A Seed Saver's Garden

[flowerbug]

The company I bought the seeds from list it as an annual? That it will flower by July?

i need a link to the website, i'm wondering if they're the same plant.

this is a link to a larger/more detailed picture (not the thumbnail) of what i have here which are definitely not an annual.

https://www.anthive.com/img/mixed-flowers/p4230001_Spring_Mix.jpg

 

[heirloomgal]

The company is called Floribunda Seeds here in Ontario... I'll try to post a link if I can find the mouse...

 

[heirloomgal]

heritage seeds and flowers, heirloom seeds, vegetables and unusual flowers

 

[Pulsegleaner]

These lentils are not the two in a pod circular kind, they go by a different name, can't recall it at the moment, but it is some leguminous food that Ethiopians eat during drought and challenging growing seasons, but there is a percentage of people every year that get some kind of debilitating disease from them due to the quantity being eaten. (Lathyrism?) It survives a lot but concentrates its toxins in drought so double edged sword I think with that. It makes a really pretty bright blue tiny flower on grass like stems.

Oh, you mean grasspea, Lathyrus sativus. I grow those every year (for the flowers). In that case, same rules apply as the lupines, go for the palest seed you can. In fact, unless you already have the seed in hand, you might do better with the Italian type than the Ethiopian (not only does it tend to be paler, it has MUCH bigger seeds) Again, only tradeoff is paler seeds, paler flowers (with the mix I started with*, (which I buy at a spice market), most of the seed yields white or while with blue and pink splashes, with only the really dark seed giving full blues.**). Ifm you do want Italian look under the name "cicerchia". (Normally, I'd be happy to let you have my leftovers, but I haven't been able to restock since the pandemic started (since the store is in Manhattan) and am down to only a small handful myself (none of which are really edible types.)

*Oddly this really IS a mix, as each bag contains both large Italian type seeds and smaller, darker Greek type seeds (each of which can have a few extra dark ones.)

**I USED to have a near wild, INTENSE blue one that descended from seed I found as an adulterant in some Indian lentils, but that all got devoured by animals.

 

[flowerbug]

heritage seeds and flowers, heirloom seeds, vegetables and unusual flowers

i found the picture on their website, it's completely different from the picture you put in your post above. i think the picture you posted above is actually anemone blanda aka the grecian windflowers i've been rattling on about. the kingfisher daisy picture from their website looks like:

i think you'd agree they're quite different.

so if you are getting annual seeds called Kingfisher Daisy and they've done their jobs correctly then you won't be growing anemone blanda. sorry! i went by your picture not by the common name.

 

[heirloomgal]

i found the picture on their website, it's completely different from the picture you put in your post above. i think the picture you posted above is actually anemone blanda aka the grecian windflowers i've been rattling on about. the kingfisher daisy picture from their website looks like:

i think you'd agree they're quite different.

so if you are getting annual seeds called Kingfisher Daisy and they've done their jobs correctly then you won't be growing anemone blanda. sorry! i went by your picture not by the common name.

Yes, the picture above was from a google search for Kingfisher Daisy. I didn't pay much attention to the photo on the site because that site is known for not really having the most representative photos. Strangely, NONE of the google searches for that flower come up with a photo that looks quite like the one on the seed site. I guess whatever it is will be a surprise!

 

[heirloomgal]

Been looking through the Richter's catalogue the last few days. It's a bit late really mid-March, but it's been awhile since I got anything from there and I do want to try some super duper novel plants this year. I was disappointed to see that they are sold out of 'Mucuna'. That would have been REALLY neat to grow a velvet bean, the seeds themselves look pretty neat; however, they don't mention in the catalogue if this one is the non stinging selection. It did't say anything about stinging, but I sort of wonder with this company. They are selling things like Lablab and saying 'every part of the plant is edible' with no qualifier. I thought that plant was toxic if not prepared properly? A see a few things like that in there.

On the shelf for consideration -

• Adonis Adonis aestivalis
• Green Pepper Basil Ocimum selloi
• Bloodflower Asclepias curassavica
• Butterfly Pea Clitoria ternatea
• Hummingbird Mint Navajo Sunset Agastache aurantiaca
• Kenikir Cosmos sulphureous
• Balkan Mint Clinopodium thymifolium, Micromeria thymfolia
• Starflower Scabiosa stellata
• Dow Purple Pod (pole bean)
• Winged Bean (climbing vine) Psophocarpus tetragonolobus
• Caterpillar plant Scorpius muricatus

I'm not sure about the bloodflower, if it's as decorative as the photos I'm all for it. Not crazy about the look of milkweed in general. I'm hoping that I might be able to keep these all going if I can save seed for them and list them in the seed exchange. Our seed directory could use a bit of a shake up. Butterfly pea is so beautiful, is it too good to be true? If anyone's grow these I'd love to hear. Winged bean seems pretty neat too, but would it mature? Catalogue says 75 days so that seems okay.

