Seedlings!

I confess that I cannot pass up a chance to try growing plants from seed.  Knowing the logistics--the wasted time, money and effort when something doesn't sprout--just doesn't seem to phase me.  Not all my attempts have been failures.  I have a couple of rose bushes I grew from seeds--they are the Romer's Hip Happy, a rose that makes big rose hips with easy to sprout seeds.  But still!

So when I came down with the Iris Virus this year, of course it would not do but I had to grow iris from seed.  In trying to identify so many of my No I.D. ("noids") iris, I learned that there are a seemingly infinite variety of them!  My favorite is and always will be the tall bearded, but I have a few of the different kinds now.  And most of these are in part to my little trays of seedlings.

Here are few photos of the "lab" where I have tended the trays and fussed over the little green sprouts.  They will need potting up and careful nursing through a blistering summer.  But by fall, they should be strong enough to plant in the beds out front. 

The nursery!  (a.k.a. the labORatory.  hwaahahaha...)

Red flag iris, blue flag, and some Siberians. 

A tiny rose, black sage shrubs, senna corymbosa, and a squirrel planted palm tree I dug up.

Tropical milkweed, for the monarchs.

Aren't they sweet?

I think this has been a lesson in patience.  It's usually two to three years from seed to bloom with these babies!  Here's hoping I will see blooms in a couple of years.