I too have a lot of seedlings and still sowing. Two new-to-me plants I have growing are the 'Strawberry Blonde' Marigolds and the Pink Dandelions. Thanks Alana and janinilulu for these.

One seedling I'm excited about is this one from Hibiscus 'Starry Starry Night' [via ishareflowers]. Is this one variegated?

If the variegation is the result of a nutritional deficit it's a genetic issue rather than a problem with the soil. Witness two other seedlings growing with it.


I'm anxious to see the true leaves develop.

I had a few trays of germinated seedlings in the greenhouse that ended up all over the concrete slab that it sits on after a wind storm. They were all overturned, I believe I lost all of them. I was a bit surprised because I use 16 oz. cups to sow my seeds and there were 12 cups in each bin that blew off the shelving. This was a first for me. I hope its the last!

@rattlebox, Hibiscus starry starry night is not a variegated plant. Please keep me posted on that one. If you do get a variegated foliage out of it, I'll be planting all the seeds I get from it trying to get a variegated plant.

Lisa, I sowed all of the variegated Lychnis seeds and just culled all but 2 highly variegated ones. I think that will be a favorite for me.

The variegated Hib is interesting, Ron. I would love to see how that develops. I have two seedlings of Hibiscus storckii, one is green, the other variegated. I don't know if this is a deficiency, either. I read once that it was possible that the H. storckii seeds derived from the collection at Kew Gardens may have been crossed at some distant point with Hibiscus rosa-sinensis "Cooperi". I don't know if that suggestion was ever proven, but since my seeds came from the UK I'm going to monitor that particular plant's development closely.

The Mock Orange seeds germinated quickly and I look forward to creating a grove of those from the resulting plants.

I wintersowed 3 containers this year. We have not had enough cold weather for stratification and of everything I've sown, I expect to get the least satisfaction from those.

I'm behind on sowing, among other things, but I'm still working on it.

We got the strong winds here last night too. I haven't been able to go out and check on my wintersown containers yet, hopefully they were ok since I had moved them up against the north side of the house. When I got up this morning I got a big surprise though.

Back in 2006 there was a storm that split a neighbors old weeping willow in two and it landed on our metal shed and badly dented in the roof. We also had another weeping willow of the same age nearby (and way too close to the power lines). Incredibly stupid trees for the original builders to plant near houses and powerlines. They filled the whole town with silver maples and weeping willows, both of which are very large fast growing and weak wooded trees. So we preemptively decided to take our massive willow down too, but due to expense and our love of birds we decided to leave 15' of the trunk. The tree crew said that was a safe size and it would not likely cause a problem. Since then I have been growing all kinds of vines on it and made planting beds around it. I knew it was rotting, but kind of hoped it would rot from the top down and the trumpet vine would get strong enough to help support it.

Last night it came down. Luckily though it fell in exactly the right spot....avoiding the shed, fence, power lines, compost bins, most of my planting beds, a nearby spruce and several of my shrubs. It still is going to be a lot of work to clean it up and that whole area will have to be reworked with many plants to move. I'm going to really miss the trumpet vine growing up it. It always put on quite a show. Unfortunately, I don't have anywhere else suitable to support that large and aggressive of a vine. The hummingbirds are going to miss it a lot I think Now I have another clear view of my neighbor's dumpy back yard too. At least we can safely build a new shed now, so that's something good.

Here's a pic of the trumpet creeper vine on the willow.

Lisa, so sorry to hear of your seedling disaster. I can only imagine the level of frustration and dismay that caused you.

I'll definitely report back on the x'Starry, Starry Night' seedling. If variegated, hopefully it will also have the dark foliage of 'Starry, Starry Night'.

I've had mixed results overwintering Hibiscus moscheutos varieties, still trying to work that out. But I've found they can grow, bloom, and set seed in one season, so I can treat them as annuals if necessary. I don't know if the variegated foliage trait is inheritable through seed in Hibiscus. As far as I know, my Hibiscus 'Snow Queen' and 'Red Hot' have never set seed, so I have not tested it.

So, if this plant is variegated, and if it blooms and sets seed for me, I will definitely be saving (and hopefully sharing) seed from it. If so, Lisa you are definitely at the top of the list to get some.

And Alana, good luck with your Hibiscus storckii seedling! I wasn't familiar with the species, so I Googled it. Nice plant!

PS: We need a pic!

Oh no Lisa, that stinks Our seed sowing does have it's disasters doesn't it
After three seasons of trying I finally got yellow cleome to germinate on coffee filters...got busy and didn't get to them and they rotted planted them anyway but nothing I think it's too late to order more and try again

I had a lot of good germination on some things so far inside
Sinningia, impatiens, tarnea, begonias, 2 teen tiny california fuschias, pentas, purple milkweed, fruticosa milkweed, crepe myrtle.
I gave up on the porterweed and a few coleus

Mostly everything else is winter sowed outside and even had a bit of germination with a few...purple prairie clover and some coriopsis. Hoping they make after last weekend deep freeze and another one predicted for this weekend.

I'm going to take a chance and plant out my "after the last frost" things. We're running weeks ahead. I can always put them in the garage if we do get a freeze.

