My Half Acre of Paradise

Larry Sagers had a column a few weeks ago that discussed new plant varieties (see: deseretnews.com | The dirt on new plant varieties).

In it, he mentioned two books I should get:

In addition to Nau’s work with new varieties, he is the author of “The Ball Culture Guide,” which is the authoritative guide on propagating annuals from seed, and “The Ball Perennial Manual,” which is the companion volume for perennials. Both books are used by local growers.

I’ll have to check around and see where to buy these.

Today, more sprouting is going on:

• Salvia nemorosa: clearly beginning to sprout.
• Salvia transylvanica: hard to tell (I need either my reading glasses or to take my contacts out!).
• Cosmos: many sprouts now.
• Echinacea: don’t see any new sprouts; they’ve slowed down, and I think it’s because I turned down the heat. I turned it back up to high today.
• Coreopsis: Nothing yet, but of all the ones I’m germinating, these are the ones that need the longest time.
• Eschscholzia (CA Poppy): I think some tiny sprouts are occurring, but I need those reading glasses. :-)

I think turning the heating pad down to low and then medium was too cool. I turned it back to high.

Also, now I can see why Coreopsis is called “Tickseed” — these seeds do look like little, flat ticks. Yuck!

Yesterday, we broke 60 degrees for the first time since winter came. It was 64 in Salt Lake, but a little less than that in Utah Valley. Today is forecast for 62 in Pleasant Grove (our local weather station). Very nice! But a storm is now soaking California with rain, and it’s coming here tomorrow. Looks like we’ll stay too warm for snow, but hopefully it doesn’t rain in the mountains (I want to do some more snowboarding soon).

Some of my seeds are sprouting after only one day. This method with the moist paper towels is awesome! Especially when combined with a hot pad — things can happen quickly. The white coneflowers are definitely sprouting — several had little “tails” poking out. And they’re supposed to take 10-21 days to germinate.

The cosmos are starting, but I only saw one actual sprout in my quick look. I also think the Salvia transylvanica are just getting started, but the seeds are so tiny, it’s hard to tell. The Salvia nemorosa seeds all have secreted a little clear sticky stuff around them, which is a precursor to germination.

The California poppies and the Coreopsis are not on the hot pad, and I don’t see anything happening yet with them. I might put them on the pad in a few days, but they don’t need as much heat as the others.

All right — the growing season begins! I started my seeds today that I’m going to grow in the basement until I set the plants out in the garden in May. Here’s the list of what I started today:

• California poppy ‘Summer Sorbet’ - seeds from Thompson & Morgan
• Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Double Click’ - seeds from Thompson & Morgan
• Salvia nemorosa ‘East Friesland’ - seeds from my garden - I grew these from Wal-Mart seeds last year
• Salvia transylvanica - seeds from my garden - I grew these from T&M seeds last year
• White coneflower (Echinacea, unknown variety) - seeds from my garden - I originally gathered the seeds from my mother-in-law’s plant
• Coreopsis grandiflora ‘Mayfield Giant’ - seeds from my garden - I originally got these from a wildflower mix from Granite Seed (a local company in Lehi)

To start seeds, I use the paper towel method — it makes for very rapid germination in some plants. I think it works very well and is easier to control than sowing them in little pots or flats right from the start. I’ll post some photos here about it. Click any of these photos for a larger view:

Moisten two paper towels, one stacked on the other. Squeeze out excess water (you don’t want it dripping). Place seeds on it. If you gathered your own seeds, try to not allow chaff or old flower parts to be on the paper towel, because they’ll cause mold or mildew.

Fold the paper towels over, so the seeds are sandwiched between the layers. If the seeds are a kind that need light for germination, only allow one layer of paper towel to be folded over them.

Carefully put the folded paper towel in a ziploc bag, seal it up and write the kind of seeds on the bag with a marker.

For those seeds needing warmth to germinate, I put them on top of an electric heating pad. Then I put them under fluorescent lights that are perhaps four inches above the seed bags. For those seeds that don’t need as much warmth, I put them under the lights but not on the heating pad. Some seeds require darkness for germination. I have tried a couple tactics for that — put the ziploc bag inside a thick brown paper grocery bag laid flat on its side. Or, put them in an old desk drawer that is right in this little planting “room” in my basement. If they need warmth, they need to be in the paper bag and on the heating pad, but I don’t think any of the ones I’ve tried needed the warmth.

After all this, I check on the seeds every day. If the paper towel starts to get dry, I spray a little water inside the ziploc bag. The seeds will germinate much more quickly this way than in compost or soil. Once they start to get a little tail-looking root coming out of the seed, I put them in little pots or cell packs in a tray with a clear cover, with the lights just immediately over the clear covers. The lights need to be within two inches of the little growing plants, or they will get scrawny “etiolated” stalks from reaching toward the light. They usually then fall over and die. I’ll post more photos later when the seedlings get transferred to the cells.

