Getting ready to harden off some of the seedlings. The weather is till cool, so I'll put out the cool weather plants first.

Bleeding Heart
Chives
Cilantro
Dill
Forget-Me-Not
Larkspur
Linaria/Toadflax
Lupine
Nasturtium
Pansy
Peas
Petunias
Primroses
Snapdragons
Sweet Peas
Viola
Violet

Checked on the pink and purple zinnias and the sweet peas outside. The zinnias are not doing very well and are severely wilted, probably because of the high temperatures we have been having. I have set them in a tub of warm water and hope that they will survive. It seems that keeping the seedlings outdoors mean that they require more water. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they are in peat containers too.

It's a bit cool out now that the mini heatwave has subsided. I think that I will start to harden off the cool weather seedlings now and maybe bring in the warmer temperature seedlings back inside.

Just for my own future reference, here are the cool season annual which I am currently growing:

Larkspur
Nasturtium
Petunias
Sweet Peas
Snapdragons
Viola/Pansies

Soaked David Austin's Harlow Carr in a small basin since a larger and deeper bucket was not available. The roots were in water, but the bulb-ish part of the plant was not. Hopefully it will not be a problem. Planted it today according to directions, sans rose food, since I didn't have any available. Dug an approximately 18" square hole, 18" deep as the directions stated. Back filled with original soil and some compost and used Start to get the roots off to a healthy start. Top dressed the soil with compost and watered with 2 gallons of water. I planted it at about 5 or 6 pm after the hot noon sun was beginning to temper off. Hopefully there will be rain for the next two days so that the plant is not too stressed. It was difficult work and there was a lot of large stones in the soil, some of which I removed.

Also purchased three heathers (Erica darleyensis) as well as some Miracle-Gro rose food, a set of 10 Lily-of-the-Valley and a set of 3 pink bleeding hearts.

Weather has been really warm lately. Right now it is about 80 degrees F. Tomorrow will bring temperatures in the 90s. From weather reports, it seems uncharacteristically warm for this month.

Been watering plants with hydrolized fish and seaweed fertilizer each time. I wonder if I should only do it every other time.

Hardening Off
Linarias are looking a bit frail.
Lupines are drooping a bit despite watering. 2-3 of them died. Was it the cool temperatures from before?
Sweet Woodruff are looking a bit ruffled too. Will probably move them to the back since they are shade lovers anyway.
Sweet Peas are doing okay.
Thyme seems a bit wilty when given too much water.
Alpine and Fresca strawberries seem to be doing okay, but will water anyway.

Received Harlow Carr today (or did it come yesterday and I just didn't notice it?). Will soak it in water tonight and plant outside tomorrow. Need to buy some rose food for it too. It should rain on Thursday and Friday, so hopefully the rose will get off to a good stressless start. Also brought some Start to encourage root development.

Last week on Friday, I pulled out all of the orange "ditch" lilies from the raised stone and mortar bed outside the back door and will probably plant herbs and a small vegetable garden in its place. Gave a clump to Aunt J since she seemed to like them. Will also later dig out the yellow daylily from the bed along the road to give to her as I'm not a bit fan of lilies. At least not yet... ;)

Aunt J and Uncle L gave us a brilliant pink azalea plant. I am wondering where would be the best place for it. Would like to plant it near the backdoor, but I think that the north side of the house could use a bit of brightening up which this plant would certainly do.

Planted on Sunday, March 21, 2010.

Oregano
Cilantro
Dill, Mammoth
Rosemary
Chives (2009)
Gomphrena
Basil
Larkspur Blue Cloud
Alyssum Summer Snow
Lemon Grass (2009)

Put together a mobile greenhouse stand and started to harden off some seedlings.
Nasturtium
Thyme
Sweet Woodruff
Lupine
Fresca Strawberries
Alpine Strawberries

Watered some of the seedlings today as well as thinned some of them out.

Asclepias Cinderella does not seem to be doing very well. There is only one tiny seedling pushing its way up from the soil. On the other hand, Asclepias Tuberosa is doing very well with many seeds germinating. Too bad, I liked Cinderella a bit more because of the pink coloring. Will probably share some of the Tuberosa since I have more than I want. The yellow cosmos will probably look good planted with them.

Lupines seem to be doing okay despite my transplanting them the other day.

Nasturtiums have developed really quickly and have well developed roots already. I am thinking of planting them outside soon in order to take back some space on the growing shelf.

Heliotrope Mini Marine are not doing as well as I would like. There are a few seedlings, but not many. I was looking forward to the vanilla scent too.

Lavender Lady is not doing well either, although I think some of the other lavender seeds that I planted are taking off.

Later this week, I plan to dig out the lilies in the backyard to give to Aunt J. I'm not really a bit lilies fan and she seems to be interested in them. I wonder if I should move the irises next to the mailbox. It might look nice there.

Transplanted lupine Sunrise and Sweet Woodruff today. Hopefully the lupines will survive since they dislike being transplanted. They seem to grow on long taproots. Next time, it would probably be better to plant each lupine in its own peat pot instead of together in flats. Also watered Aquilegia in egg crate which had dried out. No signs of life there yet, but supposedly it takes 30 days to germinate. Running out of space on my growing shelf that C set up for me. Already went through two bags of Miracle-Gro seed starting mix and need to get more for transplanting into 2" pots. Gardener's Germination mix has a better texture and less debris; there seems to be some shiny silver mineral flecks in the soil too. A faint odor of something like ammonia can be detected when seedling trays are placed inside a plastic bag for humidity. There doesn't seem to be a difference in germination rate though. It would be useful to do a side-by-side, A/B test with the two formulas.