Zinnia - Envy

I bought a bunch of seeds at discounted price, and I am excited about adding more plants to my garden.  Zinnia is one of the new additions.  I chose a variety that is called 'Envy', and it is supposed to have rare chartreuse colored flowers.

These are the seeds.  They are flat and larger than other seeds I'd planted.  I seeded 3 of these this time.

7 days later, first (and cute) seedling emerged!

SEED INFORMATION:

Seeds I bought: Burpee's Zinnia - Envy

Seeds bought from: Walmart

Origination of the seeds: USA

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: 7-10 days - Mine took 7 days to germinate

*  Days to bloom: N/A

*  Plant height: 30 inches

*  Grows best: Full Sun

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: Unknown - I planted in May.

Kandy Korn

I've got to try growing corn!  I have no idea how easy or difficult it is to grow and harvest corns in my backyard, but I would not know unless I try, right?

The seeds.  They are, er, just super-dried corn kernels. 

4 days after seeding, seedlings emerged; however, I forgot to take pictures of them, sigh (they were little spikes).  A day later, the spikes already grew this big as you see in the picture above.

6 days after seeding, corn seedlings were about 2-inches tall. 

11 days after seeding, and 5 days after the above picture, my corn plants got even taller.  In this picture, the plants are about 3 inches tall.

A few days later, I planted them in the ground because the roots were showing from the bottom of the cell tray.  I felt kinda guilty to leave them in small spaces.

Once they were planted in the ground, corn plants started to grow rapidly.  They must like the nutrients in the soil and full sun.

37 days after seeding.  Leaves were getting long and starting to spread.

12 days after the above picture, the leaves are large, and the stalk started to get thick.  The stalk in this picture is about 1/2-inch in diameter.

Look how tall it is getting!  In this picture, the largest one is about 2-ft tall.  You can also see a smaller one in behind.  Maybe the sun is blocked by the large plant?

Next day (60 days after seeding), flower buds started to show.  I found out that these are 'male' flowers, and 'female' flowers should emerge at the base of leaves soon.  I don't know how the female flowers look like, so I will pay attention to find them.

SEED INFORMATION:

Seeds I bought: Ferry Morse's SWEET CORN - Kandy Korn Hybrid

Seeds bought from: Home Depot

Origination of the seeds: USA

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: 7-10 days - Mine took about 7 days to germinate

*  Days to Harvest: 89 days

*  Plant height: 8 feet

*  Grows best: N/A

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: March - August - I planted in March.

Coleus

Coleus has gorgeous foliage, and I would be happy to have it in my garden.

Seeds are tiny!

18 days after seeding, seedlings started to emerge.

This plant grows very slow.  The seedlings are still small even after 2 weeks after germination.

Still nothing notable has happened in 4 days. :(

Finally, little under 2 months after seeding, true leaves started to show.  I'm glad they are making some progress.  Phew!

...yet not much to notice even 3 more weeks had passed, but I planted the little seedlings into larger pots to give more room for root growth. 

About 2 weeks later, two more new leaves started to show.  I am getting a bit impatient with this plant.

Almost 4 months after seeding, my coleus started looking like one.  However, seriously, how long will it take to grow as big as I would like?

   SEED INFORMATION:

Seeds I bought: Pinetree Garden Seeds COLEUS - Black Dragon

Seeds bought from: http://www.superseeds.com/

Origination of the seeds: Unknown

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: 20-30 days - Mine took about 7 days to germinate

*  Days to bloom: 60-90 days

*  Plant height: 24 inches

*  Grows best: Full Sun

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: February-May & August - September - I planted in Octobe

Will They Really Provide?

Besides tomatoes and cucumbers, I am growing green beans, too!  I chose a "Bush" type beans (not the kind in cans!) because they don't require supports.  Actually, I was drawn by the name, PROVIDER.  The package describes the beans are "old time very prolific," but I don't know if this is a heirloom kind.

The seeds look just like regular dry beans.  I planted 3 of these in a cell pack and  used Miracle Gro(R) Potting Soil. Cell packs are placed at a sunny spot that receives full sun.

Just in 19 days after seeding, large seedlings started to emerge.  Isn't it amazing that true leaves already grew underground?

And look how fast they grew!  Within a couple days after germination, they already look this big.  What's more, long roots were growing out of the bottom of the cell packs by this time!

I procrastinated (what's new, right?), but finally, I transplanted the seedlings to a planter.  I used Miracle Gro(R) Potting Soil and placed the planter at the spot that receives full sun through the day.  This picture was taken about a month after seeding.

About 2 weeks after I transplanted the seedlings, growth seemed to be slowing down.  Hmm...do they not like the soil or the size of the planter?  I continue to give lots of water in the morning.

All 3 of them have more new leaves, but they are not much taller than 10 days ago.  Although, supposedly, plants don't need support, I put some poles in case they were looking for something to cling.

2 more weeks have passed, but the plants are not much taller.  However, I found soft lavender colored buds!  Can you see them??

This is how the plants look in 2 months.  Not tall, but bushier, and leaves are much larger.  Will they grow more, or will they just stop at this height?  I hope they really 'provide' many beans!

In a couple of days, flowers started to open.  I tried to smell the flowers to see if they smell similar to Sweet Peas but no scent.  BORING!

Baby beans, baby beans!  They are about toothpick size in this picture, but they look just like the beans I see in supermarkets; they are just micro.

Then, I noticed some curly, browned leaves.  It's been very hot in San Diego, so maybe they dried out?

