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igenlodeAnother towel-tomato seed germinated last night -- possibly stimulated by the warmth of its trip outside! I evacuated them again this morning from the fifty-five degree chill of indoors, and since the balcony was so warm I ended up sowing a lot more seeds.
The marigolds are definitely frosted (although there appears to be at least one more seedling coming through; nature's way of hedging its bets by ensuring sporadic germination in case of disasters to the first-comers), so I sowed another tray of those.
I think the chillies were probably sowed too soon and have simply decayed in the damp soil rather than germinating -- although to be fair, it *has* only been a fortnight, but just feels like far longer! -- so I sowed a second batch in another pot, and also added the last two commercial seeds from the original packet, which I had been holding back in case of dire need, into the original pot. We know now that the Demon Red variety *does* breed true and can be germinated via saved seed from year to year, and the seeds in that packet weren't getting any younger... (I had actually assumed that there would only be only one seed left in there, but there were two: apparently the 'average number of seeds per packet: six' was not entirely accurate in this case!)
I sowed limanthes, rudbeckia (after a panic when I thought I had failed to save any seed and had only my one scrappy overwintered plant to go by), oriental poppy, calendulas (again I have several overwintered plants), nasturtium and some rather optimistic coriander. I was rather alarmed to discover that I apparently *didn't* have an envelope of flax/linseed, which I could have sworn was in the box; it looks as if I rashly ate the entire harvest :-O
There were some loose seed heads from the belatedly harvested flax at the end of the season hanging around, so I opened those up, but they proved to hold very little seed; some were completely empty. Also, I'm not entirely certain that those actually were flax and not the confusingly similar seed-heads off one of the 'mystery wildflower seed' varieties (but I can't remember which!)...
I sowed some blue Swan River daisy seed, but not the pink, since last year's harvest amounted to literally two seeds, so I'd rather wait until later in the year.
I have *not* sowed the basil, mesembryanthemums, coreopsis, or any of the 'Linaria' and 'Gypsophila' varieties -- and yes, the pink Linaria is, unbelievably, *still* flowering and putting out new buds, having been doing so all winter while growing in a tiny pot. It is clearly extremely tough, hardy and prolific, as well as naturalising easily. Precisely the sort of flower that I like, in other words :-D
Meanwhile the mystery bulb has survived the winter and appears to be thriving, with multiple shoots; I still have no idea what it might be. I don't *think* it is more grape hyacinth which is currently flowering merrily within the confines of its pot. The leaves look different, inasmuch as one can judge bulb-spikes; but if it ever flowers then we shall see. At the moment it looks pretty much like the chives, which have come back energetically since I removed the thick layer of moss from their pot, having appeared to have died off entirely.
The garlic is also looking happy after overwintering, and has surprised me by apparently sending up a small subsidiary shoot right at the edge of the pot and well-separated from the main spike; since it failed to separate into cloves last year, I'm not sure where this extra plant is coming from!
The marigolds are definitely frosted (although there appears to be at least one more seedling coming through; nature's way of hedging its bets by ensuring sporadic germination in case of disasters to the first-comers), so I sowed another tray of those.
I think the chillies were probably sowed too soon and have simply decayed in the damp soil rather than germinating -- although to be fair, it *has* only been a fortnight, but just feels like far longer! -- so I sowed a second batch in another pot, and also added the last two commercial seeds from the original packet, which I had been holding back in case of dire need, into the original pot. We know now that the Demon Red variety *does* breed true and can be germinated via saved seed from year to year, and the seeds in that packet weren't getting any younger... (I had actually assumed that there would only be only one seed left in there, but there were two: apparently the 'average number of seeds per packet: six' was not entirely accurate in this case!)
I sowed limanthes, rudbeckia (after a panic when I thought I had failed to save any seed and had only my one scrappy overwintered plant to go by), oriental poppy, calendulas (again I have several overwintered plants), nasturtium and some rather optimistic coriander. I was rather alarmed to discover that I apparently *didn't* have an envelope of flax/linseed, which I could have sworn was in the box; it looks as if I rashly ate the entire harvest :-O
There were some loose seed heads from the belatedly harvested flax at the end of the season hanging around, so I opened those up, but they proved to hold very little seed; some were completely empty. Also, I'm not entirely certain that those actually were flax and not the confusingly similar seed-heads off one of the 'mystery wildflower seed' varieties (but I can't remember which!)...
I sowed some blue Swan River daisy seed, but not the pink, since last year's harvest amounted to literally two seeds, so I'd rather wait until later in the year.
I have *not* sowed the basil, mesembryanthemums, coreopsis, or any of the 'Linaria' and 'Gypsophila' varieties -- and yes, the pink Linaria is, unbelievably, *still* flowering and putting out new buds, having been doing so all winter while growing in a tiny pot. It is clearly extremely tough, hardy and prolific, as well as naturalising easily. Precisely the sort of flower that I like, in other words :-D
Meanwhile the mystery bulb has survived the winter and appears to be thriving, with multiple shoots; I still have no idea what it might be. I don't *think* it is more grape hyacinth which is currently flowering merrily within the confines of its pot. The leaves look different, inasmuch as one can judge bulb-spikes; but if it ever flowers then we shall see. At the moment it looks pretty much like the chives, which have come back energetically since I removed the thick layer of moss from their pot, having appeared to have died off entirely.
The garlic is also looking happy after overwintering, and has surprised me by apparently sending up a small subsidiary shoot right at the edge of the pot and well-separated from the main spike; since it failed to separate into cloves last year, I'm not sure where this extra plant is coming from!