Coneflower Seeds I planted my coneflower seeds too early. There about an inch high and I want them to live to see spring. Help?
I have a few Jiffy trays going. The seeds all said they needed about two weeks to germinate. They took off in about 3 days and they are touching the top of the dome. I tried removing the dome on one tray and they all started to wilt. The soil seemed moist enough not sure why? Even tried spraying water on the leaves. Nope they where not happy at all. I put the dome back on and it seemed to help the few that survived. Also running into mold issues. Are these plants too young to put in a frosted ground with more frost on the way? What are my options?
Sounds like your little plants have fallen to the demise of "damping off" which is a fungus problem. You might try planting what's left and covering them with shredded newspaper. If you have a paper shredder it would be great.
i want a butterfly garden, but the plants are sooo expensive?
could i try to grow them from seeds or is it to late for this year? i live in zone 5. if it is to late and i want to do this for next year, when should i be starting the seeds indoors? i have never grown anything. here is a link to the garden that i am going to try to grow. it is the second one. i also want to include some coneflower and some blazingstars http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/gardens/butterfly/designs.html
anytips are appreciated
Coneflower (ecchinacea) isn't too expensive to purchase a few plants to start with--they spread quite widely after a year or so (ask how I know ) and wood violets can be divided if you know someone who might like to thin theirs out. Spearmint, or any mint for that matter, should not be put in the ground, but kept in pots, it spreads like wildfire and is very difficult to get rid of (I have experience with that little mistake, too ). Digitalis (foxglove) can be seeded directly, as can bee balm (bergamot), which, btw, also is invasive. Columbine can be seeded, but it takes a long time to come up, that's one for the fall. Some of these others are also best seeded in the fall for next year. Yarrow, btw, is also good direct seeded and a lovely butterfly plant for zone 5.
Purple Coneflower Seeds just found an emvelope with "coneflower seeds" on it,Is it too late in the year to try to plant them?
I think they are purple coneflower seeds. They have been in this evelope for at least a year. I would really like to plant them, in the best location, and enjoy them in my yard.
I planted mine about this time last year, they are just about ready to bloom now. I don't think you will get any blooms this year, at least I didn't get any the first year. If you had started them in a pot a couple of months ago you may have gotten them to bloom. It is worth the wait though so go ahead and plant them. You have nothing to lose
Saving the Earth and protecting children and pets from dangerous chemicals are the reasons most gardeners cite for giving up pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, but guess what? Making the switch to organic gardening methods will save you money too! Here are six examples of how going organic will put money back in your pocket.
**Plant veggies, spend less on doctor bills. A recent article by a Texas research biochemist summarizes some bad news: many scientific studies show that the vitamin content of fresh fruits and vegetables is on the decline. That’s alarming, because fresh produce should be an important source of vitamins and minerals in our diets -- without them, we’re more vulnerable to getting sick. Fortunately, there's a simple way to protect your health and reduce what you spend on costly doctor visits, cold and flu medications, and vitamin pills: plant some vegetables. Fresh-picked home garden produce is brimming with nutrition, and recent studies confirm that organically grown produce can be even richer in nutrients than conventionally grown fruits and veggies.
**Fire your lawn care service. How much do you pay for a lawn care company to treat your lawn? Chances are it's way too much. So ditch the lawn service and hire a local teen to mow for you instead. To encourage a healthy lawn the organic way, have your hired help set the mower high -- at least 3 inches high. That way, your lawn grass naturally shades out weeds (no more herbicides needed). Be sure your helper uses a mulching mower that returns grass clippings -- which contain valuable nitrogen -- to the lawn (no more bagged fertilizer needed). Once a year, have your helper spread good-quality compost too, about 1/4 inch thick. The compost will melt into the lawn almost immediately, adding a wide range of nutrients as well as beneficial microbes that help prevent lawn diseases.
**Fight pests with flowers instead of pesticides. More than 90 percent of the insects in your yard and garden are your friends, not your foes. Ladybugs, lacewings, and even many kinds of flies and tiny wasps are an important natural pest control force. Their larvae (the immature stages of the insects) gobble up aphids and other pests, or parasitize the caterpillars that would like to turn the foliage of your flowers and veggies into a holey mess. One easy way to attract these good-guy insects to your yard organically is to plant a garden of perennials and herbs with tiny flowers, because the adult beneficial insects eat pollen, not bugs. Yarrow, purple coneflowers, daisies, tansy, cosmos, marigolds, and zinnias are great plants to start with, and you'll love how they look growing in sunny spots all around your yard. Buying a few packets of annual seeds and several potted perennials is much cheaper -- and much more fun -- than buying pesticides and a sprayer!