More beans are visible on each plant, and they are growing :) 

SEED INFORMATION:

Seeds I bought: Pinetree Garden Seeds' PROVIDER GREEN BUSH BEAN

Seeds bought from: Pinetree Garden Seeds

Origination of the seeds: N/A

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: N/A - Mine took about 19 days to germinate

*  Days to fruit: 50 days - Mine took 87 days to fruit

*  Plant height: N/A - Mine were about 12" high

*  Grows best: N/A

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: Unknown - I planted in February.

What's Poona Keera?

What do you imagine if I tell you I am growing Poona Keera?  It is a kind of cucumbers.  This variety originally came from Inida, and it is supposedly super delicious, crisp, juicy, sweet and mild - so why not try grow it? 

These are the seeds.  They look like cantalope seeds, but it makes sense since cucumbers and melons are in the same family, huh?  I planted 4 seeds.

12  days later, the first seedling sprouted, and its leaves opened up in a couple days after...I am very excited! Stay tuned for futher report on this cucumber!

SEED INFORMATION:

Seeds I bought: Pinetree Garden Seed's Cucumber Poona Keera

Seeds bought from: Pinetree Garden Seeds

Origination of the seeds: N/A

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: N/A - Mine took about 12 days to germinate

*  Days to fruit: 53 days - Mine took 92 days to fruit (first harvest)

*  Plant height: N/A - Mine are about 12-inches tall

*  Grows best: N/A

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: Unknown - I planted in February.

Cosmos - Day Dream

Actually, I grew Cosmos already, but I didn't keep any record.  So, here I go again, and this time, I will blog about it.  Last time, I grew ordinary, Pink-Red-White ones and dwarf Yellow-Orange kind, but this time, I will grow "Day Dream".

These are the seeds.  Pretty large and easy to see (believe me, tiny seeds are quite hard to plant because I can't see where they are on the soil) - I seeded 4 of them at this time.

7 days after seeding, the first seedling emerged.

In 2 weeks after seeding, all 4 seedlings sprouted out. They look happy with the "Banzai" pose :)

SEED INFORMATION:

Seeds I bought: Thompson & Morgan's Cosmos: Daydream

Seeds bought from: Thompson & Morgan

Origination of the seeds: Holland, Packed in UK

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: 7-14 days - Mine took about 7 days to germinate

*  Days to bloom: N/A

*  Plant height: 36 inches

*  Grows best: Full Sun

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: Unknown - I planted in February.

Marigold - Mr. Majestic

I was never interested in Marigold becuase I see it everywhere; it is almost always used for apartment, commercial, business landscaping.  It was too boring and looked cheap, so I didn't want it...until I saw a picture of this cute version in a plant catalogue. I wanted to grow Mr. Majestic!

 These are the seeds.  I planted them on December 5th  (I forgot to take a picture on the day I seeded).

 7 days after seeding, little seedlings emerged.  Sorry the picture is bit blurry.

34 days after seeding, a few true leaves started to show and roots were getting longer, so I transplanted three seedlings in a container and some in the ground.

 One month after transplant, and 66 days after seeding, there was already a bud!  That's fast!  (This one is planted in a container)

 While the container ones had bigger buds, I noticed the ones transplanted in the ground look different; these have larger and greener leaves, but their buds are much smaller.  Hm. I wonder why?

The bud got bigger each day, but it had taken a long time until the flower opened (it's true for most of the time from my experience thus far).  I got impatient and disappointed every morning as the bud was still shut.

 Almost a week after the above picture, and 91 days from seeding, the first flower finally opened!  Hooray~

Isn't this cute or what?  I hope the plants (I planted 3 in this container) will fill the entire container and many flowers bloom!

SEED INFORMATION:

Seeds I bought: Pinetree Garden Seeds MARIGOLD - MR. MAJESTIC

Seeds bought from: http://www.superseeds.com/

Origination of the seeds: Unknown

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: Unknown - Mine took 7 days to germinate

*  Days to bloom: Unknown - Mine took 91 days to bloom

*  Plant height: 10 inches

*  Grows best: Sun

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: Unknown - I planted in December

Chinese Lantern

I love Chinese Lantern as it reminds me of summer festivals in Japan.  I love the vivid orange colored, tomatillo-like fruits that resemble lanterns.  I remember, as a young child, I helped my parents decorate the house for Obon; these lanterns would guide our ancestors home.  I want plants that let me remember home and my childhood, so when I saw the seeds, I just had to get them.

This is a vigorous and very invasive plant, so it's highly recommended to plant it in a container.

This is how the seeds look like.  It is like chili pepper seeds.  I seeded them in some peat pallets as I always do.

The seeds germinated in about a week, but I forgot to take pictures when that happened (grrr!).  Here's a pictures of the seedlings, 27 days after seeding.

 46 days after seeding.  Large true leaves started to grow, and roots were growing out of the pallets, I transplanted the seedlings into plant-cells.

This is how they look at 72 days after seeding.  They grow fast, huh?  I will transplant them in larger pots in a few days.

SEED INFORMATION:

Seeds I bought: Ferry Morse's CHINESE LANTERN

Seeds bought from: Home Depot

Origination of the seeds: USA

According to the package:

*  Days to germination: 20-30 days - Mine took about 7 days to germinate

*  Days to bloom: 60-90 days

*  Plant height: 24 inches

*  Grows best: Full Sun

*  Recommended planting season for San Diego: February-May & August - September - I planted in October.