Several of the plants for this years Hummingbird Garden have starts and are growing like weeds.

The Cardinal Climber started in only four days, and several of the other plants have sprouted way ahead of schedule!

I believe spraying the planted seeds with warm water may have something to do with the early starts and rapid growth.

Each box holds three trays or thirty plants and acts like a terrarium. Using the McDonalds salad bowls as a small terrarium is a great way to recycle, and they work well! I could have waited a few more weeks to start the plants but I wanted to be sure the process would work. I believe I can call this test a success!

The garden for 2010

Hi all,

The garden for 2010 is well on its way! The Cuphea Igneas are started, Cardinal Climber and Ragin Cajuns have been planted. I tried something, new this year, from a web page I read. They suggested starting your plants using coffee filters. The seeds are placed between a pair of coffee filters and then watered and placed in a large ziplock bag. I suggest if you try this method using a spray bottle to wet your seeds!!! Dont do as I did and try wetting them in the sink! The seeds got wet but not all the seeds placed in the filter stayed in the filters, some are somewhere in the sewer system of this city.

The Cuphea Ignea seeds can be purchased on ebay and are inexpensive, typically about $2.00 for 50 seeds. I hope to have these flowering by the middle to the end of April. We will have NEW PLANTS to try with the Ruby Throats this year. I purchased several packs of seeds from vendors on ebay. Most of the plants I have not seen available from any of the local greenhouses.