Most of the WS containers have started popping, and a few of the containers i seeded have sprouts. I'm in one more swap for the season and then I'm calling it quits until fall. I've got way more than I can plant as it is, but I can always save until next year.

rattlebox said:I too have a lot of seedlings and still sowing. Two new-to-me plants I have growing are the 'Strawberry Blonde' Marigolds and the Pink Dandelions. Thanks Alana and janinilulu for these.

One seedling I'm excited about is this one from Hibiscus 'Starry Starry Night' [via ishareflowers]. Is this one variegated?

If the variegation is the result of a nutritional deficit it's a genetic issue rather than a problem with the soil. Witness two other seedlings growing with it.


I'm anxious to see the true leaves develop.

I've had plenty of Rose of Sharon seedlings with various degrees of variegation. Most got normal true leaves, but one did infact stay variegated so keep an eye on yours!

Ron, I'll post a photo this weekend. This has been a hectic week.

I did notice that the stem on my bi-colored example is mostly white, which leads me to believe the seedling is doomed, but I will coax it along as long as I can.

@duane456, the A. purpurascens germinated in a few days for me, too, with no stratification. Thanks for the seeds.
Ron's Oriental Red Abelmoschus seeds have germinated as well as Zinnia grandiflora (from another swap). I have 5 different Calceolarias, some from this swap as well as some from other swaps, that are up and ready to grow. I'm happy with my meager efforts so far.

Ron, I guess I jinxed my little H. storckii. It has been failing since I mentioned it. I'm losing it to its defects.


Hm. I'm not sure about that odd green on one of the leaves. It may be a reflection from the bright green pot hanging just over it. That part of the leaf is white, too.

Here is the healthy example.

Alana, sorry to hear about the H. storckii seedling. Hope some chlorophyll starts showing up on the true leaves. But glad your Abelmoschus seed have sprouted.

I'm having mixed results with my seed. I have sown a lot of seed this season. A lot have sprouted readily, but a lot appear not to be responding. Of course, there are also those that need more time, and those I haven't yet sown so I'll be plenty busy.

Keith, looks like you hit the nail with this one. Here are a couple current pics of the H. moscheutos 'Starry, Starry Night.' The first true leaf looks normal green. Even the white on the cotyledons is receding.


On a more positive note, for those interested in the Purple Porterweed, Stachytarpheta frantzii. Here is a pic showing my seedlings.

Naturally, it will be a while before I know if the seedlings are true to the parent, or if they vary substantially, but I have over a dozen seedlings so far to work with.

I made an interesting discovery today. Notice the bottom Hibiscus moscheutos seedling in my post above. Notice the color, that yellow-green color of the cotyledons, the true leaves, and even the stems. That's all real.

I don't know why I hadn't noticed in person, but I first noticed the color difference in the photo. I thought it was an artifact of lighting/shadows or something. But when I checked the seedlings today, the yellow-green color is just as bright, just as obvious in person as it is in the photo.

I don't know if I'll actually like this color, but it is interesting.

And odd that I was so focused on the possible variegated seedling I totally overlooked this one.

Again, it's not a nutrient deficiency of the soil, as the other seedlings growing with it are a nice, normal green.

That is interesting. This isn't from the swap but I've been finding variegated leaves on Prunella vulgaris for several years now. There are other plants nearby that are plain green like normal. I've been wondering if I were to collect seeds of the variegated plant, would the seeds make variegated plants? Maybe I should save seeds this year and find out?

wildflowers said:That is interesting. This isn't from the swap but I've been finding variegated leaves on Prunella vulgaris for several years now. There are other plants nearby that are plain green like normal. I've been wondering if I were to collect seeds of the variegated plant, would the seeds make variegated plants? Maybe I should save seeds this year and find out?

You should save and try! I've found wild plants in variegated forms and saved seeds and many carried the trait in otherwise boring looking plants, people really go crazy over odd forms like that and you could sell them if you get enough var offspring.

This is Bouteloua curtipendula/Side-oats grama (from molanic) and it's on the endangered species list here. I think it's just the cutest seedling.

Doesn't look like this place gets much traffic right now, but wanted to share. I planted a bunch of daylily seeds from this swap and the fall one, and now I've got babies. Or at least I hope they're daylily babies and not grass shoots. Guess I'll find out soon enough!

okie,
This is what my daylily seedlings are looking like;

Wondering if this is normal for Magical Michael basil or do I have two different varieties growing? Or a cross?

That's a lot of daylilies.

I don't know wildflowers. How do they taste?

I got sick for several weeks and missed a lot of sowing time. I ended up sowing things about the time I am normally prepping them to plant out and did not get to everything I planned to do. Most years that would frustrate me, but this year I'm surprisingly mellow about it.

Anyway, I thought I too would post a few pictures of plants from seeds I sowed from our swap as they grow. Anyone else have blooms from our swap yet?

@LaraJWB offered a mystery Cuphea. I like it.



I won a packet of seeds collected from Coleus Red Fox Mainstreet Oxford Street from @Danita and got two distinct plant types. I like both of them.





And I got this Petunia from @ishareflowers. She was upset because purchased seeds were mislabled (happens pretty often) but I like the combo upright habit.