SOME ARE FAST AND OTHERS NOTSO...

A few garden notes. Some seeds seem to jump out of the planting mix and emerge as teeny tiny plants. Now you don't see 'em; now you do. Such are the cosmos and the bachelor buttons. Both seemed to germinate over night in the warm conditions of my porch.

However, there are the laggards. The white wave petunia, planted March 24 has done nothing, nothing! It takes 21 days to germinate says the packet. Of course the schizanthus sulks as does the hibiscus. Herbs are slow boys too.

There is a moral to the story. It is important to put the date of planting on the name tag of the plant. If you do not do that, you may throw out seeds before they have a chance. A good grower should tell you how many days to germination. This information should be on the packet but, it is important to note, this information is only an estimate. And this estimate is made by nursery people who have optimum growing conditions. We home gardeners, trying to start seeds inside, must give our seeds latitude. But! if the tiny plants have not even shown up two weeks after the due date, the pot of planting mix and dud seeds are sent to the compost.

I use a code on my plant tags. On the wave petunias, the tag says Wave wt, M 24. (i.e. wave petunia white, March 24). I use home-made short compact tags that will not inadvertently get caught on something when I am moving the pots or flats and fall off. I like tags with rounded corners for the same reason. One old venetian blind provides a lifetime of tags. Just use scissors to cut off bits and trim the corners a bit. I use waterproof marking pens for the information.