I spent most of December and January looking at seed catalogs and dreaming about next growing season. I am a big planner and that time is actually welcome and I indulge in revisiting the catalogs several times, reading blogs, consulting online calendars and weather reports and even drawing a lot. It is a delicious awaiting and at least for me, planning solidifies my confidence and I start the wish list with easily a hundreds of products I want to buy and end up buying tops 20. A great exercise in self-restrain if you ask me!
My garden keeps growing every year and on top of that I like to vary and learn something new, try new varieties and just keep myself out of my comfort zone. That being said, the plan around flowers is one that usually has to start very early because many of my dear favorites takes at least 10 to 12 weeks to be able to flower from seed, some of them require stratification and this year I introduced to my family one very difficult addition:
Lisianthus.
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| lovely Lisianthus from Dam Seeds |
I first discovered this family of flowers in William Dam Seeds catalogs and fell in love. They are absolutely beautiful and have a rose quality to them, from the colors to their shape. I can see them in bouquets and just in the raised beds and I definitely bought them in an impulse. Now, this year will be all about learning for me, because apparently they need 20 weeks, a good four months, until they finally flower. Now, if that means I have late summer flowering I am sold. The problem is that they are apparently finicky, love cool weather and dislike anything above 23C. Given my terrible hot and humid summer, I would think my best shot is to grow them for early summer. Which means... starting them sometime in January or February!
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| Lisianthus seed package |
Starting early is something I am used by now, since leeks and asparagus, strawberries and echinacea all need an early start and some of those even need stratification! But this year I have yet another new member for the collection of the early started: an edible allium from seed called Nodding Wild Onion. This beauty is entirely edible and make a delightful cluster of flowers that "nods", hence its name. It is native throughout North America and is threatened here in Canada. So we are talking about a beautiful useful plant that needs a helping hand in getting reestablished in our vegetation. The most beautiful thing: like Egyptian walking onion and potato onion, this can be left in the ground and divided to form new clumps. We collect onions every season leaving enough of the clump undisturbed or just harvest the bubils from the flowers. Low maintenance onion? I am in!
I got mine from West Coast Seeds and they do not have many seeds exactly because it is nor yet that repopulated out there! Did I tell you that pollinators love it? Because they do!
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| Nodding wild onion and Echinacea purpurea |
Every year I get petunias from gardening centers. I love their ability to keep bunnies and certain insects away and they are just so joyful and trouble-free. This time, as if I do not have challenges enough, I decided to start them from seed. Tickled Pink got me sold because it is a climbing variety and I really dig some climbers that are not invasive ( I am still trying to get rid of some sort of trumpet flower or morning glory the old owners planted around here) and the pink is actually more of a fuchsia or maybe a magenta!This will give a lot of impact to my front yard for sure! I plan to set it on a planter and let it climb on one of the walls, under our bedroom window. I cannot wait for the display.
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| petunias |
The second petunia has a veiny design in a light lavender color and purple is my single favorite color. This one I will probably have around my tomato plants and just beside the marigolds. purple and yellow do mix really well.
Lastly, in this group of flowers that need to be started in February I have my second attempt to carnations, in a lovely pink Dianthus. I have not succeeded yet, even though I planted perennial ones before. Since I really love the quality of seeds of Veseys, West Coast Seeds and William Dam Seeds I am sticking to them as suppliers for my flowers this year and I am hoping to finally have Dianthus picking up and hopefully even flowering this first year.
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| carnations, blackeyed susan and gaillardia |
In this mix I am also trying perennial Black Eyed Susan, or Rudbeckia. I planted them before in the last two years but they were the annual varieties and they are moderate self seeders in my microclimate, so they did not pick up and I have to start them indoors every year. This is the year in which I plan and execute to have them coming back every year on their own! So, when looking for Rudbeckias, pay attention to see if the variety is annual or perennial.
Another novelty is the beauty I had seen on neighbors yard and finally decided to add it to my landscape called Gaillardia. Now, it does not grow majestic here, it resembles more delicate flowers, not so big, not so tall. Not sure if it is because of the climate or the clay soil, but nonetheless I loved their patterned colors and knowing they are perennials helped me decide to finally stop the envy and pass to the action. That is what they will look like after two or three years:
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| Gaillardia Arizona Sun |
Those are the flowers I am starting early, which for me is early February. All I have outside is snow that will not leave us until the very end of March! These early seedlings should keep me occupied but not busy before March arrives, when I have tons of other seedlings to start, making the house a lovely jungle. I feel the blood flowing through my veins once again and the level of energy in my body increases by the minutes. I hope you are having a great time planning or gardening on your season as well, be it the beginning or the end, or if you are lucky, the never ending middle!
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