Lavatera are one of my most favorite direct sown annuals. One year I sowed a seedtape of Silver Cup and had a hedge of beautiful pink flowers all summer.

Here is Silver Cup

Joanne...Did you purchase (and if so where?) or did you make your seed tape?

Lavs are in my Top 5 favorites.

Hello Barbara,

Just a package from the seedracks at the local dept store. I have seen the seed tapes at Walmart too. I think the seed brand is McKenzie seeds

Joanne, They almost look like hibiscus. Are they in that family? How tall do they get? You speak of seed tapes. I was in Kmart's garden dept. last week and saw this new product in a package. Seeds and fertilizer all in one pkg. Almost bought one to try and still might do it. Next time I'm down there, I'll write down the product name even if I don't purchase it and discuss it here. Maybe others would be interested.

Maybe we should have a thread of products we find in the garden centers that others might be interested in. Hint!Hint!

How do you make your own seed tape?

MollyD

Glue and strips of toilet paper.

Thanks Caroline!

i am not getting the whole seed tape concept. tape and toilet paper needs some explaining. lol.

mamajack: You just glue the seeds to toilet paper, or tissue paper, and plant the whole thing. It's supposed to keep the seeds more evenly spaced than just throwing seeds in dirt.

If you want to keep it organic, you can make the glue from flower and water.

I'm too lazy to to that. If I want to direct sow, I just toss the seeds into the dirt.

Karen

well i never thought of that. i have seen the seed balls for wildflowers but have never tried them either. but this year i have a newly plowed large bed. i will direct sow some. and the seed tape thing might be good for me.

I have a lot of Lavatera seed collected in 2010 that you would be welcome to - it's a big, sprawling vigorous perennial shrub in Zone 8.

I collected the seed before I thought very hard about these downsides:

- Hirts' Nursery said they were were Lavatera thuringiaca 'Barnsley', even though that does not seem to be a valid name: I think 'Barnsley' is L. x clementii. (I have seen "thuringiaca" used as a synonym for the hybrid, but what's up with that?)

- They aren't white or bi-color or multi-colored like Barnsley: just plain generic pink with some streaking.

- if they were what Hirt called them, like a hybrid that reverted to plain pink 'Rosea' flowers before the first bloom bloomed, they might not come true from seeds.

If you're interested, I'll find it and try a germination test - they aren't supposed to need stratification.

I have lots more from 2011. LOTS!

well rick i might not find myself back over to this place for another few weeks but sure ........i'd like to try some. i bet they'd grow good here. and when you say the plant is BIG............how big do they get? lol.

karen that is a well balanced front bed you got yourself there. good color and heights. that is not my forte.

Mamajack said:
>> i'd like to try some. i bet they'd grow good here. and when you say the plant is BIG............how big do they get? lol.

I prune them down to 6" or so each winter, and i WISH I had topped them at 4-5 feet before they put out buds. They tend to shoot up maybe 6-8 feet, then flop over like huge octopusses. Octopi?

I also learned NOT to plant them in deep or rich soil, and NOT to fertilize them. They do fine in terrible clay with little organic matter , and probably would thrive in infertile clay. They are supposed to be drought-tolerant. When you treat them too well, they become huge and floppy.

If you Tmail your address, I'll send them your way. BTW, see if there's anything else I have that you might like. I have lots of commercial Asian Brassica seeds like Bok Choy, Gai Lan & Tatsoi. Alysum? Lobellia? Salvia 'Lady In Red'? S. clevelandii?
There's links in my signature block:
~~ My 1st Trade List
~~ 2nd Trade List

thank you rick. what could i send you in return? you are a salvia lover? i have some red/pink microphylla types from seed. plants are prob. 2 ft. tall at least. but to ship i would cut the tops and could prob. send in a bubble mailer. also have some leucantha plants that i would also cut the tops on. and might have a macrophylla left but the cold might have killed all those. i don't have many seeds.

or i could send you some bulbs. i have gladiolus byzantium bulbs.......now i doubt these are THE glad byzantium. bulbs came from .....i can't even remember that right now.........but i suspect they are the shorter smaller lavendery flowered one. i could send 5 or 6 of those. they're a little bigger than a marble and they are full size. or i could send a miracle amaryllis bulb. they're prob. 3 - 4 inches wide and there will be a beginning bloom stalk which will most likely be stunted this year.

i would be happy with any of the lavatera, delphinium, campanula, lobelia, peaches and cream hollyhock or any double hollyhock or any short hollyhock. might could use lima beans or green beans or tomatoes. but i don't even know what a bok choy is. lol. redneck here. is it like cabbage?

and lmk on what to send you. i have other stuff if you don't like anything from above.

