seeds, sprouts and progress

planted a bunch of seeds yesterday. they're flagged as to what they are: astilbe, bergonia redstart, bergonia rose, balloon flower, foxglove, stork's bill and verbascum. i'm super paranoid about them not getting enough water and drying out in this heat. sad too b/c i wasn't home this morning and i called home to make sure someone watered them. i'm pretty excited that they all go well. it's very late to be planting them and i dont expect them to flower this season obviously, but i do hope for them to have a nice root system in time for winter so they'll overwinter well in protection.


if you squint really really hard you can see the little sprouts that have come up in the soil. in this one i planted poppy oase, more bellflower and an exotic aqua sapphire tower. dont ask me which this is, i have no clue b/c like the smart person i am i forgot to mark them. i started the oase and the bellflower already so i should be able to recognize them and use process of elimination on the other. they have suprisingly all started to come up at the same time. the pic timestamp says they were planted 2/27 but it's hard to believe it's been over a month... and of course i was very lazy and didn't write it down.

notice the odd planters? they are actually very thick cardboard that i had to saw through that came off some retail store display we had at work. i sawed into the ends and folded them in a bit and cut 2 drainage holes in the bottoms. they seem to be working great so long as you fill them entirely with dirt (the more shallow the more rapidly they dry out - which is what happened to the first round of astilbe seed).

i was very scared for both this guy (my angel trumpet) and the datura vine i planted, as the leaves were turning yellow (which i believe was b/c they were waterlogged). i changed out the potting mix to the slightly more chunky miracle grow moisture control mix and it seems to be doing better. he's now starting to produce more leaflets from the main stem which is super encouraging. i would really love to have this one produce those lovely droopy flowers. i saw them in my boyfriend's mother's neighborhood and decided i had to have one of my own. i love very showy flowers. next will be a fuchsia plant i've tentatively decided.

one thing i've noticed about the SIP planters is that they're getting algae or something of the sort on the bottom of the containers (where the water reservoir is) and along the sides of the inner container. i'll have to poke around to find out what that is. NOTE: looked it up and algae grows in them b/c the containers are clear. if you paint the outside it should stop the growth of the algae. leave a little vertical strip though (mark off w/ tape as you paint) so that you can see where the water line is! : )

and the tomatoes are coming along ok i suppose. it was a little bit discouraging when i went to my mom's and saw her neighbor's plant was much larger than mine. dad said that he saw it was bearing fruit already. i'm sure they planted much earlier or used grow lights to start things off quicker. i still have time for them to do something tho.

and this one on the right is the fastest thing i've ever seen grow. i planted this okra clemson spineless  about i donno, 4 or 5 days ago, if that, and it just burst right out of the soil. the package said to plant them about 2 or 3 to a planting hole in case some failed to germinate but as you can see, they all came up - almost in every spot i put them. my encyclopedia said it was best to soak them first too, but i bypassed all that and they came up more than fine.