Sometimes you find an unusual plant or flower (like Godetia say, or Clarkia) and can't believe it isn't more widely grown, and other times you realize 'ah, I see why no one grow this thing'. I wonder how many on this list could fit into the latter category?

Couple photos
Velvet beans, very good nitrogen fixer:

Balkan Mint:

Blood flower, mostly I don't care for the look of any Asclepia but this one is sort a pretty. An annual monarch butterfly food plant.

Caterpillar Plant buds -

On a separate note, gosh, I've been having some MAJOR troubles with the pepper, eggplant and cotton I planted in the last few months. I bought a good quality bag of potting soil to start most of the seeds (I didn't want Pro-Mix peat), and to my astonishment the bag turned out to be INFESTED with what I think are fungus gnats. The first bag had a few them as many do, but I thought, no biggie really since the 2 or 3 I see don't usually do much harm. Bought bag #2, and wowzers, I started to have 2 month old plants die on me. I wondered why they seemed to need nitrogen so fast, I thought the soil was just a bit depleted maybe. But no, it was fungus gnat larvae eating roots. Everyday I am hunting these stupid bugs with a neem oil & water spray, which is working better than the oil & dishsoap mixture I started with but they are still not all gone. Can't believe how bad this had been and how much extra work this has been. Slowly transplanting the more infested pots into new soil mix and putting the gnat inhabited soil outside. They fly in front of my book while I'm in bed at night reading!!!

 

[Zeedman]

They are selling things like Lablab and saying 'every part of the plant is edible' with no qualifier. I thought that plant was toxic if not prepared properly? A see a few things like that in there.

I would take that comment with a grain of salt. And maybe some ipecac.

While I wouldn't talk anyone out of experimentation, you might have trouble getting either Velvet Bean or Winged Bean to maturity. Both grew here, but neither was able to even get close to mature seed before frost.

We had (and still have) trouble with fungus gnats, when we brought a new plant into the house. Apparently it was infested, and the gnats quickly spread to many of DW's house plants. We put several bowls out near the plants, with a solution of vinegar, wine, and a couple drops of dish soap. Those traps caught hundreds. We hung sticky fly strips directly above the soap traps, and they caught hundreds more... but they were still everywhere. They seem especially attracted to open books, drinks left uncovered, and the light from a cell phone.

We finally tried treating the soil in all of the pots with a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide & insecticidal soap. That kills the larvae in the soil; but it takes awhile for the adult population to die down. We treated all of the pots again (with all of DW's plants, no small task) and only had a few for awhile. They are just beginning to show up again, so we will probably have to re-treat again soon. Unfortunately, the only "cure" will probably be to completely re-pot all plants once the weather warms... or to hope that once placed outside, natural predators will eliminate them.

 

[digitS']

Three winters ago, we were nearly overwhelmed by fungus gnats that came in with the house plants. Every plant had a sticky trap, some even replaced after several weeks - all, covered with dead gnats.

Last winter, all house plants were repotted with fresh, bagged soil. Still the gnats! Not such an overwhelming number but way more than might have been expected. This winter, didn't bother with repotting and very close to zero gnats!

I've had scabiosa but not that species. Asclepias and, I guess, that species -- they were prettier flowers than that plant but it might have been a variety difference. Annual or perinneal, they didn't survive the winter. BTW, Monarch Butterflies very, very seldom make it this far north on this side of the mountains.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

i repotted the amaryllis a few weeks ago, so far no fungus gnats. my tiny spiders that i've kept in the worm buckets have done their job well for me the past few years, since i've discovered them none of the worm buckets have had an infestation. it used to be that i would once in a while get a bucket that would take off on a population boom and in order to feed the worms i would take the buckets outside (even in the middle of winter) because it was otherwise impossible to remove the cover. none of those now. it just goes to show that if you have controls of some kind that can capture the first few you'll likely avoid the rest.

now that it is getting warmer again i'll see some small bugs here or there. the most common place for me to see them is at night when reading/writing on the computer. if you figure out the temperature of the light that attracts them you can use the screen as a trap too. i've had a few of the small moths lately finding it must be close to moonlight color or something as they land right on it.