Today's surprise :)

[moonbells]

I always find that a walk round the garden usually gives me a surprise, ie something new out, or up, or just *there*.

Today I noticed that the edge of my raised bed at the house is growing what look suspiciously like seedling onions. I have this odd feeling that last year the ornamental allium heads fell over, hit the ground and have just given me several dozen babies :)

Goody goody - more freebies.

Anyone else find anything fun today?

moonbells

[moonbells]

[Gardengirl]

I hope you are right about the seedlings being alliums moonbells.  I collected some last autumn (and also sent some as swaps to other A4A'ers)  but read somewhere that they take ages to germinate.  Let us know if they are definitely alliums to give me renewed hope :D :)

[Marianne]

Lots of sunflower seeds germinated this morning, and more morning glory ---> Thanks Kerry!  Their second leaves now.

Still no sign of the meconopsis wanting to germinate - Maybe I need more patience  :-\ ???- planted 2 weeks ago .

I am looking at my 3 ft ceanothus which has grown hundreds of flower buds.  I thought this plant flowered in spring !? ???

Weigelia and clematis all doing very well in terms of new growth.  Ena Harkness roses on the arch putting out masses of new growth.  Delphiniums putting out tons of new growth but cuttings thereof don't look too clever  ??? :o
All in all, happy with the present state of affairs  :D ;D

[Amazin]

Outdoors today I spotted: flower buds on lilac, ceanothus and Meyer's lemon, freesia bulbs sprouting, hello to little shallot shoots, and tree onion coming up all over the place.
Oh, and all the lovely baby hawthorns that I've managed to produce by chucking freshly pruned branches into an old bucket...which happened to have an inch of water in it...
Indoors, a honey locust, 5 hardy melons and several edible passionfruit,  all now up and running from seed, and best of all, my ornamental ginger rhizomes have started sprouting.
Apart from that -  no, nothing at all. ;)

[campanula]

gods, meconopsis! trying or what. I am still waiting for germination from 22nd January but they are fussy. In fact, I have always heard that if you can grow blue poppies or giant lilies (cardiocrinum), your gardening reputation is assured. Needless to say....ahem.

[Marianne]

I thought the meconopsis seeds were very very small and maybe they had got lost in the pot  ::) ;D
But I suspect I will need more patience......

[Kerry]

so pleased the morning glory are sprouting! i hope they give a good show.

cardiocrinum-now that's interesting-it has a 'double' dormancy-needs two winters to make it germinate. i was about to give up on mine when i discovered this, i was soooo excited when i discovered a green shoot!

meconopsis-i've some of these through swops on here, and also from the rhs seed scheme, thought you may be interested to know the rhs sowing instructions:

1- sow in autumn
2- sow at 13-18oC (55-65oF)
3-chilling improves germination
4-requires moist conditions
5-30-90 days germination time

so patience and a fridge is needed!
good luck!

(later) alliums-where a seedhead of my christophii shed seeds i have a forest of seedlings-amazing! but they again need chilling to germinate, they've had that this winter in the ground!

[Mrs Ava]

Funny how some things are less than cooperative to some gardeners, and others find them easy.  I have white and blue mecanopsis, all from seed, and they came up like cress!  Ended up offering them to friends and family, and not  a taker, so planted lots of clumps around the garden and the rest ended up on the compost heap!  Already they are looking great and lush so fingers crossed for flowers.

[Marianne]

Hi Kerry,

My meconopsis "donator"  ;D did tell me that they needed to be put in the cold before they would decide they had to germinate.  But I have no patience and put them in some soil.  Last night...... things have started stirring and they have all sprung up !!!!  Took some time but here they are.  I now have to keep an eye on them to see what they decide to do, go on growing on throw a wobbly ! LOL   :D ;D
But your [/glow] morning glory by the way, is doing fantastic !! Thanks ! :D