Seeds 2019 / 2020

Main seed page is here.

April 2020 trying to follow up on last year's seeds. Some small plants have survived, some have not. I will be updating this further in the next few weeks.

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I am not allowed to buy any seeds this year. I have so many from last year, including some I bought late last year to sow this year so I'm all set for seeds. I like to grow flowers I like, especially purple ones, flowers the bees like and any flowers I saw in Korea when I went to Seoul in 2017. I ended up with 31+ packets of seeds.

Agastache rugosa "Korean Zest" I've grown a couple agastache in my garden and I saw lots of it in Seoul.

no germination or it was slug-eaten

Centaurea moschata "Imperialis" I love centaureas (cornflower, knapweed, mountain cornflower) and thought I should try growing all the ones I can find, even though this is yellow - not my favourite flower colour. (Also trying Centaurea macrocephala, giant knapweed).

no germination or it was slug-eaten

Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is a biennial. I sowed seeds last spring (2018) and planted them out last summer. They are blooming this year.

Cockscomb Celosia cristata "Bombay Pink" I saw a celosia up Mount Inwangsan at a Buddhist temple near the wall around Seoul.

beginning of April, about 5 seedlings, not many seeds were in the packet so that is good germination.

by May, although I did have 5 seedlings they have withered, eaten by slugs or whatever. I will just buy some celosia plants

Common Marsh Mallow (Althaea officinalis)

4 small plants have survived, these are the 3 smaller ones

that one is very tall, not sure why one ended up so much larger, the others above are repotted below in front

I planted out what looks like 3 of the marsh mallow plants, Sept 2019. [intrigued I have something growing in that square pot which I wondered if it was from seeds I sowed but I can see there's only a salvia in it]

April 2020 at first I didn't see any in the flowerbed but it is overwhelmed with green alkanet. On closer inspection I found two plants and put those sticks in to hold back the green alkanet so they get some sun.

I'm intrigued to find one marsh mallow in this pot. I must have planted one of the plants there.

Cosmos bipinnatus "Sensation" I saw cosmos by the temple as well.

I made a second sowing as the seedlings whithered, pots got knocked over, etc and of the half dozen seedlings I had  only 1 appears to be left so I am giving up with growing cosmos from seed! They are inexpensive at the garden centre.

Echium vulgare "Blue Bedder" I grow this every year now or have done the last few. I love the flowers as do the bees. I love this so much I just discovered I have 2 packets of seeds. I bought the second not realising I already had one. I just went to Chiltern Seeds as I generally have some seeds in my basket, awaiting checkout, so I can add to them as I come across them and I had Blue Bedder again! Lol. 

I sowed Echium Blue Bedder (Chiltern Seeds) yesterday (9-3-2019) so they'll have a good chance to bloom this Spring / Summer. I also discovered one had self-seeded last year in the garden next door. So IF the upstairs neighbour doesn't cut it down, that's a nice head start.

Here are the echium Blue Bedder seedlings 4 weeks later. Good germination. I need to prick them out / repot them. How many plants can I really manage? (This is where it all starts to go wrong.)

Firstly the seed tray got knocked over - twice as I recall so I had to sow 3 times. Then they got damping-off. Some seedlings seemed to have recovered after moving them outside but I still sowed more seeds. So as of May 26th I don't have any sizeable plants sadly. A self-seeded plant next door is blooming.

26-5-2019 small plants from the earlier sowings, they're doing better than I realised

this one even has buds, previous years they didn't get buds until they were larger, as I recall

a few seedlings from the latest sowing, top row so totally unimpressive

ups and downs with the echium Blue Bedder but got some flowers in the end, the bees are enjoying them (one at the bottom), not as many as last year but I ended up with 1 large pot, 1 medium pot and a few small pots, better planning and execution next year

Fox-and-Cubs, aka Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum / Pilosella aurantiaca) I first bought a small plant in the "wildflower" range from the garden centre. It seemed to disappear after the first year, then some seedlings appeared but seemed overwhelmed by green alkanet. I cleared the green alkanet from one flowerbed and I then got one or two flowering plants last summer - after I bought the seeds so I can see if any fox-and-cubs reappear this year or try the seeds or both. 

Giant Knapweed (Centaurea macrocephala) I've grown lesser and greater knapweeds in my garden and as I like knapweed and other centaureas, seemed good to try this.

26-5-2019 these I am not sure about but maybe the giant knapweed

27-6-2019 repotted

I'm not absolutely certain but I think these may be the giant knapweed seedlings. I put one pot on the ground and the slugs have made a meal of it - that's not going to work.

March 2020

I found this out of a pot. I wasn't sure what it was but I see it looks like one of these giant knapweed. I've repotted it.

4-2020 so that's my only surviving giant knapweed

Greater Knapweed, few seeds leftover from a couple years ago, not sure where they're from but I think Mr Fothergill's.

Korean Angelica (Angelica gigas) I've grown angelica before but I heard about this one recently, maybe from James Wong? I should have noted where.  

I'm wondering if this is the Korean angelica but things got mixed up

 

this seedling

grew into this but I'm not at all sure what "this" is, Korean angelica??

April 2020 hasn't survived.

Lemon Bergamot (Monarda citriodora)

Meadow Clary (Salvia pratensis) I bought a small plant in the "wildflower" range at my garden centre and liked the flowers so thought I'd try it. The slugs devoured it so hope to protect it / pick the slugs off before they destroy it.

26-5-2019 I think some of these are salvia pratensis, meadow clary

26-6-2019 month later, meadow clary in the middle, not sure of the others

17-7-2019  4 pots of salvia pratensis, meadow clary seedlings, top left is one of my seedlings of something else (Korean angelica??), next to it is self-seeded bramble? bottom left grape-leaved ivy? also self-seeded, bottom right snakeshead fritilary seeds I collected and planted, no sign of germination yet

goodness knows how I'm going to grow these salvias on, both above and below, and protect them from slugs

April 2020 none of the salvias have survived.

 

I got some Salvia sclarea var. turkestanica seeds (from Chiltern Seeds) which didn't make it into the inital seed list

end of May 2019, 6 seedlings have survived (there are 2 in 2 of the pots, 1 each in 2 other pots)

end of June, ready to be repotted

the slugs love these, I've discovered after one was eaten, not sure how I'm going to grow them keeping them off the ground and away from the slugs - challenging!

the other Salvia sclarea var. turkestanica plants, 2 pots have 2 plants, they really need to be repotted but I've run out of larger pots

April 2020, I have 3 of the salvia sclarea var. turkestanica that survived the winter, one has a self-seeded aquilegia sharing the pot (which I should probably remove), the other has daffodils and forget-me-nots which I hope will die back in time for the salvia.

end of May 2020 there are buds at last

 

Papaver somniferum "Lauren's Grape" I, and the bees, love poppies. Last year I grew Black Swan and the bees loved it so wanted to grow a poppy this year and loved this purple colour when I saw it so thought I'd try it.

I also sowed Lauren's Grape poppies (Chiltern Seeds) 9-3-2019. 4 weeks later, they uneven number of seedlings. Maybe I can take all those from the one pot and put them in the cells and other pots.

about 3 months later, some small plant, not many to be honest, I sprinkled in a few more seeds as well

those smaller seedlings didn't seem to survive but I got a few plants in the end, one pot's worth, might have been nice to have more but I don't know if I'd have room anyway, the plants don't last long, just a day and then the petals fall off, the bees have been visiting them

Purple Toadflax (Linaria purpurea)  I love purple wildflowers.

Scotch Thistle (Onopordum acanthium) I've grown this before, the year I tried all the thistle wildflower seeds I could find as I like thistles, as do the bees.

Tomato, Plum, "Santonio" and "San Marzano" (Solanum lycopersicum) I seemed to have spent most of last summer in the garden watering the tomoatoes - and it wasn't worth it, but my son and daughter-in-law, who only have a balcony, wanted some tomato plants and of course I ended up with too many and ended up growing them on my patio. These two tomatoes are for them and I vow to only keep a couple.

Viola cornuta "Hobbit Sam" I love pansies and violas and have planted different ones, including all the black violas I could find to see which was the best. I thought the colour of this blue one looked nice so thought I'd try it.

only about 5 or 6 seedlings from the entire packet, not impressive

the bottom row of pots has the viola seedlings, one on the left has a bud, top row has delphinium - doing well away from the slugs

the black square pot in the bottom row above seems to have more seedlings, guess germination is over a period of time

the bud from the green pot (previous photo) above left, now open

 

Water mint (Mentha aquatica) I'm not really sure why I bought these but I do have a small pond which could do with some plants and I presume the bees would like these so I'll try them.

