Topic: flower seeds from garden news

[theothermarg]

not done this before so not sure what i,m doing i subscribe to GN and keep getting seeds i,v no room for there are usually only a few in each packet all are unopened
and are in date (some only just) they are
morning glory choice mixed
coreopsis sea shells
salvia blaze of fire
2 alyssum snow carpet
linum red dress
aster lazy daisy mix
i,v also got a few huckleberry and some edible passion fruit these are open and way out of date
bit of a cheek asking for swaps as they were free to me but if any body has V bonariensis, garden pinks or hardy geranium or any veg in or out of date i would be glad to recieve them my garden is a bit of a wild place and most annuels get mobbed or eaten 
marg

[cambourne7]

what veg are you looking for?

[theothermarg]

not given this much thought just don,t want seeds to stay and get old .anything in the salad line i suppose (but not toms ) or brassica,s  :-\ooo i,m not good at asking for stuff if anybody wants the poor little things they can have them  :)
marg

[natasha]

Hi Marg,

did you manage to germinate huckleberry, are they difficult.... and are they edible?
You get me interested now.
I have some spinach, artichoke, spring onion, normal onion seeds, sweet peppers, courget and Italian salad seeds to swap.

Thank you.

[froglets]

Hi Marg,

if you pm me I'll send you a couple of small Verbena Bonariensis plants.


When I wanted some 2 years ago everyone kept saying " oh, once you have that you'll be pulling it up everywhere, it seeds wildy",  which was useful information, but still didn't get me any in the first place to get it seeding everywhere!  In the end I paid a tenner for two plants and now have, well, quite a few more than that  ;D.  Which is BRILL.  I love it, but also means I can spare a few young plants, no swap needed.

Any tips on posting small plants gratefull received.

Will ask on a new thread anyway...

[theothermarg]

natasha the huckleberrys grew well but took up room produced a lot of black berrys which are edible however i heard you had to let them winter i didnt fancy
making jam etc and needed the space so they went . they are a few years old but if you still fancy a go PM me
froglets thankyou . i don,t have much luck with plants that self seed i think its because of the ground cover i usually grow fresh each year but this year failed
i,v recieved plants with the roots in damp paper and plastic with abit of bubble round the leaves seemed to work . will PM you now
marg

[froglets]

Will sort it out after the weekend & let you know when I get to the post

Cheers

[gerbera]

Hi,

Are Huckleberries the same as Bilberries (whimberries, whortleberries and all the other regional adaptations)? ???

I tried germinating some last year and failed miserably! Do you have any tips? Or spare seeds/seedlings for that matter?

I failed miserably last year. :'( (Having cold-stratified (and prayed for good luck) I was disappointed. As my mum regales happy tales from her youth gathering them from the wilds of the local scrubland, I spent quite a few (FAR too many!) afternoons perusing the hillsides for these berries. Again...with no success!  ((AND they are supposed to grow WILD!?!) ???

If you should have seeds (or even better, seedlings!) on offer, I would be happy to swap, buy or beg them from you!  ;D If there are none for the taking....I would be more than grateful for some advice on getting the seeds to grow, so I can be confident that my next purchase be worth the while!

Thanks (and sorry for long post!) ::)

[Jeannine]

I can help you a bit with your question .

Bilberries are low bush blueberries aka whortleberries, they may be the same as huckleberries which I am familiar with from the US . Huckleberries are related to  the blueberry but I have never seen a bilberry,I am aware it is classifed as a low bush blueberry as I grow High Bush Blueberries

Hope this makes some sense. XX Jeannine
 

[Robert_Brenchley]

The huckleberry is a US member of the same genus as the bilberry. All the advice I can see on the net is that germination is difficult, and you need to sow in autumn, and let it stratify. My own advice would be to leave them at least two seasons before you give up.

[theothermarg]

i have sent the seeds off now . all i can say is i just planted them and they grew i like hasslefree growing so i wouldn,t have mucked about. they are a member of the solanum family and look like nightshade but are edible they taste very bitter and it seems they need the frost and cooking to sweeten them up i didn,t keep them that long cuz i needed the space and not into making jams etc anymore (got the t shirt)
marg