Forgotten Seeds: A Spring Gardening Surprise

May 18, 2025 ~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

“Let Love Grow.”
That was what the green paper leaf said, attached to a small baby food jar full of wildflower seeds. I thought, “I wish I thought up something so cute to hand out at my wedding.” As soon as the snow melted for the year, I would plant them in a big fancy pot, and they would grow on my deck, along with my tea roses, ivy, and avocado trees. I kept the little jar of seeds with my gardening tools to wait for spring.

Spring never did show up that year until July. By then, I was heavily involved with other things. Camp Grandma for one. We planted fast-growing flowers like sunflowers because the girls were only with me for a week. My plans to start seedlings in the winter fizzled out due to unforeseen events. I wanted to be able to take the jar of seeds and scatter them willy-nilly around the front of the house. I even had a great flower bed I could use. Then hubby reminded me that anything planted there would be critter food – deer, bears, raccoons, turkeys, and who-knows-what-else would gobble up my flowers. Okay – next year for sure….

Fast forward (nearly a decade) to 2025. I was packing up my weeding tools, and guess what I found? A baby food jar, with a green leaf!

The label was dirty and faded, but still legible. Even the small font was readable, “Melvin & Heidi 02-28-16.”

2016! My heart sank. There was no way I would be able to open that jar. Even after hot water, tapping with a knife, rubber bands, and dishwashing gloves to help me grip the thing, nothing got it loose. Then hubby said, “Let me take it into the shop, I think I have something that will work…” He returned with an open jar of flower seeds. Yeah!

I planted a 3rd of the jar into a large pot on May 7th.
Now it is May 17th, and if you look closely at the soil in the pot, you can see tiny green sprouts.

I was not expecting this at all. Oh sure, I was hoping the seeds still had life in them. I imagined how fun it would be to send a photo to Melvin and Heidi and tell them the story.

It looks like I will be doing just that. I will wait until the sprouts grow and mature into definite plants. And pray that I don’t kill them before that.

Stay tuned for more tales from the garden…

The Hopeful (Lazy?) Gardener

March 7, 2012 ~ JodiLea

I come from a long line of Kansas farmers, who are no doubt laughing beyond the grave as they shake their heads at my flower garden.

Hey! I planted the daffodil bulbs in December and they are popping up on schedule. AND I have spent 2 weekends hacking weeds out of the California soil, which really isn’t soil at all, just dirty gravel broken up with rocks.

I was tired and achy and succumbed to temptation from a mail-order catalog that promised “quick and easy” beautiful flower gardens. I ordered these organic roll out strips filled with seeds and followed the instructions (except for the part that told me to remove all the rocks from the flower bed – which could never happen).

Flower Strips

Wah-Lah! This is the before photo of my beautiful flower garden. (Note the timely daffodil’s growing in the center) I just need to keep it damp for 2 weeks and the seeds will germinate. Unfortunately, it looks ridiculous now.

It was forecast to rain yesterday, so I did not water the precious strips. Dang! By the time I get home they may have dried out. Luckily I get home around 2:30pm, so maybe not all is lost.

I’ll know in a couple of weeks if I blew 20 bucks or not 😉

The Cactus Flower

August 19, 2011 ~ JodiLea ~ 2 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge:Flowers

I have an Aloe garden in my backyard, and this year one of my Aloe bloomed. When it bloomed 2 years ago, I learned that this is how they reproduce. After it dropped its pods, I discovered several baby Aloes taking root! My garden area has doubled since 2009.

This year I wanted to make a pictorial of the Aloe’s life cycle, to share it with my fellow bloggers and readers. I suspect most people don’t have an Aloe plant in their yard to watch themselves.

: Big Momma is the Aloe that started it all

My oldest and largest Aloe, “Big Momma”, started growing a stick-like projection shooting up from the center.

: Big Momma Grows a Stalk, with four flower stems!

: Flowers begin to bloom open after a couple weeks

A new development this year -the stalk was weak and the four flowers were heavy, so there was leaning. Leaning is normal in the “giving birth” phase because the Aloe wants to drop pods as far from her as possible. But Big Momma was leaning before the flowers matured. Unfortunately, all four were positioned over the cement.

: Whoops!

I dared not try and prop up the stalk for fear it would snap and all would be lost. I would have to be Big Momma’s mid-wife and deliver the pods to the garden soil or they would hit the cement and not become babies. I was going to be keeping an eye on things anyway, as I photographed Big Momma’s progress.

: When a flower matures, it’s petals have a lacy “hem” and start to blush purple. So gorgeous!

The flower petals do not last more than a week or two. They soon begin to dry up and seed pods start to grow.

: Droopy and Drying, but still pretty

Two more weeks and the seed pods are growing and taking nourishment from the petals. The petals dry up and drop off.

: Flowers morphing into pods

: Pods left behind to “give birth” to baby aloe plants!

: Big Momma nearly ready to give birth

At the point where the pods were beginning to open was when I bent the stalk to lean over the garden area. I can’t find that photo, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

It seemed to take forever for anything to change. Meanwhile, the ground cover I planted on the non-Aloe half of the garden began to take over the entire backyard. It was growing out of cracks in the sidewalk and hid nearly every Aloe from the sun.

: Can only see Big Momma over the wild ground cover taking over the garden!

Today’s gorgeous weather inspired me to rip out the ground cover and hunt for babies! This takes a helluva lot of time when it is growing under and around spiny cactus, believe me! I am only 1/5th of the way finished, but I stopped to take a photo of the baby I uncovered so far.

: Look who was hiding under the flowers! She will grow a lot faster now that the sun can reach her!

: Also finding a couple 2009 babies that are looking good!

Well, that was close to a 3-month process. I’m proud that my attention span allowed me to complete this little nature pictorial.

Hope you enjoyed it 😉