Susie Ripley Gardening Seed Haul
Hello friends,
Recently after having cataract surgery, and not being allowed to do any gardening for two weeks afterward (due to infection and high eye pressure risk due to potentially getting my eye dirty, and lots of bending over), I got bored and decided to do some seed shopping from a local seed company, Susie Ripley Gardening. I found that she has a wonderful range of not so common seed varieties which match well with my gardening style.
I bought the following flower seed packets from her:
* Coreopsis Incredible Dwarf Mix
* Cornflower Mauve Ball
* Cornflower Pinkball
* Cosmos Double Click Rose Bon Bon
* Cosmos Double Click Snowpuff
* Dahlia Susie's Mix
* Dianthus Chabaud La France
* Nigella Delft Blue
The colours in the seed varieties I bought work well with my garden colour palette. And I'm particularly excited about Susie's dahlia mix as it has seeds in it from Floret's Petite dahlia varieties that grew last year, along with others. I didn't get Floret's petite dahlia variety seeds last year, and I'm quite sad now that I didn't invest in a packet. I'm hoping that there will be some pretty Floret dahlias in the mix.
Now I just have to impatiently wait for seed sowing to begin in early spring...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Seed Saving And Storage In Autumn 2025
Hello friends,
Recently I finally got around to sorting out the last of my seed saving efforts for autumn.
First up I sorted out the pumpkin and tomato seeds I had drying on paper towels. It didn't take too long to clean up, package and label my Baby Bear, Grey Crown, and Kakai pumpkin varieties, along with my Island Bay Tomato seeds.
Next up was dealing with all the flower seeds drying in the garage. I had two different stashes of Calendula officinalis seeds, a mixed container of seeds from various Calendula plants around the garden, and one container with seeds from the Calendula Strawberry Blonde variety I had growing. It didn't take very long to sieve them using my soil sifter, which I use for seed clean up.
I then sifted my Nigella, Love in the Mist, seeds I collected from various plants in the front garden.
And I also cleaned up and then stored mixed Cosmos seeds I collected from all the Cosmos varieties I grew over the summer. The seed sifter's multiple sieves came in handy, as there was quite a bit of flower bits in the mix.
In my seed clean up session I also found packets of Zinnia, Sulpur Cosmos, and Sweet Peas I had collected earlier in the autumn, but had not had a chance to store away yet.
With all that organising done, it was time to stow all the seeds away for the winter. I now have three matching seed storage containers, with one each for vegetable seeds, flower seeds, and herb and dye plant seeds. It didn't take very long at all to store all the seeds away in their appropriate containers. These containers make it so much easier to store the seeds, and then pull them out in smaller sections for seed sowing.
With that big job done, there's nothing more to do until the seed catalogues come out in the coming months, when I need to go through each box and check if I need to replace any seeds I wish to grow next spring.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Sowing Ranunuculus Seeds
Hello friends,
Three weeks ago I finally got around to sowing the ranunculus seeds I bought from Bud & Bloom back in January. The seeds don't germinate in hot weather, so I had to wait until late March when we start to get cooler mornings.
I pulled out my new seed sowing tray protector and got to work. I'm so pleased that I invested in buying it earlier this year, as it cuts down on mess big time, and it's so much easier to sow seeds.
I sowed one seed per cell, and gently covered each ranunculus seed with vermiculite as suggested in the instructions that came with the seeds. I gave them a good watering and stored all the seed trays undercover in the woodshed where it is cool for most of the day.
Now came the patiently waiting part, as ranunculus are notoriously slow at germinating, usually taking 2 - 3 weeks to germinate. Each day I checked on the seed trays and kept the vermiculite damp.
Two weeks after seed sowing, a single ranunculus seedling popped it's head above the vermiculite, and then another and another over the next few weeks.
Quite a few seedlings have come up now, and they are slowly growing in their seed sowing cells. Over the coming weeks they'll grow their underground root systems, and then as the weather gets even cooler, the plants will grow more leaves. I can't want to see lots of ranunculus plants flowering in spring this year.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
Ranunculus Seeds from Buds and Bloom, and a new Gardening Tool
Hello friends,
I was scrolling on Instagram recently, and came across a New Zealand flower seed business called Buds and Blooms Flower Farm. They were currently selling French and Italian ranunculus seeds in the most gorgeous colours. Before you could even say "shut up and take my money", I'd filled up my online cart and bought a bunch of ranunculus seeds for me to grow this March, for flowering next spring.
I bought the following ranunculus varieties:
* Bianco Sfumato, an Italian variety, "Shades of white, ivory and cream with a flush of pink. A fully double, luxuriant flower."
* Pastello 1, an Italian variety, "The perfect pastel mix of dreamy blush, pink, salmon and peach."
* Pastello 2, an Italian variety, "The perfect pastel mix of dreamy blush, pink, salmon and peach! This blend is heavier on the darker blush and salmon/peachy tones."
* Amandine Purple Jean, a French variety, "Gorgeous Mauve and purple blooms with a slight soft scent."
* Rosa, an Italian variety, "Rosa is one heck of a producer! Long, strong stems with the most perfect double pink bloom."
* Rosa Chiaro, an Italian variety, "Rosa Chiaro is a gorgeous, delicate Italian Ranunculus with it's pretty and delicate coloring. Long stems producing flowers in the most
perfect range of soft pinks."
I am very excited to start all these ranunculus varieties from seed this coming autumn, and then overwinter them in the glasshouse this winter, before planting them out in spring.
And as a bonus I get to use my newly purchased Potting Bench Tidy Tray for potting them out this autumn. I've wanted one for ages, but no one in New Zealand makes them. Occasionally, they're imported into the country from England, but they tend to get sold out very fast. Last month I managed to buy two at Nichol's Garden Center, and I gave one to my sister for her birthday, and kept one for me. No more messy seed sowing and potting mix everywhere!
Summer is coming to an end pretty quick, with the nights getting darker now earlier, and some of the deciduous tress in our neighbourhood are already starting slowly to change colour. It's sad to think that summer will be gone soon, but I'm now excited to be sowing seeds in March for the coming spring in September.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
Dahlia Profile - Floret Bee's Choice Flowers
Hello friends,
Today's dahlia profile is for my Floret Bee's Choice flowers. I bought dahlia and zinnia Floret flower seeds from Emerden in New Zealand last spring, and sowed them in October.
From Floret's Website: "Floret Bee's Choice was collected from all of our different dahlia breeding patches on the farm and includes a wide range of shapes, sizes, and colors—no two plants will be the same! Most of the flowers will have open centers, which will attract lots of pollinators to your garden. If you discover a variety you love, tubers can be saved and planted out the following year." Planted in full sun, plants will reach 48 to 72 in tall.
Floret 1:
Floret 2:
Floret 3:
Floret 4:
Floret 7:
Floret 8:
Floret 10:
As you can see from the Floret Bee's Choice dahlias that have flowered so far, dahlias 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8 all have yellow/orange colouring, with a range of petal numbers, with dahlias 3 and 8 having extra frills. Dahlias 7 and 10 are shades of pink, with dahlia 7 has curled inward petals, and dahlia 10 being pretty plain.
In terms of choosing which dahlias to keep at the end of the season, the only one I definitely want to keep is dahlia 3, with it's yellow/apricot colouring and pretty frills. I'm also kind of tempted by dahlia 8, but I'll see how it looks as the season goes on.
I have really enjoyed the process of dahlia growing from seed, watching the process from germination, to flowering, and I'll definitely collect seed from them in autumn.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
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