**Forget the bagged fertilizer -- buy seeds instead. It's true! A packet of cover crop seeds such as buckwheat or oats will add as much fertility to your garden beds as any bag of synthetic fertilizer can. And that's just the start of the story. Using synthetic fertilizer is a vicious cycle, because the chemicals in the fertilizer kill or repel beneficial earthworms and other organisms that help build a healthy soil. Plus, chemical fertilizer easily washes down through the soil when it rains, ending up in the groundwater we drink! You'll save big in the long term by planting cover crops instead—they prevent soil erosion, they encourage earthworms and other good guys, and they enrich your soil naturally. Simply sow the cover crop seed on lightly loosened soil, rake it in lightly, and water it to speed germination. Within 4 to 8 weeks, you can cut down the crop with shears or your lawn mower, and all that rich green material will naturally break down, leaving you a nutrient-primed planting bed that will produce bumper crops of veggies, fruit, or flowers.
**Reduce your water bill by capturing rainwater. Depending on where you live, as much as 50 percent of the water you use goes to keeping your garden green and growing. That's a big expense that will only get bigger as water supply problems increase around the country. But for less than $100, you can buy and install a rain barrel that will capture the rain that falls on your roof, providing you a free supply of water for your gardens virtually indefinitely. Rain barrels are available from home centers and mail-order suppliers, and it takes no special skills to install one.
**Grow gourmet salad toppings on the cheap. Microgreens are all the rage at fancy restaurants and farm markets, but boy are they expensive! Here's a secret: you can grow your own microgreens at any time of year on a sunny windowsill for a fraction of the price. Simply save leftover clamshell containers from the deli and buy some organic transplanting mix that's enriched with compost. Clean the containers well, use a barbecue skewer to poke several drainage holes in each one, and fill them with moist mix. Then sprinkle veggie seeds (be sure the seeds haven't been treated with pesticides) generously over the soil surface, cover lightly with more mix, and set the containers in a catch tray on the windowsill. Mist daily until sprouts appear, then water as needed to keep them growing. Within three weeks, the sprouts will reach the two-leaf stage, and you can snip them with scissors to garnish salads, sandwiches, and entrees. Use lettuce, arugula and other salad greens, as well as broccoli, kale, dill, cilantro, basil, even peas.
Fern Marshall Bradley, co-editor with Trevor Cole of The All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening, is a writer and editor whose favorite topics are gardening and sustainable living. A co-author of Reader's Digest's Vegetable Gardening, she also conceived and edited The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Insect and Disease Control, The Expert's Book of Garden Hints, among others. Bradley is a former gardening books editor for Rodale.
Take a hike through a meadow in full bloom and chances are you'll wish you could recreate a smaller version in your own yard. The colors and varieties of flowers and grasses are totally random, yet about as close to landscaped perfection that you'll ever find. Whether you have a large expanse or a small area, a wildflower garden can be a unique addition to your landscaping plan.
The native plants are hardy and once established require little care, fertilizer or watering. In a true wildflower garden, the flowers are planted close together, at least one per square foot of dirt. This allows them to provide shelter for one another, conserve water, and helps to eliminate weeds. The brightly colored flowers attract a variety of birds and butterflies and can provide a taste of wilderness even in the most urban setting,
Once a wildflower garden is fully established, you can sit back and enjoy, but the real effort comes with the soil preparation and maintenance in the first two or three years. Here is a guide to the successful planning and planting of your own wildflower meadow.
Designing Your Garden:
Plant a combination of wildflowers and native grasses. The most common complaint from new gardeners is that the garden bloomed beautifully the first year and proceeded to get sparser in subsequent years, accompanied by a high concentration of weeds. This is often the result of choosing a seed mixture consisting of non-native annuals instead of true native, perennial wildflowers and grasses. With the latter species, you shouldn't expect blooms until the third year.
When choosing plants, use a combination of Spring and late bloomers, as well as a mixture of tall and low growing species.
Flowers that attract birds or butterflies, include Blazing stars, coneflowers, asters, silphiums and sunflowers. If deer are a problem in your area, choose a combination of deer resistant seeds such as lavender hyssop, nodding wild onion, coreopsis, purple clover, purple coneflower and meadow rose.
Choose a sunny location with good air circulation. Your wildflowers will need a minimum of one half day of full sun to really thrive. Steep north-facing slopes tend to be sheltered from the sun and are not the best candidates for meadows, but do well with ferns or woodland wildflowers.
Soil & Site Preparation:
Determine your soil type, adding to it if needed. For instance, a sandy or clay type soil will benefit from added organic matter which breaks up heavy soils, improving ability to absorb water and provides air flow to the roots. The other effective method for improving poor soil is to plant a "green manure crop" such as buckwheat. Let it grow for a year and plow it under. The roots will draw up the nutrients from the lower soil and convert them into organic matter.
In addition to proper growing conditions and good soil, the most important factor in growing a successful wildflower garden is having a smooth, surface, free of weeds. The first step is to remove any existing vegetation is by smothering, cultivating, herbiciding or a combination of these.
On smaller areas, smothering is an effective method of eliminating weeds. Cover the planting area with dark plastic, tarps, old carpeting, plywood or a thick layer of leaves for a complete growing season. Adding a layer of newspaper before covering will enrich the soil even more. As the paper decomposes, worms will move in, adding even more nutrients.
