Seedling Progress

My seedlings are growing fast. Every time I water them they get larger. It's a long time until Mother's Day the time in my region when gardeners wait to put out plants. They'll be huge. I haven't finished starting seeds yet. Glad to have another plant shelf in the bedroom where I can use 2 shelves for seedlings because it's getting crowded on the shelf in my dining room. We've had a strange winter. More mild days than cold and probably less than half an inch of snow. I loved it. My seedlings seemed to do better this year starting them later and quickly germinated all of them including dragon wing begonia which usually takes a month to germinate when I've started them in December. Maybe global warming and the position of the sun may have something to do with it. My forced bulbs in containers on my porch are larger than usual. I'll post pictures of them another day. Won't make the mistake of putting them outdoors yet like last spring and we had frost and most were damaged and didn't do well. Looking forward to the first bloom which looks like it will be the hyacinths as the flower bulb is already above soil. Hyacinths forced for indoors died after a week of below freezing temperatures. I had them in my shed although they normally go in the cellar. Cold shattered the containers and the water drained out. Didn't even know what happened until weeks later. I threw away the bulbs. Glad I have some on the porch. In the fall, back to the cellar and I'll have to buy more forcing vases.

Love the markings on the pelargoniums. Some leaves appear burnt on one. Possibly too close to the lights. I'll start more as only 4 of 12 seeds germinated. I ordered more. The blooms are going to be salmon colored. I plan to overwinter them indoor next fall hopefully to have blooms all winter. We shall see. 

Gomphrena next to the pelargoniums. I have enough plant to have a small patch of them this year which I'll enjoy. The ones I started from seed last season did well and bloomed until frost killed them in November.

Those are gems. Won't have to buy them this year. The blooms will be orange.

Look at the verbena bonariensis. Can't wait. They are looking even better than last season. They will always be on my seed starting list. They're so pretty and like a cottage flower.

Nicotiana antique green a shorter green variety. Thought I started the tall white ones. Last season the nicotiana I started didn't bloom. It was huge until frost but not one bloom. I think they don't like being fertilized. I top dressed my flower bed with manure last spring. All the other plants loved it but maybe they didn't like it.

Coleus sunset from Baker Creek

More gomphrena that need to be transplanted.

Kong Coleus

Petunias and 2 pepper seedlings.

And finally, dragon wing begonia. I do have a few black eye Susan's and 3 foxgloves not shown. Hope they make it.

Some new houseplants. There was a large congo rojo in it's place but it had spots which I found out is a type of fungus. The fungus didn't spread to any other plants except a smaller rojo. Both thrown out. I have other philodendron but the fungus only damaged them. I read that all the damaged leaves could be cut off but it would take a long time for them to recover. Maybe in the future I'll buy another one. The monstera has 2 new leaves since it's arrived. The plant on the left is a Chinese evergreen. I also bought a silver bay which is in the living room but 1/2 the leaves fell off after preventive spraying it when I got it home. If it continues to live I won't be spraying that again. It was fun searching for plants this fall and winter and having them delivered to my doorstep. In spite of cold temperatures, nothing was damaged. I bought other philodendrons, a clementine tree that bloomed and had 1 fruit which I knocked off. Found some hoyas that were nice and other more colorful Chinese evergreens. Finally I did what I said I wouldn't do again. I bought my favorite. Two peace lilies. Many have died in my house although they're supposedly low light plants. This time it's placed in my bedroom window where it gets bright light. A jewel orchid and another type of orchid also purchased during the winter are doing well. Now to get them through the spring and summer. The Pennsylvania Flower Show starts on Saturday. It's back at the Convention Center and I'll be going, the first time since COVID started. Hope to get a few orchids and enjoy the show. Hope your seed starting in going well.

 

Seedlings

Seeds have germinated well and started popping up in 2 days.

The germination rate for the pelargoniums was not good. I can see the seeds after digging in each pod but don't know what happened. These are salmon colored. I have more seeds but they are reds and I want salmon this season. I may order more seeds.

Tomatoes and broccoli and some herbs to be started soon. Zinnias later.