I know I know I KNOW!!!!! My sprouts and my soul are soggy!!!! I feel like if we don't get some sun soon, I may do something drastic....like go buy flowering plants!!! This is the pits. My basil seeds, sown 3 weeks ago, are less then an inch high. My zinnia sprouts have frozen at 3 inches. Anything that likes sun and heat is just not grrrrrrooooooowwwwiiiinnnggggg. I feel completely under the gun as we are having house guests from June 13-27 and I had raved about how beautiful the beds are that time of year. Ha! Not this year.

Maybe the sun will come out soon and stay out. Please Mr. Sun?

Nancy

My WS seedlings are OK because they are in the shade of a cedar fence which shields them from heavy rains and they get only afternoon sun, so I have no fear of their being water-logged. What bugs me is that my tomato and pepper seedlings grown indoors under lights need to be hardened off. I started on Saturday, but since then, it's been too cold: highs of 16 degrees C, which is just too cold. I also want to stop using my electricity but I have nowhere bright enough to put them. I fear I will end up with green tomatoes, underripe squash, and no peppers. Even my lettuce are still so small. I looked at my pics. from last year, and in some areas we are one month behind. I should be able to transplant my petunias by now but they are just too small. How discouraging!!! When will it end??

...when mushrooms grow on your plot.

I fashioned a tent over my tomato. (in a big pot).
Those things which are planted out in the garden are on their own- so far so good.
but me - my psyche is suffering!

...even the cheerful pansies I plant in containers every spring are giving up the ghost from too much rain--they're rotting in the containers. All those vivid colors have been drowned and the plants are dying. Up 'til now I've never seen anything that could affect pansies except extreme heat and drought and even then they mostly just went dormant.

My WS containers in the garage won't be seeing the light of day for at least another week and that shower curtain over the others had better hold up to the nasty weather ahead. A few things are big enough to be potted up and I planted out one--that's ONE --HOS of Bellis perennis/English daisies that had their second true leaves. Looks like I got 100% germination on those penstemon seeds you sent me Nancy but they still only have seed leaves...and they sprouted April 4 for sweet Pete's sake!!! Wasn't a winter with 8 ft. of snow & minus 19 degrees enough of a punishment for our sins?

I'm bulding an ark, you are all welcome. And bring your sprouts we will need them :)

Oh yeah, what a lousy year for potted pansies....
I have two cement urns on my front steps that I have been planting with pansies every spring forever. They bloom and bloom till July 4th weekend or so, then I usually change them out for a mix of WS annuals - petunias, purple millet, mellies, etc. Well the pansies rotted to the core by last week and I need to pull them, but none of the annuals are more than a few inches high - too soon for them to go in. I think this is the one place I will let myself buy purchased flowering plants!

So glad the penstemon have germinated for you! The Huckster red, right? Those are so late this year here, usally in full swing by now but are barely setting buds. I wish I could say that I'd gotten great germination on the astilbes and stokes you sent, but only one tiny tiny seedling in the astilbe, everything else is empty still. but they have plenty of empty company - many jugs of columbines, even rudbeckias, that have done nothing. I've never had such poor germination WSing. Some seeds germinated just fine (toad lily, silene, euphobia, penstemon prarie smoke (did you send that Eileen?) larkspur,many others) but now the problem is they just are not growing!

As a gardener I love the rain. It's great for gardens, planting, transplanting. I don't really have a mud season here because the lot is well-drained with rich sandy loam. I'd much rather have rain than drought.

That said the seedlings are a little slow; my Amelanchier berries are getting fungus, as is the foliage of some other plants; and the blooms this time of year are water-logged. So there is too much of a good thing sometimes.

This has been one of the soggiest springs for us. The river looked like it has finally droped about 5 feet since the crest in early may. Some farmers were able to plant but it is amazing how many are still under water. Forecast calls for a chance of severe storms every day until friday. The levees have slow seepage going on but they are holding.

Granted to much rain just plainly stinks, but we still feel lucky compared to alabama and missouri!!

Nancy - yes the penstemon Husker Red germinated very enthusiastically but unfortunately is still at the seed leaf stage. I didn't send you prairie smoke because I don't have it growing here yet. I got seeds in trade as well and have what appears to be a single sprout. My stoke's aster hasn't sprouted either and I know those seeds were ripe--the pods split and the seeds poured out of them. I just don't think it's been warm enough for them to germinate. This is the last time I'll waste time, effort and resources on those.

crazy - we're gonna need two arks--one for us and another for the sprouts!

I wish we get some more rain. Unfortunately, its disturbing to hear and see the Tornadoes destry towns. I wish they can create a device, to at least warn them a day ahead. There is got to be something we can improve on, so there are not any deaths.

It was on the dry side up here in April Ladyrose, and I was wishing for rain. Didn't NJ have a terrible drought last summer? It was dry here too. Hope you get some rain.

Man, I was planting out my little Daylily seedlings last evening, and was getting DEVOURED by mosquitoes! There are zillions of them. Another thing all this rain isn't so good for.

Oh my the mosquitoes are horrible and the knats. Last night we went fishing and I had 2 types of bug sprays on and they were still biting me.