Initiated Hemerocallis Stratification

I ordered some daylily seeds from T's Flowers & Things (tsflowers.com/daylily_seeds) and today is the day I started their stratification.

The seed packs contained between 50% and 250% more seeds than advertised, which was a pleasant surprise. I may find myself a little overwhelmed when it comes time to plant them, but I intend to make it work.

I started some of the seeds as instructed on the packet, placing a few seeds between two layers of moistened paper towel. I placed the sandwich in a plastic baggie and put the bag in a refrigerator. After 2 weeks in the cold, I will let them sit at room temperature until they sprout. At that point, I will pot them up.

For the rest of them...

I started the rest with a couple of variations on the many techniques I found.

Some I started by placing them in zip-close bags with a bit of filtered water (a teaspoon or less, not measured). The bags were sealed and refrigerated. I will pot them when they sprout or after 3 weeks of chilling, whichever comes first.

A few of the seeds were bagged with a little water like the second group, but I intend to take them out after 2 weeks, like the first group.

Here are the seeds I ordered:

-Diploid-

• Blooddrop x Little Trooper
• Indian Giver x One Eye Willie
• Prairie Blue Eyes x NOID
• Siloam Plum Tree x unknown

-Tetraploid-

• Danny's Song x New Paradigm
• Fooled Me x [either Fooled Me or Black Ambrosia]
• Forestlake Ragamuffin x Spiny Sea Urchin
• 2008-001 Seedling x Precious Candy
• aka: [(Red Volunteer x Spacecoast Starburst) x Eight Miles High] x Precious Candy
• 2008-085 Seedling x Little Trooper
• aka: [Tuscawilla Dave Talbott x Castle Chocolate Taffy] x Little Trooper

First Daffodil Bloom of 2016

So that I may make informed decisions regarding future daffodil acquisition, let it be noted that the daffodils of uncertain pedigree that grow in my garden began blooming on February 25th of this year of our common era, 2016.

May future daffodils extend the blooming season.

Winter Sowing Primroses

Starting Primula seeds 2/22/2016

Attempting "winter sowing" with 25 P beesiana and 10 P acaulis (which I understand to be synonymous with P vulgaris).

I'm sowing the seeds on the surface of moistened compost in a reclaimed juice bottle and an empty jug that once contained white vinegar. Both have been cleaned and a section 3-to-4 inches from the bottom has been cut from the top.

I've included a photo of one container open, showing the plastic knives I taped to the inside. When these are driven into the soil, it keeps the top on. The jug's bottom is in another container to catch drips while I'm working indoors. I removed it when I took the jug outside.

Gourds Sprouting

I've pricked out 16 Nicotiana seedlings and set them out on the porch. I'll wait a bit to see if any more stragglers sprout before I give up on the tray.

I forgot to post about it, but yesterday I saw several gourds sprouting. They may have started on 4/10, but I wasn't sure until yesterday. The Mini Bottle gourds are sprouting the best (I think there are 4 sprouting). The Snake gourds are next best, followed by the Long Handled Dipper gourds. The Birdhouse gourds have not started sprouting yet.

Started Gourd Seeds

I started the gourd seeds this afternoon. I clipped the "shoulders" of the seeds as several sources suggested (e.g., Ginger Summit). I planted 3 seeds per cottage cheese carton and started 2 cartons each of these varieties: Birdhouse, Mini Bottle, Snake and Long Handled Dipper.

One tray of marigolds was ready to prick out. I got through half of it and pricked out 20 plants. I hope to continue work on it tomorrow. I ran out of space  for them indoors. It's windy today and will be a smidge chilly tonight, so I'll wait until tomorrow to take the plants to the screened porch. After that I should have enough space to prick out the rest of them.

I'm pretty sure some of the Nicotiana have sprouted. The low-set, fuzzy leaves look like what I see in my image searches. There is quite a clump of them at one end of their tray and a few on the opposite side. There even seems to be one stray plant in the marigold tray!

Seed Starting Status

On Sunday, March 1st, 2015, I started a packet each of Marigold: "Ground Control" and Nicotiana: "Only the Lonely" seeds.  Today is the first day I have spotted sprouts. I don't know if they are weeds or if they are the seeds I sowed, but all three containers (one of nicotiana and two of marigolds) all have a sprout or two!