I can grow anything but asclepias - waaah, I want monarchs! It germinates just fine for me, but everytime I put it in the ground up north it failed to thrive and then died, and ditto down here in the south - maybe even more so! And, and, and - it's NATIVE to the south, grows like a weed everywhere! Except in my garden! Waaah!

Here I invoke the favorite saying of Red Sox Nation: There's always next year. :)

Lois in PA

~Wendy / sassyb.

I seem to be able to get smallish larkspur and delphenium to germinate and flwoer a bit, but nothing like the ones I've seen here (fields of BLUE) and they rarely come back the next year. This year I did get some larger ones in a large container (half a wine barrel) to return with some robust foliage, but the didn't flower.

But thats the roll of the dice and I don't get too upset about it anymore. So much does so well there is limited room to plant anyhow. Perennials from pervious years are growing biger and bigger and taking up more real estate. I fill in with the easy annuals that I love - zinnia, mellies, nasties, tall argeratum - and it works out.

My delphiniums did pretty poorly, too. One seedling survived, not looking too well.

All Papaver orientales died,too, both commercial and trades.

It would have helped if, early on in the WS experience, when I saw slugs in the jugs, I had done something other than say, "Gee, look at those slugs." I found out the next day what they were doing in the jugs. I guess you could say I've come a long way this past year.

Deanna - your mention of slugs in your jugs had me on red alert since I have a slug problem here but I only found 1 in a single jug, right where I would expect to see one and I speedily disposed of the intruder. Thanks for that warning but sorry you didn't realize sooner what the little $!#^@! were doing in your jugs!

Karen

This year I sowed a variety with lots of resistance to foliage and wilt problems and I thought they were looking really good, but NO! Not for me. The vines keeled over and in a week they were done. Now all I have are half-done melons in a tangle of scraggly, practically dead vines.

Sniff.

Eileen

This will be my first year growing the asclepias from seed but I wonder if the root needs to be larger before transplant. Those roots are crazy large almost like a sideways tap, in other words instead of going straight down they tend to go left and right. I mention this cause before I knew what this was I had pulled and chunked some out of my garden and I thought I had it all. I be dog gone if it did not come back the next year. Then I found out what it was, so I said well I guess it can stay, lol. This year I bought more seeds of other colors also, lol.

A couple people mentioned flax. Grew Scarlet flax this year, and it did fine, though the color was too pink for my liking. Can't seem to grow the golden one, Linum flavum 'Compactum'. It will germinate, but dies either before being planted out, or after.

Geums are another one that germinates well, but never seems to survive long once planted out.

Wonder what the trick is to getting these particularly tender sprouts to survive until adulthood?

At this point, I'm not even sure I want to grow KMOTGG, but I refuse to be beaten by a SEED.

PV

It would be nice to know if the problem was the seed, and how much was traded vs. commercial. My traded Black-Eyed Susan vine was one of the very few plants with zero germination, but my purchased variety of BESV had very good germination. Wonder if I gave anybody dead seeds?

Oh, wait, I did! I traded New England Aster seeds with somebody, and also planted them myself. ZERO germination and I KNOW KNOW KNOW they were ripe on the plant when harvested. Turns out NEA's need another variety nearby to produce viable seed, kind of like apples. I still don't have another variety near this plant, so I won't trade those seeds this year!

Karen

Though I did read somewhere that the besv is also suppose to be sterile at least I think I read that in the seed saving forum somewhere.

My blue flax is a perennial and blooms the second year for me.

My New England Asters yesterday.

I didn't know you needed another aster. The wild white asters grow outside of my property.

Don

Pvick, I sent tomva the Var. kmotgg seeds that he posted pics of, would you like to try some of my seeds??? I grew them my first year and they reseed so badly that I rip out dozens and throw them away.

I have mine planted where it is sunny and very very damp soil. They were over 6 feet tall this year, maybe more cause they hang over. I ripped out all but one plant hoping to keep the reseeding down to a handful.

If you want to give mine a try drop me a line with your addy and I'll send you a fresh packet...

Lisa

I also can't grow a poppy to save my soul. I hope to remember to direct sow some this fall and/or early spring to see what happens!

I can grow an asclepias like nobodys business except for the orange. Besides them germinating slow, they return late each year too, so mark each transplant so you know where they are.

Oh yeah, KMOTGG is a failure for me too. Only once did I get a seedling, and never again.

Sandy

Kiss me over the garden gate.

Sorry, I guess next time I will use a search engine prior to asking and showing how ignorant I really am. LOL

Send me an e-mail if you want some fresh Asclepias Incarnata seeds. I just collected some Soulmate and Ice Ballet - althoug the Ice Ballet may have done the bee thing. :O)

Bonnie,

My experience with Tuberosa is that it DOES sometimes go dormant in it's first year after transplanting but it comes back the next year. I had a few 'disappear' on me this year in a dryer area and when I dug the area up to plant something else I found all the little tubers still alive and well with tiny green growth below ground. Others, planted in a moister area with rich soil, did well all summer growing about a foot tall.

One which evaded me to the point that I bought two of them this summer (1 gallon) was Asclepias Speciosa. And, yes, it is our native milkweed!!!

Tiffy, thanks, I have lots of asclepias varieties. I've veered away from curassavica in the past as it's not hardy in the north, but I may do better with it down here. I still think syriaca is the native variety here, though - I have seeds for that too, but thanks for the offer!

I would be happy to send you some as well if you would like to try again.

Lisa

Also broccoli and cauliflower. The plants grow and look healthy but form small useless heads, nothing like the heads shown on the seed packs.

I can't grow a radish to save my life! The tops grow fine, but no bulb - ever. It's a complete mystery how I can fail to grow one of the 'easiest' vegetables to grow!