Potting Up Slips and My Favorite Flower

The sweet potato slips potted up by my daughter yesterday evening have adjusted to their new home. Two remaining slips with short roots have yet to be potted up. I hope to have thirteen in total.

My favorite perennial flower is potentilla cinquefoil.  The plants have delicate apricot/orange blooms with dark rose centers.  I transplanted thirty seedlings into 8 oz. cups and eight seedlings together into a 3" pot. I am hoping to mass plant them at the far left end of my front yard the perennial bed. 

Six verbena were outpacing their cellmates and becoming spindly.  They received a pinching back of one to two inches. 

The lobelia look much bushier since they were pinched back last week.

 The Salvia Blue Bedder are growing well.

I pinched back the growing tips of a few lavender seedlings.

My concern for the ailing delphiniums has dissipated.  They are looking much better these days.  I snipped off their "baby" leaves.

Pinching off the growing tips of the hibicus was very successful.  You can see in the photo below the many lateral branches that have appeared this past week.  I decided to pinch off the tips of another two seedlings.

I am declaring one container of Rossa di Milano onion seedlings a failure.  The seedlings have been struggling the past ten days, suffering from damping off disease. I am throwing out its potting mix, too.

Always Something To Do

What I love about seed starting is that there is always something to fuss over and tinker with. And what is even better is that there is no urgency with any of these tasks.  There is always some flexibility as to when they need to be done, give or take a few days and sometimes a few weeks. The tasks can be squeezed in here or there, dedicating 15 minutes or up to a couple of hours depending on whatever else is on the day's agend. Today I woke up at 6:00 am eager to fit in two hours of transplanting seedlings and sowing more flower seeds.

Today's projects:

• Transplanted geraniums from 4-packs to their own 3" pots. I will give them a day's reprieve from growlights to adjust to the transplant. 

• Transplanted Sweet Williams to twenty-five 2" pots; will not put under lights today to allow recovery from the transplant.  The remaining Sweet William seedlings (7) have been potted in two 3" pots to grow on as extras. 

• It was also time to give the rosemary seedlings more "leg room", splitting up the seedlings into their own cells. 

• Eight seedlings from the pansy container sown on February 3 were ready to be transplanted into two 4-packs.  I thought I would l leave the remaining seedlings in the 4"x8" container for a few more weeks but instead transplanted them into a 6-pack.  Similarly, I won't put the pansies back under growlights until tomorrow.

• I have had difficulty in past years germinating lavender seeds.  This year I ran an experiment to see which of three methods (traditional, pre-chilling, pressing seeds into mix) would yield the greatest number of seedlings. As of this date, the most effective was the traditional planting of seeds sown 1/4" deep.  I transplanted those eight seedlings from container #1 and one seedling from container #2 into a 3" pot, leaving the remaining seedlings to grow on.  The winner will be declared in a few weeks. 

• The delphiniums looks a bit ill with blotchy leaves that are slightly yellowing.  I hesitate to transplant them in this condition but decided a bit of "tough love" was in order.  I moved the six largest seedlings to their own 3" pots and the remaining seedlings will carry on in the original container for a few more weeks. 

The following seeds were sowed today:

Coleus (Rainbow Mix): Livingston Seeds, 2014.  Planted seeds 1/4" deep in one 4"x8" container. Expected germination time, 7-14 days.  Characteristics: annual, shade, 12-18" tall, blooms in summer. Used as a backdrop or centerpiece in pots or in a mass.  Shades of kelly green, royal burgundy and lemon yellow.  For bushier growth, pinch center stem when plants are 4" to 6" tall.
See: http://www.outsidepride.com/seed/flower-seed/coleus/coleus-rainbow-mix.html

Impatiens (Flavours Hybrid Mix): Burpee, 2015. Sowed seeds in 4"x8" container shallowly. Expected germination date: 18-28 days. Days to maturity, 55-60.  Characteristics: annual, large 2" flowers, white, red, pink, lavender, 8" tall. Space 10" apart.
See: http://www.almanac.com/plant/impatiens

Lupines (Russell's Prize Mix, Lupinus polyphyllus): Livingston Seeds, 2014. Expected germination time, 25-30 days. I did not soak the seeds overnight as recommended on the packet. Planted seeds 1/4" deep in one 4"x8" container. Characteristics: Perennial, sun, 2' to 4' tall, tall stalks bearing large flowers in shades of pink, yellow, rose, red and blue, use as cut flowers or in garden bed, low maintenance, mulch summer and winter.
See: http://www.burpee.com/perennials/lupine/lupine-russell-hybrid-mixed-colors-prod000077.html

Potentilla (Trailing Cinquefoil, tonguei): Harvested, 2014. The seeds were originally received through a seed swap, 2009.  Planted seeds 1/8" deep in one 4"x8" container. Not 100% sure of variety, but most resembles a tonguei by Internet search.  One of my favorite perennial flowers. Over the past five years there has been a decline in the number of plants in the perennial bed.  I hope to add dozen or so more plants to the garden. Characteristics:  perennial, full sun, hybrid, low clump-forming for edging or massing as ground cover. trailing stems, 4-6" tall, small, single apricot-yellow buttercup flowers, bright-red eye, blooms all summer, pinch back spent blooms.
See: http://www.perennials.com/plants/potentilla-tonguei.html

Postscript #1 - Salvia, Scarlett has germinated (seeds sowed February 25, 7 days).
Postscript #2 - I am stratifying Bouncing Bet/Saponaria officinalis seeds for one week in the refrigerator. They will be ready to sow on or after March 11.