A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

My gladiolus arrived today! That was quick, and the lady who sent them to me is a really lovely seed friend so she included another gift bag of corms called 'Evergreen'. Awe, I really appreciate such a sweet gesture. They're all so nice and wonderfully healthy, lots of girth and weight to them. I wish I could multiply gladiolus!

Pepper seeds are starting to pop up, and the Cossack Pineapple ground cherries I planted too. The Schoenbrunn ground cherries have been up for a while since I planted those first and they already have tiny little leaves. I actually faced thinning them quickly this year and I'm glad I did because I tend to dally on that and it probably stunts them, they're a nice size for their age already.

Such an exciting time of year! Each evening I look at my list and ask myself what I want to plant today!

 

[heirloomgal]

Seedlings! One chartreuse leaf variety this year, in a micro dwarf! 'Tigret Yellow'.

The 'Indigo Orange Supertruss' tomato already showing its purple anthocyanin genes!

A picture of happiness. That lone little noodle neck is the LAST seed I had of 'Damskie Palchiki' tomato. One seed, and it was over 10 years old. It's from back when Tatiana's Tomatobase was still open. I guess I planted some from the packet, because there was only one left, but what happened to the plants I don't know. Might have given them all away in years where I didn't have enough room for all the plants not realizing I'd wind up with no seeds. Anyway, I plan to hover over this one. Big time. I can't actually believe it sprouted! It's taken 11 or 12 days, but it showed up!

More sweet peas arrived! I wonder if these names are honest though. I've never heard of Saltwater Taffy as a sweet pea variety, creative and charming as it is. You wonder sometimes if the old ways of the seed trade still exist, like creating new varieties out of thin air by giving something a new name.

Physalis peruviana, lookin' a good size for April 10th (this is a large yogurt container). Need to dig for the discipline of thinning to 4.

The tomato line up. I'm just so thrilled with how well everything germinated. Many of those now crowded cells were planted with old seed, and while I expected they'd sprout since tomatoes seeds stay viable for so long, I didn't expect the germ rates would be nearly 100%. That they can be this good at 11 years old is almost shocking. The experiment never ends! Never believe the charts when it comes to seed longevity!!

 

[heirloomgal]

A lovely day of planting.

My first time ever of growing a large variety of alliums from seed, I did several jumbo cell packs of them. Most of the packages indicated they need cold stratification so I put them in the sun room. I tried a packet last year and nothing sprouted, but I kept them at room temperature, waited 2 weeks, then threw everything out. Looking back, it may have been a fail due to no cold spell. So this year they stay outside. Nighttime temps are hovering around freezing or just above so I'm thinking they'll be fine. Fingers are very tightly crossed.

Also put in some herbs; Quiquinna, Maui Lime basil, Limoncello basil, Siam Queen basil. Some nice, fat chufa nuts went in. I also planted Pepicha tonight. Chinese Pink Celery. For whatever reason I planted much more of these plants than I normally would, I think I go too piddly at times and regret it later.

Little funny story about Limoncello basil. I grew it 3 years ago for the first time, and the packet actually wasn't labeled that. It was a generic Ocimum americanum basil, titled 'Lime' and they offered a sister variety called 'Lemon'. I didn't want to offer seeds for it with the name 'Lime' because there is already a Ocimum basilicum (trad basil) called 'Lime', and I knew people would think it was the same. (Not likely to be a lot of familiarity with Latin to catch the 'americanum' in the name.) And that would mean they'd be disappointed, because the one I grew wasn't for spaghetti, it really is lemon-limey leaning toward verbena. So I thought up 'Limoncello' out of the blue really, to distinguish it from Genovese basil and link it up with thoughts of 'sweet' and 'citrus'. Not many people are interested in basils that aren't trad anyway. Or so I thought.

This year while browsing a seed website I was looking through the herb section and saw a basil called 'Limoncello'...now that caught my attention. How could that be, I was sure no basils were named that?! I checked my files and saw that the company owner was a customer of mine. I did a random search and realized that Burpee also now was offering a 'Limocello' basil. Funny coincidence, and I have no idea how that happened.