2010-04-04: A picture that's also an offer

does that count as a double entendre?

by Colleen

It's flower growing season in Chicago! I have 3 pots of varying sizes and one rectangular planter with which to work.

Last year I did petunias in the planter and half of the largest pot, with disastrous results. Little   white     flies    everywhere: infesting the stems, breeding on the leaves, dying on the flower petals. I didn't learn what they were until my friend and I visited a nursery in August, but by then it was too late. The florist recommended a mild lemon-soap bath as a detractor. After bathing 2 leaves individually, I found the soap acted as a mild adhesive, further securing all white flies onto the fuzzy stems of the plant. So I gave up, pulled them all up and tried to save the remaining plants in the pot, the purple cone flowers: native Illinois prairie flora, which apparently, need more than one growing season to bloom. Yay! for leafy green fronds all summer...but not really. The other pot contained a freaky tomato plant that ended up growing at a pace reminiscent of the Little Shop of Horrors, even without all the blood. In all, it yielded 4 1/2 feet of vertical stem, a 3 feet diameter spray of leafy greens, 16 or so blossoms, and 3 incredibly bitter cherry tomatoes. Well, there's always next season.

Which brings me to:

Ferry's partial-shade wildflower mixture went in the largest pot. My goals are less lofty then the 2ft high petunia plants of last summer - I'm going to go with 3 inch ground cover (Alyssum) in the rectangular planter (hopefully resulting in less stems and white flies and more blooms). The now freaky tomato plant-free pot will get the Calendulas, and I'm reseeding a spare herb planter with more basil (so far the only plant besides my faithful african violets that's flourishing) in hopes of enough leaves for home made pesto.

And now for the offer: Now that my planting's done, I still have enough seedage left to fill more that a 50 sq foot area garden (according to the planting guides on the seed packs), so if you would like any spare seeds, just let me know! Sharing is caring and all that. what what