. I have grand plans of taking detailed notes, then I'll forget about it within a month. Currently the one I like best is myfolia. You can log in all your seeds, seedlings, established plants, etc, then go back periodically and add notes. Thenjoy you have a detailed account of the life of every plant in your garden, plus a history of what happened each season. But again, consistency is key and I'm lousy at keeping up with it.

Libby,
I've decided to use my plant list here as much as possible in hopes that my info will help other folks. I think that, along with my Master Gardener's Handbook and Excel should get me through.

Lalambchop1 said:Now the organization work starts. Does anyone have a good program for keeping up with when to sow what, by what method, when they bloomed, notes, etc?

I use PlantStep for lots of things in my garden it doesn't cover annuals and I'm spoiled by the online look-up feature for daylilies and hate to think I'd have to enter all info by hand.

Dear LaLambchop1'

Here are a couple of links which might be helpful. I will keep looking, and share others with you when I find them.

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listin...

http://www.listotic.com/when-t...



Blessings!

Queen Dreama

Thank you.
I have great veggie lists for my area in my Master Gardener's handbook. Wish they did ones for annuals/perennials.

DND, I saw a post where you said that you don't open players envelopes until all envelopes have come in. Thanksgiving is fast approaching and I will guess that your growing tired of looking at seeds everywhere. I thought I would share my ever so simple sorting method when returning seeds for a swap like this.

It's simple!

I buy a 50 pack of dollar store paper lunch bags, each players name is put on one bag. I line them up on the bed in my spare room. As envelopes come in, I drop the seeds into the correct players paper bag until all envelopes have been rec'd. When the last players envelope has been received, all the paper bags are loaded with their return seeds. I start mailing seeds and getting rid of the seedy mess the very day the last envelope arrives.

Lisa, thank you for the tip, although it is actually for that reason I leave the packages intact. With two events going on at our house the next two weeks (a birthday and a Thanksgiving get-together) and things getting moved from one room to the next in preparation, it is extra important to me to exercise caution by not opening up everything until it is ready to be placed. It hurts nothing for me to wait to do it all at once. some day when we have 100 swap members, I will have to change my strategy of how to operate the distribution process, LoL, but 30 is still manageable in a single day.

A little ideology of seed cleaning and collecting Here are some chicory seeds

The first photo shows a giant seed , to the left ,



The second photo , showing two Giant seeds (chicory) and one still stuck to a pod leaf , The seeds in the pods have grown into the fiber of the pods and are twice as large as the other same plant seeds

My Centaurea Scabiosa does this , (blue or purple knapweed ) most seeds are small and herbal looking , then their are a large hard black seed that happens that are much larger , (some of you have these now ) Sometimes the giant seeds will grow and you get a slightly different plant or bloom ,
A bit of seed fun

Cool!

Sometimes as I clean seeds, I'll separate the slightly smaller ones from the slightly larger ones. But I've never tested to see if they grow out slightly different plants.

Usually I pick out and throw away anything that looks different from the majority ... I'm not sure why, really.

When cleaning Alyssum seeds (Lobularia maritima ), I could barely distinguish the mature seeds from what I thought were immature seeds and chaff.

I found out why when I germination-tested the "chaff". It germinated at least as well as the "mature seeds". Oh, well. I had saved both, so it was OK.

RickCorey said:Cool!

Sometimes as I clean seeds, I'll separate the slightly smaller ones from the slightly larger ones. But I've never tested to see if they grow out slightly different plants.

Usually I pick out and throw away anything that looks different from the majority ... I'm not sure why, really.

When cleaning Alyssum seeds (Lobularia maritima ), I could barely distinguish the mature seeds from what I thought were immature seeds and chaff.

I found out why when I germination-tested the "chaff". It germinated at least as well as the "mature seeds". Oh, well. I had saved both, so it was OK.

Rick Saving for uniformity is how that reads That is like vegetables in rows , flower beds square and clean , or flowing in a pattern , Gardening is that , growing plants is what I do , sometimes for a few weeks something looks like a garden or flower bed ,
The seed , sometimes they hybridize on their own ,
Most of the time I look for clean , hard , full seeds , fully developed , as I am sure the seed savers here also do ,
Seeds like sunchokes and a few I hope often for more seeds , My native type sunflowers do not make a lot of full seeds ..