Let's send this to Tmail so I don't lose it! Tomorrow I'll be back at work where all my notes are.

I will totally pass on bulbs: I have a few very common things that I planted 12-14 months ago. if they come up the seocnd year, those beds will be full.

I am a big fan of Salvia, but once agun, if the varieties that I established for the first time last year come back this spring, I will be desperately looking for new beds more than for new seeds!

But if I can get a rain check for some Salvia plants, that would be perfect. My back is currently aching from chopping out some boring Ju8niper bushes and starting to dig roots.After rooting and screening rocks and adding manure and coffee grounfd and what litle compost I make, and walls, I may have 2-3 more small raised beds.

But even if I discipine myself to keep cherry tomatoes in buckets, and some Salvia in big pots, those new beds are mostly earmarked for vegetables and pansies and Lobelia and a few other annual flowers this year.

I would ask for Salvia plants only if I knew I had room for them, which would be a year or two from now. That would work fine for me, especially since then I will know better what does or doesn't come back for me, and where I have room for what species.

P.S. Also, do you know what the ancestry of Salvia "microphylla" is? I'm not sure what species or hybrid that is. . I want to save seeds from known Salvia varietes, and recently realized that every "NO ID" sage in the yard, kind of compromises that project. It's a small yard, with named Salvia varieties of several hopefully non-cross-polinating species front and back, and I already have a few pots of "NO ID" Salvia to keep away from pollinators.

Bok Choy: not quite Chinese cabbage, but close.

Heading Chinese cabbage is just like regular heading cabbage, maybe looser, maybe more tender or maybe in-between cabbage and Romaine lettuce. Cos lettuce? I don't know lettuce well, but say it's like Caeser Salad.

Anyway, Bok Choy LEAVES are like an average of Swiss Chard, collard greens and spinach.
Maybe like a mustard, but little or no "zing" and they seem to have a "meatier" favor to me.

The baby leaves are great in salad, raw, like baby spinach.

Bigger leaves can be used in salad, but I think they're best steamed or boiled like greens. Better and more tender than Chard.

Big old leaves and stems go into soup (or classic Chinese stir-fry). The most complicated thing I do with them is soup.

I would say that Bok Choy STEMS are like celery except that they taste good. My apologies to any fans of celery reading this. Sweeter and with more water and no strings until they get REALLY big and old. What I read says "boil in soup or stir-fry", but I crunch them raw because they're juicy and sweet. Very seldom will young and middle-aged stems get past me and into the soup pot. I eat them sliced into chunks as an appetizer.

If it were me, I would serve the leaves as salad and boiled or steamed greens for a year or two before admitting they were wierd-looking "foreign". The plants do look like space aliens. Maybe call them thick-stemed Chard. The shape of some Bok Choy stems must have given the Chiense the idea for those big soup spoons that look like ice-cream scoops.

My Mom was suspicious of them and insisted on boiling them into mjush before serving them

One thing: they are Brassicas, so they will cross-pollinate with anything Cruciferous like broccoli, caulilfower, cabbage of any sort, mustard or kale. Turnips?

well send me some bok choy. i bet i need to plant it now in texas you think? prob. a cool season plant. i love crunchy munchy veggies. we eat cucumbers here like they were candy. same with tomatoes when we can grow them in this godforsaken place.

and IT IS ON YOU to remember to remind me to send you some salvia plants. and you know what.........when the time comes we might just go straight to richard and let him send you something you really want.

I'll pick out ones that claim heat tolerance - I need those least, since my mid-summer is probably cooler than your late spring.

They might do better as fall crops: plant them after the Big Burn subsides, if necessary giving them a little afternoon shade. They can grow on into fall or early winter.

Bok Choy probably won't like frost, although cold-tolerant varieties might not bolt if you start them indoors and put them out after most frost. And if they start to bolt, eat them young and tender.

Or let some bolt in the cold, then collect tons of Bok Choy seeds and plant them very densely in late summer for fall salads: tons of "micro greens" or baby-leaf salad plants. For micro-greens and baby leaves, I don't think you need to care about cross-polination or even hybrid seeds coming out crazy.

i started some arugula a few years back. it reseeds itself wonderfully. would bok choy do that too? i love reseeders. even if i have to pull a lot of them up. i look at it as free compost material without the shipping charges.