More March Plant Purchases

Undeterred by my recent shipping disaster, I went ahead and ordered more plants online.

From one of my favorite online shops, Colonial Creek Farm:

Description Qty
Kitten Around Catmint 1
John Whittlesey Salvia 1
Mirage Rose Bi-Color Salvia 1
African Blue Basil 2

It’s never too late to get bulbs. I’ve been needing to replace the calla lilies that turned into mush after the freeze. I ordered lilies through Brent & Beckys. It may be too late to enjoy the gladiolus, but I’m hoping I can get them into the ground by end of April.

Description Qty
Zantedeschia Picasso – Calla Lily 6
Lilium Lollipop – Asiatic 5
Lilium Muscadet – Oriental Lily 5
Gladiolus Zizanie – Sword Lily 10

I received a heads up on a new nursery in Denton, so I headed over Denton Plant Factory right away and got a trunkful of plants. Four Seasons Nursery was only a short drive away so I hopped over to get some ornamental basil, strawberries and golden sage.



Seeds and Plants purchases

Earlier in April, I mentioned starting some seeds from a purchase I made from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I also visited Painted Flower Farm and North Haven Gardens to pick out some plants for the shade bed. Since then I’ve made additional purchases in attempt to satisfy my plant addiction.

Hostas are the last major addition I’m looking forward to dropping in the shade bed. I chased down a Facebook group that lists a variety of hosta sources. Island Breeze, Hans and Dancing Darling are enroute to me, courtesy of Tims Hosta Farm.

My lemon balm seed starting efforts have been frustrating. It’s the only seed that haven’t germinated. Either this is harder than I thought or the lemon balm seed I have today are probably too old. So I found Hayefield’s shop on Etsy and purchased some All Gold lemon balm, along with Golden Jubilee Agastache and Variegated Prunella.

I am highly nervous that the pineapple sages that I planted in 2018 aren’t going to return, so I’m trying to source either plants or seed. Luckily one of my fave online plant catalogs, Colonial Creek Farm, has them sale. I picked up two Golden Delicious pineapple sages, along with white anouk lavender, curly mint and pineapple mint.

Last are the impulse buys from big box stores and the local Calloway’s: herbs, pepper plants and tomatoes.

Seedlings April 2020

It’s amazing what stay-in-place means for my gardening hobby. I actually get to garden!

Of course, strange days also brings strange weather. I can’t recall the last time I saw April temps dip down into the 30s, but here we are mid-April with overnight temps reminiscent of winter.

It’s a much welcome change from the 100 degree plus Aprils I’ve seen in years past.

But back to the topic of seedlings. I started some seed on 3/31 and here we are about 2 weeks later. Thanks to IG gardenspo, I had to have me some Fish Pepper seeds, which led me to Baker Creek Heirloom Seed, where I bought more than I planned. I never imagined myself growing tomatillos, but I read somewhere that it (along with radishes) would make great pest-attractors and ward pests from companion crops. So into the basket went Purple Tomatillos and Japanese Wasabi Radishes, along with Thai Long Green (Green Elephant Tusk) Eggplant, Jigsaw Pepper, Lemon Bee Balm, Korean Hyssop, and Sirius Blue Sage. Baker Creek also dropped a couple of free seed packets, which I’m still debating on planting.

Wasabi radish seedlings
Wasabi radish seedlings
Free Seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds
Free Seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds

I was also able to source Strawberry Fields gomphrena…which I’m happy to report, have germinated as well. In fact, all of the seed I sourced from Baker Creek have germinated successfully under grow lights, compared to some older seed that either struggled or haven’t come up at all. The radish germinated in as little as 3 days, which provided near-instant gratification.

Seedling flat
Seedling flat

I direct sowed the Baker Creek lemon bee balm into the garden bed, along with some Outside Pride Mexican Sunflower seeds (sourced from Amazon in 2017) earlier in the month. Nothing has come up as of yet, but I made sure to mark the spot with a pot of wild bee balm purchased from Painted Flower Farm on 4/7.

Anywho, with this cold snap, I’d better go water the plants! More field notes coming soon!