Summer Seedlings

Planting seeds is a wonderful thing. You can fill a huge area with beautiful flowers from just a small packet. My front yard garden right now is mainly Black-eyed Susan - Rudbeckia hirta and the packet of seeds cost 2$ and I still have extra seeds. I am almost continuously planting seeds. Some of the seedlings are for areas in the garden that need replacement plants and some are to share with friends and family. I even planted some of my seedlings at work around the borders of the parking lot.

This summer I planted a few different species of wildflowers that I recently collected or decided I need more of. It really is not the best time to plant seeds because of the extreme heat and dryness but some have done pretty well. I find it best to start seeds in small pots with a seed starting soil and outside in the shade. It makes it easier to control the conditions which your seedlings need such as the amount of water it gets.

Sanguine Coneflower - Echinacea sanguinea , this one is the furthest along. It is growing pretty well. Some of the other seedlings did die though. Im afraid it could have been the +100*F temperatures...

Whorled Milkweed - Asclepias verticillata , this is my first time growing these plants. The seed is from Prairie Moon Nursery. A lot of the seeds have germinated. They are very skinny looking. :P

Butterfly Milkweed - Asclepias tuberosa , same conditions as the Whorled Milkweed above. I cant wait for these to get big and plant them in the front yard. They're growing fast!

Azure Sage - Salvia azurea , I had very good germination rates with this plant last Spring. They don't seem to like the heat. I will probably have to wait for cooler temperature for them to start germinating.

Rose-Mallow - Hibiscus sp. , I collected the seeds of this Hibiscus in a ditch last time I was in the Beaumont, TX area. The seeds germinated quickly and are growing fast. This will be a nice addition to wetter parts of the garden.