Mary Mary Quite Contrary - Does Your Garden Grow?

I Started this Blog because I have just begun to learn how to grow plants from seeds and I am hoping to get some good advice from experienced growers on how to keep my plants alive.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Flowers I Have

Ruffled Coleus



This is one of my favorites:


Collecting Cypress Vine Seed

I am trying to collect seed right now and have been all over the internet researching where to collect seed from each plant, most of the time I have found out just by observation. So for anyone trying to collect seed from a Cypress Vine here is what the seed pod looks like:





When it turns brown and dry you can pick the seed pod and it will contain between one to four seeds:



This is what the seed looks like:

Love in a Puff Again



Love in a Puff seed pod:






and why it is called Love in a Puff, the seed has a white heart on it:


Some Flowers from My Garden



Cypress Vine:





Cosmos:




More Cosmos:





Ivy Leaf Morning Glory:











Joan Lorraine Snapdragon:




Sensitive Plant



This is Mimosa Pudica or sensitive plant. When touched the leaves close and then the branches retreat:





This is it's flower:




I started this from seed in March.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Corkscrew Plant



Grown from seed started in March, fast growing plant:


Along My Fence


Along my fence I planted Cypress Vine, Cardinal Climber, Cosmos, Zinnia, Ice Plant and Birdhouse Gourd, there is also more tomato plants and some peppers.





Big Asparagus Fern




This fern was in a 10 inch hanging basket last summer. It is now in a 20 inch planter.





I started this Malabar Spinach the end of January, it really took off and would have been beautiful except I put too many in the pot and it never did look like it should, but again I will know what to do the next time:


And More Seed Plants



More seed plants some started in January and some in March. Includes Ice Plant, Coleus, Ornamental Pepper (which I love with its varigated leaves), Chinese Lantern and Mexican Stipa Grass.



Gourds



Birdhouse Gourds started in March, didn't do as well as I had hoped, probably the trellis planters were too small for their root system:



Slow Growers


A Ming Fern and a Foxtail Fern started from seed in March and now in 3 inch pots. Very slow growers:


More Boston Ferns


These Ferns are in 10 inch hanging baskets and were started from originals that were divided. I made 10 baskets from 3 original 10 inch plants and they took about 3 months to fill in:



I Love This Too



Fiber Optic Grass, started from seed and only one of a bunch lived, but it is really beautiful and I am going to grow more next year:



Strawberries


I started these Alpine Strawberries around March, they started bearing Fruit about 2 months ago:




Ponytail Palm at 7 Months




Boy these are slow growers:


Love in a Puff



The Trellised pot contains Love in a Puff (Cardiospermum), Asarina scandens Joan Lorraine or Snapdragon and Morning Glory - Cameo Elegance which has varigated leaves. I put too much in this pot and the Morning Glory didn't do well. I will know not to to do this again next year but the love in a Puff is great and I have been collecting many seeds from it:




Huge Boston Fern




This Boston Fern was orignally in a 10 inch pot last year, it is huge and now in a 20 inch pot, I have 2 more like this and have no idea where I am going to keep them all but am going to try and keep them:




I Love This


This is Dichondra Silver Falls from seed which hangs over some of the plants that I started from my originals like Spider Plant,
Philodendron and Pothos. There is also a Burros Tail Plant and more Dichondra Emerald Falls. There is also an Asparagus Fern that was started from seed (I didn't even know you could start one of these from seed until this year):



Ivy Leaf Geranium



I started this in March and it was quite a fast grower:



More Seed Plants




Here are more plants I grew from seed. The coleus is huge and keeps seeding, which I keep pinching off to try and keep them until we put the deck stuff away. There is also Ice Plant, Celosia (which I didn't think was that great), Ruffled edge Coleus (which I loved) and Mexican Stipa grass:





Dichondra Emerald Falls from Seed



This is a Dichondra Emerald Falls grown from seed. I started the seed in March. It really took along time to grow:



Summer is Almost Over



Well I guess I got busy and didn't keep this blog up like I should have, but I have to say for my first experience in seed growing most of my plants did quite well. I have learned alot and will probably have an even better crop of things next year.

Everything I have on my deck this year was either grown from seed, the original plant from last year or propagated from originals. I guess if I can find room in my house I will never have to buy another plant.

Here are what is left of my container tomatoes and pepers, they are about shot now, but I must say I probably got 50 or 60 lbs of tomatoes out of them. My peppers didn't do as well so next year will put the plants in larger pots to try and get them to produce more fruit.

I started the seed the end of January and picked my first tomato on June 6th. Here is MO everyone tries to get a red tomato by the 4th of July so I beat them all by a month: