nice

nicer

You must really have put a huge effort into working your soil & amending it, to have Delphiniums like that! Did you remove the thin synthetic wrap, used for most, sent by mail
order, or did you start those, from seeds?

always have better success from seed-only problem is finding fresh seed

David, I think that's non-sense about fresh seeds, with Delphs. I would believe it, were it about Aconitum, Dicentra, or Eryngium (except for planum)
Simply use a moist coffee filter, let them swell a bit & put in the fridge, take them out awhile each day & don't let the filter get dry. If any mold appears , mist or rinse carefully, or any soft , flat or mushy ones appears, remove all these rotten ones regularly. Once a radicle appears, expose to bright light, then pot up, using a toothpick to first make a hole straight down, but do not transfer too deeply & keep humidity high with the seed starting tray, clear dome. Don't plant too deep, or they will rot. If necessary help remove any seed coats, but make sure they are moist so they easily slip off, or you'll just break the seed leaves off , completely,..Once the pair of seed leaves are open, don't let get stagnant, keep air flow going by placing outdoors, or damping off occurs.
After that, avoid soggy seed starting mix, but don't let get dry , either, & they usually easily survive after that, in sunshine. If not already started by now, where summers are hot, start in mid August , to early September.

i do pretty well without all that fuss and bother so ill probably stick to the way i do it-how about somes pictures of your scientific delphiniums

This post was edited by davids10 on Fri, May 30, 14 at 1:00

eryngium bourgattii from seed

davids10 - beautiful garden! What is the pink flowers in photo #2 at the back - a shrub rose? It's hard to see, but lovely color.

*sigh* Your garden, Davids10, is sublime. All your delphiniums look like those I had just purchased. I never considered starting them from seed. What is that behind them in the first pic? Allium? Forgive the technical jargon: I'm talking about the purple balls with the pink centre on long skinny stalks. lol And are all the bright red flowers to the left (across the walkway) poppies? Are they even poppies? Holy cow! Please post more pics! And closer! If you don't mind :>

Hi again, David. I did mindlessly forget to mention placing them, coffee filter & all, into a Ziploc style plastic baggy or sandwich bag! Ooops. lol & then chillin, off n on...Well, my tray doesn't look so perfect anymore after about three inches of unexpected rainfall fell, really quick, just shortly after they had fully developed their seed leaves. It looked perfect, until after that night of mass destruction. haha. So I had to get another couple of cheap 50 cent packets of last years seeds to undo the sight for sore eyes; from broken stems, to drowning & then an attack of fungus gnats immediately afterwards, to top it all off... & started again, to (refill) the losses.
As left to their own devices, leaves me with just the odd seedling or two & then eventually down the path of destruction into nothingness....
This spring was so awful, some flower seed took as many as five packets to get survival mode! imagine that.
gave up entirely, on some. At least (Dusty Miller 'Silver Lace' eventually hit the jackpot, when along came another storm from, (I'd better not say;) but theymostly made it
Don't even care to be reminded of the previous season, whatever it was ...Pole reversal, Antarcttic blast ? huh? Whatever that 5 months torture was called, anyways. Like 6 foot icicles is just a bit too much.....as my body & mind was experiencing global freezing. lol
I'll have to take photos with the memory card installed in the camera, next time, or without a memory I tend to forget!

Gringo, All I can say is WOW. Jaw dropping amazement here. I am lucky if I get my seeds in their 4'pots on the right month under the oak tree between house and shop. Gotta get back to work.The little pots have to be between house and shop so I remember to water them while walking between buildings. I am a firm believer in the survival of the fittest. I will do an occasional soaking and abrading to speed things up. maybe one day I will change my MO and expand my methods .

Actually I heard a grower/breeder of Xerics in California talk about his refusal to jump through hoops during germination because of the fact he found that the plants he got were the ones that would be the stronger. It was the first test for genetic culling. I grasped onto that quickly to pardon my slipshod ways. Truth be told, I have many levels of "genetic culling". LOL⦠too many.

David, these P.G. Delph's here were germinated using a wettened coffee filter. left out a day or two at room temps . thten cycled periodically from fridge to room temp. Eventually, once roots form, generally while out of the fridge... then remove from paper filter & use a toothpick & guide into the hole,already prepared by using the 'pick & carefully transplant into trays. It's just an easier way, (for me anyways) to have a full tray. Barring any natural disasters!
btw last years crop of New Millenium, series, otherwise from New Zealand or Dowdeswells(sp?) seeds were of rather poor quality, with lowered germination rates. Otherwise, would have used those...

whoa horses! Thats a whole lot of technical instruction.

Beautiful garden. Looks to me like you've got it down not only on sowing seed but also on composition. Very nice.

Love the pics.

I have grown some Delphs from seed from geoseed. I had great germination shortly after buying the seed. I seem to lose a lot if transplants though. :(. Mine are all budding now.

Nice foxtail lilies in bud too. I have some I need to transplant but I am worried ill end up losing them.

it may sound technical, but the vast majority of the time is just the transferring from the wet coffee filter, into the seed tray, with a toothpick or straightened out, paper clip!
I'm aIways opening the fridge & closing it, to get milk in & out for adding to my coffee, anyways.... so it really isn't any trouble to take a baggy out & throw it back in, while doing
so.
Transplanting too deeply, can quickly cause rot. The seed leaves are rather long & thin near their base, right where the first true leaves appear from , causing it to be rather misleading about the correct depth, at which you are placing it at...

Thanks Gringo for mentioning planting depth. Next time I grow some from seed I'll pay close attention to that. Something also eats them, much to my surprise. I have been using liquid fence this year for the first time though and even my lilies have remained in-nibbled, so it is looking good.

I've always had luck Winter Sowing delphs. I have many stands of them and all come back every year. Most increase double. Also, the seed I use is often years old (stored in the frig.)

I feel delphs are one of the easiest perennials to grow from seed.

would everyone forget about the bloody seeds and look at the pictures-jesus mary joseph

Your sense of color and ALMOST chaos is my kind of garden. That Duhdleya britonii (?) really pops out or is that a VERY silver small agave. I can't see well enough to be positive. Also the use of almost spontaneous changes in levels really appeals to me. My eye goes from the red to white and from the blew to apricotâ¦. I could care less about how you sprouted them, just that you did. Good job.

Oh, I like that the paths are not Wheelchair accessible. Some places in the world should remain accessible for us surefooted people only.I might change my tune one unfortunate day.

Yea like for sure--- really, enough about lectures on fresh vs not-fresh seed & how to sow seeds when ITS 100% OBVIOUS looking at this garden that "someone" already knows what they are doing in that department, things have progressed considerably since the seed sowing stage so why the focus is on that is beyond me, it should now be on results.

They love that kind of talk on the Growing From Seed Forum because they get lost in process & talk techno-scientific. It might be more OT and suitable discussed over there.

Again to the matter at hand-- I think the composition is outstanding, it shows a lot of thought, planning & hard work.

*****
I give it five stars. If they give the Yard of the Month award in your area, you should definitely win the prize. I am wondering if you have a lawn? I like that theres no lawn, it looks like its all garden. I'm curious if this is a lawn alternative situation or a large garden area? I get so weary seeing straight line stingy flower borders slap up against fences or homes - this is bold allowing for contrast of texture, harmonious color, depth and dimension. Its like a room or a place to be.

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Sat, May 31, 14 at 23:35

Lovely garden. Seeing the multi colored blooms increases my anticipation for my garden blooms. Love the blue delphiniums. My Early Gaurdian Blue did not come back but the pink delphiniums are filling out nicely and am looking forward to another good year of blooms.

Really beautiful gardens; love the mix of plants.

Could you tell me what the red flowered plant is that is directly across from that gorgeous delph in the second photo?

I Love threads with pictures in them. Seeing gardens and considering new combos plants for my own yard is a huge reason for frequenting garden web. But the wealth of growing information and reports on plant performance is also hugely beneficial. Some of the best threads combine pictures plus useful info as well as it goes beyond just looking at static pictures. If the whole thread is just ppl saying beautiful pics, etc, the thread doesn't grow in value IMO. Certainly did not mean to tick people off by delving Into o info and questions. I appreciate it when ppl take the time to post pics and share their knowledge.

the red flowers are geum double bloody mary-my favorite at the moment- the plants behind the delphs are dianthus . carthusianorum from seed sown-actually thrown-in place. there is a small lawn around a willow tree for the cats to play on everything else is pretty much garden. i do a lot of seeds-going to get lupins out of fridge and plant today-but i dont obsess about them-save my obsession for the garden as a whole.

dianthus carthusianorm

That is a very pretty dianthus. I'd love to see a "top-down" view, to see the flowers better.

And Geim! I am a big fan; my "Totally Tangerine" is in full bloom right now and it always gets a lot of compliments. I wish I could get it to rebloom but I've never had any luck with that.

TT is sterile, A2zmom, so will keep going for a considerable length of time (months, really) as long as you deadhead to stimulate more flowers appearing in the leaf axils.

Campanula, I deadhead all my plants religiously (you should see me in July doing 50-100 deadheads daily on my Helenium), but it has never helped. They just don't rebloom.