7 Petunias

Those were 2/24 planted five days earlier, so that's what? 30 for month to month, +6 to end the March, +2 to start April so 38 days since then ↓ and 43 days since planting and it is ready to burst its first bud. The bud stem is right there in the front.

Now these are special seeds. Special magical seeds. The company, Aerogarden, has the lockdown on these magical seeds. It's like Jack and the Beanstalk, the seeds are proprietary and scientific and magic so there is no way they can be duplicated outside the Aerogarden seed vault lockdown. 

Right? 

No. They found the seeds that work best. And these petunia seeds are particularly brilliant, they really have come a long way developing these annual plants. They pile, they creep, they cascade, they needn't be pinched, they keep going and going and going. So now when you buy these most modern of all hybrid seeds they cost a lot. Sometimes a dollar a dot. And by dot, I mean dot, like this:  [.]

That is a petunia seed. 

Each dot cost a dollar.

But it is pretty much guaranteed to grow and guaranteed to blow your mind, flower-wise.

This pushed the hybrids before them to the background and they are not so bad. Excellent, actually, they just do not go crazy like the new ones do. They are the beautiful and abundant standard bearers of previous years and their seeds are cheep as dirt. It's a shame to not just buy a pound and sprinkle the seeds all around town. 

I placed an order for three vials of mind-blowing petunia seeds, 1 larger vial of regular outstanding white petunias to fill in here and there and everywhere, and another plant called Vinca which Aerogarden is marketing as their new hot thing. 

Complaints to Aerogarden about their Vinca seed kits involve problems with germination. When the plant takes off it fills out so completely that one or two failures is not noticed. It is not a problem from a true gardener's point of view. It saves clearing out things that die due to being overly compacted. In a 7-plant kit the task of keeping up can be daunting with 7 hungry plants slurping water, needing feedings, and cleaning out excess overcrowding growth, a regular Audrey 2. 

From the consumer's point of view they bought a kit consisting of 7 seeds with 7 little cups and 7 little domes and they expect 7 little plants to arise from it. They are dividing the total seed kit cost by 7 and calculating cost for each plant and knowing themselves ripped off when one or two or three do not take.  Insisting they be satisfied with a successful pile of plants does not cut it. They need every one to work, even if the whole effort works out worse in the end because of it. 

So I bought some of these Vinca seeds too. From Pase seeds. I placed the order some time this weekend, the seeds were in the mailbox today. 

And their petunia seeds are $6.75 for ten, I lied about them being a dollar a dot for dramatic exaggeration. 

I hardened baby plants on the balcony overnight it became too cold and they suffered. Brought them in over the threshold but kept the door open and weather and sun on them and they all sprang back.