Also, I will upload a file that has germination information on a whole bunch of seed varieties. It used was originally published by Thompson and Morgan, and now several people have posted it on their websites because T&M doesn’t have it anymore.

Hey, it’s warming up this week! It got to over 50 yesterday, and the sun finally feels like an actual sun again. You can feel the radiant warmth on your face when you stand in the sunlight. It’s nice to know the worst of winter is behind us, and spring is on the way.

I need to start my seeds tomorrow.

I’ve remarked before that it has been a very warm winter, and I’ve been able to do a bit of garden work that I usually can’t do this early. But we got hit with a major storm yesterday, and temps are very cold now. They say it might hit 10 degrees tonight. Salt Lake Valley got much more snow than us yesterday, but we’re all frozen solid. The roads were so bad and slippery that it took me two stinkin’ hours to get to work this morning! Hard to believe it was that slow.

I’ve been tempted to do some tree pruning soon, but it’s clear I need to wait a bit until we’re ready to warm up. I should also get some dormant oil spray for my fruit trees.

Exactly one week after I ordered them, those seeds from Thompson and Morgan arrived today. I’m excited to get them started, along with the ones I gathered from the garden last week. I also found some seeds left over from last year that I didn’t use, including some purple alyssum. I thought perhaps I wouldn’t have as many seedlings this year, but it’s clear I’m going to have at least 100! I also have some things I’d like to directly sow outside, including some nice single marigold seeds I gathered in the fall-before-last when I grew them in the corners of the vegetable garden. Speaking of planting directly outside, I have some onion bulbs that I never planted last year, and some peas to plant early this year.

Today, I ordered seeds for two annuals from Thompson & Morgan. They are:

• California poppy ‘Summer Sorbet’ - pink flowers instead of the typical orange
• Cosmos ‘Double Click’ - a double-flowering cosmos

I was reading some reviews at Dave’s Garden on the weekend, and it looks like people have a love-hate relationship with Thompson & Morgan. They love their selection but many are disappointed at the germination rates of their seeds. I’ve never noticed bad germination rates, but I usually throw a bunch of seeds in between moist paper towels sealed inside a ziploc bag, and it makes them germinate quite well. There are always some to throw away, but I always have more than I can handle anyway. I’ll have to pay closer attention to the success rates this time.

Today, I spent quite a few hours working in the garden, mostly in the front yard. I collected seeds from my Salvia nemerosa ‘East Friesland,’ white coneflower, lance-leaved coreopsis ‘Mayfield Giant,’ and a tall flower that’s either salvia transylvanica or nepeta transcaucasica. Can’t remember which, because I have planted both. Those are names from the Thompson and Morgan catalog, but I can’t find them in the Sunset Western Garden Book. I’m going to look up some info on those plants online right now and I’ll post a follow-up entry if I find different names for them.

I’m thinking what I collected was the salvia seeds, because I believe the nepeta has more fragrant foliage. In fact, there was a clump in the front yard of what I think was the nepeta, and after cutting it down, one of our cats came over and rolled all over it, sniffed it, and started sneezing. Just like catnip. The Nepeta family includes catnip; some varieties are called catmint. This one isn’t supposed to be incredibly attactive to cats, but it has some effect. Anyway, I’m pretty sure the seeds I collected were from the salvia — because they were taller and thicker stemmed than the stuff the cat was loving.

I was surprised how workable the ground was, because I did a little weeding and pulling out grass that was growing in flowerbeds. I guess we’ve been warm enough that the ground isn’t frozen, at least not at the surface, right now.

I did find some daffodil shoots coming up, but it seems there are fewer of them than last year. And some of the shoots are scrawny — I don’t think I fertilized them last year. I’ll have to remember to do that before the green parts die down this spring.

I cleared out all the stalks of the yarrows and even pulled some of the plants out by the roots. They are too aggressive, and they’re spreading out and outcompeting some other flowers. Speaking of aggressive, I also trimmed all the dead stalks out of the bed of Anthemis flowers along the south wall of the house. These flowers are becoming weeds and sending their seedlings all around the yard. I was surprised that a number of them had completely died this winter, though. The stalks just pulled out of the ground, with stumpy, dead roots. I wonder if the cutworms got to them last fall. I had a few problems with cutworms in the garden the year before. They really hammered the delphiniums I tried to grow.

My pile of dead weeds in the backyard is huge now. I need to burn it this spring when the time comes to get a burn permit. I’ve tried slowly throwing it away in the garbage can each week, but I can never get ahead of all the new stuff that goes into the pile.