Garden Update: Hardening off

Today, I put my seedlings out to harden off, finally.  It was so cold last weekend, and I was so busy, I didn't bother.   Here's where I think I stand with the seed starting:

• 12 Starlight Echinacea plants - I already have a ton of echinacea in my garden; it self seeds to wild abandon! I am hoping to get some different color out of these Renee's Garden seeds, but they may look like the pink ones I already have.  
• 0 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes - I got these from Johnny's Seeds.  Epic fail
• 6 Jasper - these did the best out of all my tomato starts....from Johnny's.   They are cherry tomatoes that are supposed to be fairly blight resistant.  I had horrible late blight last summer
• 5 Mountain Magic - also did all right, these are full size tomato from seeds from Johnny's
• 8 TBD tomatoes - I lost track of what these are - I think they might be more Jasper.
• 10 Lavender Vincenza - these were from Fedco.  They did much better than...
• 6 Lavender Munstead - from Johnny's.   
• 26 Mexican Sunflowers - from Johnny's, I almost killed them when we went to Nashville last month and I forgot to water them before I left. I got these from Fedco.
• 14 Exotic Love Vine...i.e. Spanish Flag...or Firecracker Vine  - I grew these years ago and they did great.   I'm going to have to build a trellis or something for all my climbers I have.  These were from Renee's Garden.
• a couple mallow plants - Old seeds I had kicking around
• some moonflower starts in the egg carton and take out food containers - I will put these down by the mailbox with my morning glories

Looking at my seed bill  from Johnny's, which doesn't show the additional $7 in shipping I paid, you can see that they weren't cheap.  My total was $25, and it looks like I got 43 plants total out of the deal, so I guess I paid 58 cents per plant, not counting the seed starter and the potting soil.   I have too many tomato plants for what I will actually need, which is 8. It's definitely not cheaper for me to start my own plants from seeds; I do it so I can get more varieties.

See how they grow...

April 8 seeds started

Lavender slow and steady

a couple tomatoes already?

Mexican Sunflowers transplanted on April 8

Exotic Love Vine has already germinated

Seed starting update....

Munstead lavender

Vincenza

I started this lavender on March 16; it's only been a couple weeks and it has germinated. It is  supposed to take 15-20 days, but I had some that had germinated as early as last weekend.

tithonia on the left , salpiglossis on the right

The Mexican sunflowers (thithonia) are really going strong...sure hope I didn't start them too early.  They are supposed to germinate in 7-21 days.   The Painted Glass (Salpiglossis) aren't doing anything yet.  They are supposed to germinate in 10-15 days.   I started these last weekend.  

Seed starting update

a lavender labyrinth

I was surprised to find that some of my lavender seeds have germinated already. They are supposed to take 21 days!   I had started them last weekend and I am giving them 18 hours of light, and I have a warming mat under them.   I sprayed them with mist but think they were getting a little dry, so I actually used the watering can a little, too.

Today, I started some Mexican Sunflowers and some Salpiglossis a.k.a. Painted Tongue.  I think the Fedco Seeds were not a good value for the money.   I got very few in each pack and they were kind of spendy.  

And so it begins

I started 2 types of lavender seeds....I definitely got more seed for my money from Johnny's than I did from Fedco.   Lavender is supposed to take a long time to germinate.    I have some echinacea seeds and some tithonia I will start in the coming weeks.   Two of my 3 shelves in my grow light stands will be devoted to flowers this year.   The last one for tomatoes.