From Seed (successes and failures)

Early in the year I had a real bug for starting plants from seed. Whether this was the cheapskate in me, or some emerging fathering instincts i don't know. Maybe something in between.

So anyways - how did it turn out?

In February i started impatiens, coleus, evening primrose, foxglove and zinnias inside. The impatiens can barely be seen by the naked eye and have only produced a handful of meager flowers- i'll never try it again.

Coleus and Zinnias have really don quite well. All these pics are from mid june. Coleus and now probably 10 times as big now, eclisping the grass lookign stuff in the container. Zinnias are waaay bigger, but also plagued by mildew. Both of those are easy and I would recommend that to anyone. you can also see my cauliflower, which was completely eaten by cabbage worms the next day.

Evening primrose has be testy. In one spot it did poorly and in another it has gone crazy. Still no flowers, but it is a perennial, so maybe next year. You can see it sending out runners.

Also in this pic you can see the white flower of Alyssum which i direct sowed in late February. It's done great and is probably double that size now with lots of white flowers. Very easy.

The foxglove a has also been tempermental. I tried it in a shady spot that was either too shady or too dry. totally weak. hardly anything left of them now.

However in a spot that gets about 5 hrs of sun a day and they are doing quite well and look much better now than in the picture. They are biennials so hopefully we'll see some flowers next year. I tried some direct sow foxglove in the backyard in a shady spot and that also went pretty crappy, but it done late and during the dry spell.

Also direct sown in the backyard were sunflowers, which have faired well, and have now flowered. Not the majestic plate sized flowers but nice none-the less.

Planted Hollyhock, another biennial, at the same time. And it is holding on. Hoping for flowers next year.

Cosmos were an also an easy direct seed that flowered quickly, but did require a fair amount of watering. I did some dill right with them, which you can see in the photo- but i think it needed waaaay more water than i could provide, and didn't do much.

Other direct sow failures include red hot poker, joe- pye weed and the cannas which only produced this little stub:

My artichoke is doing great crossing my fingers it will make it thorugh the winter and bear fruit next year.

In short the winners (all annuals) were zinnia, coleus, cosmos, sunflower and alyssum. I'm crossing my fingers for foxglove, hollyhock, artichoke and primrose to continue doing well and flower next year. In the don't waste your time category: impatiens (if you like 'em buy the pinch pots), joe pye weed, red hot poker, cauliflower (outside) and dill.

For the winners it's not a bad way to add a little color for not much $$$s.