Build Your Gardening Confidence the Seedy Way

Season 5, Episode 9, January 11, 2023

(Right there in the middle of one of Dee’s cherry tomato harvests from last summer is a cherry tomato called ‘Black Strawberry’. It’s the one with the purple top. I want to grow it. Dee has the seeds…)

On this week’s podcast, we talk about all the flower and veggie seeds we are starting inside, plus a new book on botany, and several other gardening topics.

I actually think Dee is starting more flowers from seed then I am but then I didn’t tell her how many packets of viola seeds I have that I want to sow this spring. So we might be growing about the same number of flower varieties.

Tune in next week for my full confession.

In the meantime, I’ve listed most of the sources for the flower seeds we talked about.

The Flower Seed List:

And thus begins a rather long list of flowers we are growing from seed and links to sources. Note, if we got free sample seeds from All-America Selections, the link sends you back to them. From there, you can see all the different places that sell those seeds.

Let’s start with Dee’s list…

Nicotiana ‘Cranberry Isles’ (Select Seeds)

Nicotiana ‘Deep Purple Perfume’ (Select Seeds) 

Nicotiana ‘Lavender Cloud’ (Hudson Valley)

Echinacea ‘Cheyenne Spirit’  (Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

Gaillardia ‘Double Sunset’ (Baker Creek)

Centranthus ruber, Jupiter’s Beard

Salvia ‘Sirius Blue Sage’ (Baker Creek)

Gomphrena ‘Atomic Purple’ (Baker Creek)

Verbena officianalis ‘Bampton’ (Select Seeds)

Celosia ‘Asian Garden’ (All-America Selections)

Begonia ‘Viking Explorer Rose on Green’ (All-America Selections)  

Dee’s violas and pansies include:

Pansy Celestial Blue

Blue Perfection

Antique Laeta viola (Baker Creek),

Got the Blues pansies and Cool Summer Breeze violas (Botanical Interests),

Penny Denim Jumpup viola and Inspire Plus True Blue pansy and Frizzle Sizzle (Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

Carol’s flowers from seed list includes:

Zinnia angustifolia ‘Crystal White’ and ‘Crystal Yellow’ (True Leaf Market Seeds)

Coleus ‘Sun Coral Candy’ (All-America Selections)

Snapdragon Doubleshot orange snapdragons (All-America Selections)

Celosia ‘Flamma Orange’ (All-America Selections)

Petunia Wave Carmine Velour (All-America Selections)

Verbena bonariensis ‘Vanity’ (All-America Selections)

Assorted violets, violas, and pansies… that’s a secret list for now…

Are you still here? Let’s move on to vegetables.

The Vegetable Seed List

Here’s the list of all the vegetable varieties we plant to start indoors. You’ll notice I ran out of steam so there aren’t links for where you can buy each variety. Thanks for understanding.

If you can’t find a particular variety, email us and we’ll help you find a source.

Some of the places where we bought or got seeds from include All-America Selections, Botanical Interests Seeds (affiliate link on that one), Pinetree Garden Seeds, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, True Leaf Market, and Burpee Seeds.

Dee’s List of Vegetables (so far…)

Deep Purple bunching onions

Comanche and Giant Musselburgh leeks  

Red Baron bunching scallions  

Icicle and Angela eggplants

‘Buffy’ pepper from AAS and several hot and mild peppers. 

Tomatoes: Black Strawberry, Evil Olive, Bread and Salt, Gold Medal, OTV Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter VFN Tomato, Rosella Purple, Virginia Sweets  

Carol’s list of veggies to start from seeds indoors: 

Bunching onions - Tokyo Long White from Botanical Interests  

Shallot: Creme Brulee

Peppers : California Wonder, Early Jalapeno, plus Big Bertha, Mad Hatter, and Cubanelle.  

Tomatoes: Blue Beech, Sun Dipper, Blushing Star, Blue Beauty, Yellow Pear, Black Cherry, Rutgers, Sungold, Striped German, Cherry Bomb, Midnight Snack

Thanks for reading down this far. We’ll wrap this up now with the bookshelf, dirt, and other helpful links!

On the Bookshelf:   A Gardener’s Guide to Botany by Scott Zona, Phd (Amazon Link) Dee and I both got review copies which we are reading and keeping and also highly recommending you purchase.

Dirt:    World’s Hottest Pepper! Mike Rowe Battles Carolina Reaper Seeds! | Dirty Jobs Yes, Mike Rowe has gotten himself into another dirty job, this time involving peppers. 

Other Links: 

Seed Savers Exchange, another great source for heirloom vegetable seeds.

Horticulture Week Podcast (from the UK) which Carol listened to and got a big surprise about African Blue Basil. Read Dee’s blog post about basils to find about more about this particular basil.

Carol’s Family Handyman article on deciphering tomato seed and plant labels.

Craig LeHoullier’s website, author of Epic Tomatoes.

Diaries of Note by Shaun Usher on Substack, which isn’t related to gardening but might be of interest to some listeners.

Thanks for making it to the end of this long newsletter. If you have a topic or rabbit hole for us to explore for a future episode of the podcast, let us know!

And finally all the usual links!

Affiliate link to Botanical Interest Seeds.  Book links are also affiliate links.

Email us anytime at TheGardenangelists@gmail.com  

For more info on Carol and her books, visit her website.  Visit her blog May Dreams Gardens.
For more info on Dee and her book, visit her website.  Visit her blog Red Dirt Ramblings.

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
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