This is the time of year all of us avid gardeners start our seeds.  I started a few things like lavender and lobelia around Feb 1.  And I started artichoke seeds then.  I grow Imperial Star artichokes, and if you start them indoors very early, you can pick artichokes the first year.  This is very good for those of us who live in places where artichokes would not overwinter.  Then in the middle of February I started some blue salvia, gomphrena, lupine and hollyhocks, and my earliest tomato, beaverlodge, which I get from Territorial Seeds.

This year, I tried taking cuttings of some of my annual plants.  I saved one plant from several varieties that I thought I might want to grow again this year.  Here are the mother plants which I’ve been growing in my basement under grow lights all winter.  They look pretty scruffy.

At the beginning of February, I took cuttings from them.  I stuck them in seed starting mix, no rooting hormone, put them in a plastic bag to keep them moist, and put the 6-packs on top of my cable box where it is warm, opening the bags occasionally to let them dry out a little so they didn’t rot.

Most of them rooted, I just planted them into larger pots with potting soil today.  Here they are:

Above are coleus and euphorbia diamond frost

Lastly, are my petunias.  These rooted really easily.  I just took some begonia and ivy geranium cuttings the other day to see if they will root.  Try it next year!

This photo was taken last summer of the huge containers around the Whole Foods near my house.  I’d love to know who they hire to do the gardening at that shopping center, because they do a fabulous job.  Can anyone help me identify these plants?  I see heliotrope marine smack dab in the middle (ridged green leaves  and deep purple flowers) and I’m thinking the raspberry colored flowers might be a small verbena?  Could the purple leaves be basil?  Anyone else know any of the others?

Here’s an interesting container planting with a canna lily, calibrachoa, and sweet potato vine.  As my mother would say, that’s a tall drink of water.