By Purest Chance

First Iris

Spring flowering took a few baby steps forward the past week.  We now have three purple iris blossoming, and will probably have both purple and yellow flowers before the end of the week.  The first blue flax has opened.

The tomato seeds I planted still aren’t doing what I’d hoped they’d be doing by now.  I think this is due to the much colder than usual nighttime temperatures.  By purest chance, I have a comparison.  The evening of the day I planted the tomato seeds in my outdoor starter bed, I found a seed I’d missed on the kitchen table.  Rather than putting it back in the envelope, I put it in the pot of basil I have on my kitchen windowsill.

(Yes.  I am familiar with John Keats’s poem “Isabella, or the Pot of Basil.”  No fear, no one was harmed in the planting of this basil.  I was simply t lonely for a plant to watch, and started this one over the winter.)

Anyhow, the indoor seed sprouted within ten days.  The sprout has grown, and is even thinking about producing a true leaf.  Of the seeds planted outdoors, only one or two have sprouted, and the seedlings have remained small.  This is quite counter to my past experiences with starting seeds in this bed.

Why do I start the seeds outside?  I’ve started seeds indoors many times.  However, probably because of our extreme shifts of temperature, the young plants don’t take well to being “hardened off.”  Until this year, I’ve had fairly good luck starting tomato plants in this one sheltered corner outside.  I haven’t given up hope yet.

Why do I grow plants from seed?  The varieties I’m trying are not widely available as bedding plants.  They’re grown from heirloom seeds, of plants that have been shown to do well in the higher summer heat we’ve been having these last few years.

On that note, I’m off to the planet Sphinx where Spring is moseying along through its fifteen and a bit Terran month cycle, the crown oaks are changing their foliage, and the treecats are getting ready to have kittens.

Take care!

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