Bloom Where You're Planted-Urban Gardening in Philly: The Weekend

Gerber daisies were beautiful today. Had to settle for it instead of pansies and violas this weekend. I looked at my blog last year around this time and I had pansies planted. Maybe another week before they start arriving in nurseries. Until then I've been buying plants I said that I wouldn't. Yesterday morning, day 2 at the Philadelphia Flower Show. Today, started my vegetables finally. Peppers could have been started earlier. To wet to go in the yard and there's still snow. Soon, soon.

I like this type of ivy but didn't see it last season. It arrived at Home Depot last week so I went back this week to get some for my outside planter. Can't wait to plant it by Easter maybe. Until then, they can sit on the porch.

Tradescantia. A good buy for ten dollars at Home Depot. She'll hang in my bedroom.

Starting these and the ones below.

A good parsley for me because it's dwarf so it'll be good for a container. Didn't believe it when I opened that packet of basil seeds and no seeds were inside! I even cut open the package and flattened it. No seeds. This is why I usually fell and shake seed packages before I buy them out the store. Guess I didn't check this pack. I'll have to look through my seeds for older seeds.

Fourteen small peat pots put on the seed shelf. I won't be using the heat mat for them.

The first time I've found Horticultural grade charcoal at Home Depot. This is to add to a terrarium I'm going to do with some of my flower show purchases. Normally I just get the aquarium type. Haven't read weather there is a difference between the two types.

Swiss chard seeds. Don't have to worry about tiny seeds with them.

This lettuce seed was larger than the trout lettuce seeds.

Kale. Won't need many since I'm going to try to stick to square foot gardening this year and only put the recommended number of plants in each foot.

Tomato seeds look larger in the photo but they were tiny so I sowed them shallow. These are sun gold cherry tomato seeds. Can't wait to see if they're as sweet as those who have grown them say.

Can't believe not one seed was in this package.

The girls are beautiful this year. Next week I'm going to separate the larger ones into a large container. I'll have fewer containers and they can really get up to some size by the time I plant them outdoors.

Looks like the one yellow coleus. Looks green in the picture but I think it's the only yellow one I've been trying to get for the past 2 seasons.

Ivy leaf geraniums are doing good so far.

Vinca still hanging in there.

Couldn't leave them at the produce market today. One dollar each. They also had the ruffled blooming ones but I didn't like the colors. African violets were $5.99-$7.99 at the flower show but some you won't see in stores.

Pelargonium, Fatsia Japonica, and another plant I'll be finding the name of because it din't have a tag and I need to know how to take care of it. Should know this before I brought it home. I've been wanting one of these but the last one I saw at Primex Garden Center was an outrageous price that I wasn't paying. The Fatsia is actually a large shrub in it's native land. Made a good choice unaware because it's a shade plant. I picked it for the large leaves which I think grow an outrageous size. Outdoors it can grow 8-10 feet. Would be nice to have nice large foliage in the house and a plant that doesn't require high light. It also blooms but from what I've read, it rarely blooms indoors. It has to be a house plant because it's not hardy to my zone 7a. The lady at the flower show wrote down the name of the plant which was nice. The plant didn't have a tag.

Miniatures from the flower show. I'm going to put them in a terrarium. When I get time to do it, I'll show you. Baby tears, bonsai grass, oxalis, and the tag is turned on the pink one. The white ones are very common but I can't remember their name.

This is a coleus. It's supposed to be a miniature one. Do you believe that? I've never heard of a miniature coleus. Why did I buy it then? It's unusual and you can't buy seed for this. That's an oxalis to the right of it.

Back at the flower shower yesterday. Stood in line with others waiting for it to open. That was the best decision I've made since I've been attending the show. For all future shows, I'll go at opening. Little people. No crowd. I thoroughly enjoyed day 2 better. I got to see some things I didn't get to see on day one but didn't try to see everything. Proven Winners had a display of new annuals for this season. There was a beautiful display of plants, trees, shrubs that homeowners had for long periods of time, like 50 years. The winner was a spectacular fig tree. I saw the largest oxalis triganularis also with this display that I've ever seen. As during day one the presentation given by Jenny Rose Carey was excellent. She had a wealth of information about how to maintain your garden with little extra watering except from rain. She signed copies of her book Glorious Shade after the class. A bag of day lilies were given out to all participants. I thought that was nice. The horticultural society is always generous with gifts when you attend their classes.