Hey Bryan,

How did the yucca poles go? I emailed you about em. I collected some and scouted a bunch of area's for you. It was a busy time for me. I was on the photot of the day for AOL during the topanga fire.

As for my planted I'm mostly keeping with the lilac and lavender. I am going to try 15 peonies this year. I have no experience with them. I did plant about 300 lilac and about 300 new lavender this year. I will try some new varieties though. I was looking into some allium but I think I'm too late.

Take care Tim

collected:
cramers lemon lime and burgandy celosia
benarys giant mix zins
millet purple majesty
rudbeckia brown middle 3-4"bloom

order harris:
Dianthus neon cherry @Purple @sweet
Campanula Champion Blue @Pink
Millet Jester
sunflower double dandy

order Johnny's
Hoary vervain
celosia cockscomb chief mix
pepper ornamental nippon taka
snapdragons costa
Bashful sunflower

Gloeckner
Amaranth copperhead
aster crown prince@ matador mix@ Pomplona mix@ sernade mix
Marigold promise orange@ Sunrise yellow
Salvia marble arch mix
Zinnia benary's giant lime

There are other little purchases that I'll try out but this is my main order(I had some leftovers from last year mainly suns procut)
Patty

Tim, I am still trying to get with the Lytle Creek people. They said they were not giving permits, BUT were maybe going to do a control burn and I could cut in there. Crossing my fingers. Let me know if you have other areas or can get some.

Send me the pic. That sounds like fun, but too hot.

Peonies might work, but they like it cold. Good luck.

Bryan

On your list from Johnny's, Bryan, you had Calendula, Ann. I was a little confused at first; but, Ann meant Annual. Right?? And, then, from Germania the last item was: Hegari Red Head Purple Mist, which are actually three different seed cultivars. We grew Hegari Sorghum this past season with mixed reaction from customers. They either loved it, or they hated it. It seems there wasn't any middle ground on this one. Red Head Sorghum is always a nice addition. We've also grown Texas Black Amber Sorghum. Purple Mist is a millet which is a new addition for Germania this season. It is on our list as well.

I'm also curious why you might order some seed such as ProCut from Harris, etc. I mention this because it might be helpful for new growers to understand a bit of the nature of the seed business. A few dozen seed companies in the tropics (Costa Rica, Kenya, Indonesia), where the climate is favorable and labor inexpensive, produce most of the flower seed sold both at the wholesale and retail level. Seed is sold in bulk to companies such as Harris, Johnny's, Germania, Stokes, Burpee, etc. These companies repackage the seed under their own names. Thus, for example, if you buy Sunflower, ProCut, it doesn't really matter whether you buy it from one of the mentioned companies. Knowing this, you might want to purchase your seed on price and service.

Patty mentioned collecting zinnia seed. Some of these seeds are hybrid, which means they won't come true from seed. You may not find uniformity in the flowers with not as many fully double flowerheads and a high percentage of mediocre plants. This may not be important to some gardeners; however, for some strains, the hybrids simply have better flowers. An advantage of some hybrids is sterile flowers which often have a longer vase life -- they're not putting all their energy into making seeds. You can be certain most of your market customers will let you know about the vase life of bouquets purchased from you.

Some open-pollinated plants such as celosia self-seed so prolifically that you can treat this particular one as if it were a perennial, cultivating the same bed for many years.

Flowerfarmer, yes I meant annual and meant to fix the sorgum/millet, but was in a hury and tired.

The reason why I purchase from the companies I do is easy, 1st price, 2nd quality of seed, and customer service. The ones I use are very good. Harris sends me a copy of last years order and a coupon each year which is great. Both Harris and Johnnys seed out monthly emails giving a heads up of new seed/plants or specials.

Merry Christmas and good new year!!

Bryan

Trish,
So, what are the names of some of these companies that we can order pro cut, or good varieties of sunflower seeds from at a more reasonable cost? I find the cost of these seeds expensive with the companies I order from.
Merry Christmas to all, and a very healthy and productive New Year.
Cheryl

Cheryl, I pulled the ProCut sunflower from one of the above lists just as an example of a hybrid seed. Hybrid seeds would be the same quality regardless of where one purchased this seed. If there is a so called correct answer to my question, I suppose it would have been customer service because it wasn't price. If you have a great relationship with one of those particular vendors, and the price of seed isn't that much different, I would assume you would continue doing business with them. My husband continues to run around sporting his Johnny's Seed baseball cap even though we didn't purchase much from them the last couple of years. We like to company. We like the sales representative. We don't, however, like some of the prices.

Our sources are in the states, Cheryl. Do you have any difficulty bringing in seed outside the country?

I think I mentioned this in a post earlier in the season; but, may bear repeating: The reason we grow ProCut Sunflowers (50-60 day sow to bloom) is that it gets us to the market earlier with sunflowers. The ProCut work well in mixed bouquets. During the heat of summer, we grow other varieties that work better for us in both straight bunches and our mixed bouquets. We never grow branching sunflowers.

Here's something I just discovered about ProCut -- It didn't make the list of Best Cutflowers for 2006. That's interesting; however, we'll continue to grow some for our early season bouquets.

I bought bargain price from Jung's last year, my first year. The service was good, the seeds were fine. However, this year I'm going to determine which varieties I need for my location and my (prospective) customers and that's what I'm going to buy, then I'll search for the best price. I had seed donated from a professional grower in a similar location last year which demonstrated the diference to me in speciality cut- flowers. Doug

Doug, And, that grower intends to send more seed your way this year as soon as she can locate that return address label which I tucked so safely away that I cannot seem to lay my hands on it at the moment..............

Today we got delivery from Johnnys, Larkspur and Rudbeckia. We're making paper pots to avoid transplant shock and laying the flats on the ground. My address is 610 Fox Rd. Middle Bass, OH. 43446. (Editor: this is non-commercial) Meanwhile I'm collecting materials to make an, almost, replica of your daughter's flower cart, Doug

Doug, I was tempted to just send your box of seeds to Doug, Middle Bass Island, Ohio. But, I did find your address in my file of notes regarding seeds and other stuff from last year. Why I thought this was a safe place, I have no idea. I'm thinking that page was open on the desk at the time I had the return address label in my hand. The ledger was filled with all sorts of things/ideas (market related of course :-)). Anyway, it did go out in the mail today. We figured we would get some of our errands done before the big snow this way cometh.

And, no, I am not a commercial seed house. We're just sharing an ounce or two of this and that from last season. We don't mix last year's seed with this season's because we try to keep a handle on quality control (not that there is anything wrong with those seeds). If there would ever be a problem, we need to have lot numbers for the seeds. I'm just glad you can make use of them, my friend!!

FWIW -- Our season has begun. We're firing up the furnace in one of the hoophouses; and, we're off to a slow start.

I hope you are making your cart, Doug, from something other than 2x6s or 2x8s because our flower cart is so heavy. Wondering if you found wheels for the cart.........

I built a bottom heat seed starter out of 2x6's.years ago. These days my wife and I can't lift it or move it. Posie cart will probably be 3/4" outdoor plywood frame and 3/8" decking. I favor slars for the sides and a driver's seat, Amish buggy style. Then it wil be so fascinating that no one will even look at the flowers. I'll start off with bicycle wheels, which I have, and graduate to 36" oak lawn decoration wheels which I see in discount stores for $32 pair. May have to tinker to make them revolve-able. A person is allowed to day-dream, looking out the window at the snow. Doug