A broad spectrum, non-persistent herbicide will also do the trick, especially on larger areas. The third alternative is to cultivate the area using a rototiller or tractor.
Planting:
Once you have prepared your site, purchase your seeds from a reliable grower. On areas less than one acre, the seeds can be dispersed by hand, by mixing with a lightweight material such as vermiculite, peat moss or sawdust. For a 1000 square foot planting, combine one bushel basket of this material, dampened slightly, with your seed. Take half the mixture and spread across the area. When spreading the second half, walk perpendicular to your first spreading. If the soil is dry, proceed to roll the area. If it is wet, then wait until it dries slightly to avoid compacting the soil.
Coneflower Seed how and when do you plant coneflower seeds???
I want to use the seeds I obtained from my coneflowers this year to grow more next year. Do I plant them under the ground or just sprinkle them on top of the soil??
I harvest my coneflower seed pods and keep them dry thru the winter--then in the spring tap them in the ground. They do wonderful.
Imagine the next time you adhere a discussion about butterfly patch. When you depart allotment the fascinating butterfly backyard certainty below, your contacts will be absolutely amazed.
What is butterfly farming? Simply put butterfly farming is the art of rising flora and plants that will invite these bright and magnificent creatures to our own gardens. A suitably planned butterfly backyard offers great joy to visitors of the plot by attracting these lovely flitting creatures for our amusement and delight. It also ensures a cautious haunt for the butterflies.
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It is important to do thorough seek on exactly which plants and plants will draw certain species of butterflies. Speaking of butterfly species, do you have an idea of what kinds you want to attract to your backyard? Do you know which ones live in your sphere? Once you work out this firmness and resolve which types of butterflies you want mission around, and visiting your home, then easily originate your butterfly gardening plot around those species.
When edifice your butterfly plot be gentle how you coordinate the ensign you prefer for your flower beds. Although butterflies do not tending about your array of influence, it's better to diagram forward. You want to sidestep having your butterfly patch looking like a hodgepodge of unrelated flag and textures that could produce mayhem to you and possibly even the butterflies.
Some people find it useful to draw and influence an arrange of their butterfly gardening chart to see what the wrecked outcome would look like. Keep in opinion that welcoming ensign like red and orange are flashy and gaudy. The insignia have a larger influence against a fanatical green background. Cool colors such as cerulean and purple are peaceful and toned down and would work better with a white disparity to make the look of newness and brightness.
Lastly, here is a brief directory of plants and flowers that you can look into when deceitful your butterfly gardening mean. They are the honeysuckles, sunflower, milkweed, summer blue, Valerian, daisies, Purple Coneflower, Yellow Sage, day lilies and lavender.
Think about what you've read so far. Does it boost what you already understand butterfly plot? Or being there something completely new? What about the lasting paragraphs?
When creating a butterfly patch, the possibilities of what to compose in your butterfly patch motif are endless. Below are some suggestions to help get you ongoing when designing your butterfly backyard intend. They are designed to invent the creative treat of your thinker and get you started on your way to creating a lovely and well-right butterfly plot.
- First, before you even start your butterfly patch, find out which species of butterflies are in your issue. Consider winning an exploratory hike around your position with a butterfly identification book to find the butterflies that dwell close to your acreage. This may take a little more time and some inquiries on your part but the results will be value the exertion. After you have compiled your list of citizen butterfly species, be convinced to write down in your butterfly backyard graph what these particular species of butterflies use for nectar and food plants.
- Be reliable that your butterfly backyard plan includes a spot that provides at least six hours of sunlight per day. Butterflies are cold-blooded creatures and thus, do better where they are balmy and cozy.
- Wind can be a butterfly's nastiest rival so be certain to have heaps of bend protection in your butterfly patch mean. You can workshop tall bushes and other plants to create a meander disobey. Know the objective of your section's prevailing winds. The first option, however, is a finicky 'tucked away' place that avoids violent winds.
- Keeping the above points in brains, select a suitable spot to have your butterfly backyard. The best of all worlds would be a butterfly backyard located on the south feature of your home with windbreaks on both the west and east sides. You may also long to be surely that you are able to watch you butterfly patch from inside your home as well as bestow spaces slim from which to follow the frolics of the butterflies.
- If your corner permits, a potential suggestion for scene of barbara provided a butterfly patch Damrosch in her book Theme Gardens. She suggests the use of an old basement or home foundation if such is unfilled around your home or the place you want to have your butterfly garden. As an alternative, you can exhume a part and make a rock side around the excavation to simulate an old construction foundation. Remember to roof the floor of the excavation with numerous inches of gravel where you do not intend to plant your nectar and food plants for the butterflies. This will revive you from an unclear saunter through your butterfly garden after a hail.
There are many creative customs for constructing a butterfly garden. Take your time to pattern a garden that you will enjoy and be proud of later finally.
That's how things remain right now. Keep in attention that any subject can change over time, so be assured you keep up with the hottest rumor.