Seeds left from last year

4 of the seeds below, Aster koraiensis (saw lots of this in Korea), Pulsatilla Koreana, Rose of Sharon (national flower of Korea), hyssop. I planted some of each last year but will try more this year.

Korean Aster (Aster koraiensis)

Bugle (Ajuga reptans) I got a few plants from last year's sowing but the slugs got some or maybe all, so worth trying again this year.

Pansy Beaconsfield (Mr Fothergill's) Only a few plants from last year's sowing, not sure they've survived the winter. Will sow more this year.

Two flowers (on one plant), not very impressive. Think there's another plant or two but not in bloom.

Pulsatilla Koreana As I recall I had zero germination from this but will try again this year.

Rose of Sharon I had zero germination from this as well but will try again this year.

Scabiosa Ebony and Ivory (Thompson & Morgan)

Self-Heal (Prunella vulgaris) I got a few plants from last year's sowing but the slugs got some or maybe all, so worth trying again this year.

I have 1 pot of the oldest self-heal small plants which have buds.

And I have 2 pots of younger plants, not sure if these are from last year or this year, will see if I noted when I sowed them. Maybe I wasn't sure any seedlings had survived and sowed more seeds? They are certainly one of my more successful seeds. These don't have buds yet. Pansy on the left of a Beaconsfield I grew from seed.

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) I might have gotten 1 seedling from last year's sowing. Will try again this year.

I think the two on the right might be valerian, on the left self-heal. Unfortunately the seedlings got quite mixed up.

April 2020 I have 2 small plants and a seedling I'm unsure of. I'll just have to wait and see.

I don't know valerian so I'm not sure if these, above and below, are the same. There's a bit of variation.

I discovered this in a pot today (April 3rd). I don't know if it's something I planted or not and if so, if it's valerian.

its beginning to show signs of a centaurea, maybe it's the Centaurea moschata "Imperialis"??

I was completely wrong! I think it's a corn / field / red poppy or appears so 5-5-2020 but I await flowers (and seed pods) to confirm.

Rose of Sharon

no germination

Hollyhocks

I collected hollyhock seeds from the plants next door (I look after next door's garden) but most seemed to have hollyhock weevils. I tried not to use the seeds with obvious holes from the weevils and thought those seeds wouldn't germinate anyway. Pleased to get a few seedlings last October / November and they survived the winter. So I have at least 10 hollyhock seedlings.

valerian bottom row? pot bottom left also has a viola, bottom row 2nd from right also has a wild basil

I think top row 2 on the left are actually passionflower that self-seeded, top row right has self-seeded ox-eye daisy, forget-me-not and a couple others not sure yet, bottom row two the left, delphinium, on the right sheep sorrel?

I think these may be calendula seedlings which self-seeded. - update - completely eaten by slugs

self-heal on the right? valerian on the left?

I thought the Korean angelica seedling above might have been identifiable but the seedling in the middle also looks like photos online so I'm rather confused. Tomato bottom right with a snapdragon?

as of end of June, my stairs to the garden are still full of seed trays, keeping them away from the slugs and also, little other room to put them

3 delphiniums, mallow-type plant bottom right? not sure bottom left

 

nepeta cataria on the left, shoo fly on the right

lots of shoo fly seedlings, great germination, too many seedlings really but you never know until you plant them how many seedlings will result and then how many plants will grow well and flower

some of the larger shoo fly seedlings

3 viola on the right, 3 shoo fly bottom

from 25-6-2019

 

Nasturtium Blue Pepe

I was very naughty and bought these seeds. Nasturtiums are such a reliable germinator, nice number of plants. End of May 2019.

I had too many other plants to deal with so just ended up combining the nasturtiums into two pots, although they could have made more. End of June 2019, so only about 6 weeks from sowing seeds to flowers.

rocket - always the odd seeds I buy, even though I'm drowing in seedlings, my excuse is they're for my son and daughter-in-law, pleasing germination after only a day or two

I'm not sure what this is, maybe a scabious?