Seeds to trade: The following seeds have been donated to the plant sale and I can not use them. Hoping to trade for seeds I can use

• vinca pacifica x P mix Xmas in July (ball seed)
• Verbena Quartz x P red eye (ball seed)
• lettuce Great lakes 659 (ball seed)
• vinca pacifica x p magaenta (ball seed)
• polygonum pink pin heads ( ball seed)
• strawflower King red (ball seed)
• pansy matrix sunrise (ball seed)
• Vinca cooler raspberry (ball seed)
• cleome queen mix (ball seed)
• grass carex color grass Amazon mist ( ball seed)
• alyssum wonderland pink (ball seed)
• portulaca tequila orange (ball seed)
• portulaca margarita cream (ball seed)
• portulaca sundial scarlet (ball seed)
• petunia yellow pop rocks (ball seed)
• Marigold African Atlantis (ball seed)
• petunia madness mix merlot (ball seed)
• alyssum wonderland purple deep (ball seed)
• slyddum Easter Bonnet lavender (ball seed)
• portulaca sundial orange (ball seed)
• portulaca sundial pink (ball seed)
• petunia dreams burgundy (ball seed)
• portulaca Sundial peppermint (ball seed)
• alyssum wonderland lavender(ball seed)
• impatiens super elfin x p mix bold (}ball seed)
• Vinca:(Park Seed)
• pacifica dark red
• pacifica deep orchid
• Petunia:(Park seed)
• Debonair dusty rose
• pink vein
• celosia amigo scarlet (park seed)
• Cactus ornamental blend (park seed)
• Salvia patio pink (park seed)
• Salvia Splendens Bon fire (park seed)
• Petunia bella true rose hybrid (park seed)
• Nicotina saratog rose(park seed)
• Nicotiana perfume Lilac (park seed)
• Pansy ideal lion lemon hybrid (park seed)
• Marigold Big O boy mix (burpee)
• Marigold flagstaff (burpee)
• zinnia profusion orange (burpee)
• lobelia crystal palace (burpee)
• nemophila baby blue eyes (burpee)

Getting busy around here ..so busy I forgot to post lat Sunday when I planted some more stuff under lights...
I planted
 Mortgage Lifter Tomato
Italian Market Wonder Tomato
Peron Sprayless Tomato
and Giant Belgium.

I plan on winter sowing some more stuff today Like tomatoes, I start a bunch under lights to have ready for May 1st and Winter Sow the rest for the the 15th or so of May. They do not fetch as much money as they are not as big as the ones grown under lights ..but man are they tough little plants.

Thanks for looking. Hope you can help

Thanks for following the link to my blog. Please read the letters below (links to printable documents included) to learn more about the plant sale and how you can help.

Information about Children's Hospital Plant sale

Ways you can help the plant sale

Ok a Sunday to myself and I winter sowed the following
 Gaura lindheimeri aka wand flower
daisy Becky /Shasta
sacbiosa columbaria aka pincushion flower pink mist
rudbeckia hirta aka glorisoa daisy autum colors
matusmurae color purple
babys breath
echinacea aka purple cone flower
carnation chabaud picotee fantasy mix
holly hock zebrina
dianthus baby doll mix
dianthus sweet willam mix
hollyhock dwarf queeny mixed
mimosa pudica  aka sensitive plant
acer palmatum dissectum greenleaf cut leaf Japanese maple
 Then for fun I sowed some more hot peppers:
Moruga scorpion brain strain
orange Habanero
and ghost Bih Bhut jolokia

busy day here at casa de coocoo. With Marlene's wonderful help I sowed  bunch of seeds to go under lights

Mariglobe tomato
Eva Ball purple tomato
cowlicks brandywine
brandywine yellow
pinkshipper tomato
green brandy tomato
mcclintocks big pink
top sirloin
terahune...
warren's yellow cherry
rufus carrigan's mexican pink
liz burt
cheetham's potato leaf
tasmanian chocolate
spudakee
german johnson
ohio red 1884 purple
black mountain pink
norcarlina pink
granny cantrell
lithuanian
pasilla bajio pepper
sandia
thai
cayenne
rellenos hot pepper

Just an FYI: We are going to have the potting party Sunday April 27th.

What's the potting party ? The potting party is a group work day that we make in to a party with food,drinks,music ,jumpy houses and activities  for the kids.When YOU can come out and help me get ready for the plant sale  by helping me: groom plants, pot them up in to bigger pots,and do other things needed to get the plants ready for the big event

This years party is about a week later then normal due to Easter Sunday.So I am really going to need a lot of help. Please consider coming, bring a friend,bring a hand trowel,garden gloves,and your favorite alcoholic beverages. I provide the food, and everything else!

The sale will kick off on Friday May 2nd. and run every Friday, Sat, Sunday in May as well as Thursday May 29th

Can't make the potting party? We could use you to volunteer to spend a few hours at the plant sale helping water plants,picking up donations of plants,or selling plants. Yo do not have to have a lot of knowledge about plants to sell the plants.  I provide detail plant descriptions that cover most basic questions,I try and pair up non experienced plant people with plant smart people.So do not worry if you are not a garden guru, we just need nice people to come spend some time with us,,is that you?! Plus you, as our volunteer will get a one day free shopping pass ( a $55.00 value ) to Costco in Avon MA and lunch at the Costco food court.

Hope to see you then!
Love The CrazyPlantLady and family

just another winter sowing update today I sowed 23 containers( with the help of Angela P! thanks for the milk jugs!)

 I planted the following seeds:
Common Milk weed
Yellow Coneflower
Aquilegia McKana's Giant's
Yarrow white
Heliotrope Marine
Aquillegia tower Blue Light
Carnation "Can Can" scarlet
dianthus fringed pinks
Purple Echinacea
gaillardia Goblin (again)
Hot Papya Coneflower(again)
dianthus rainbow loveliness mix
Hot Lava coneflower (Again)
Tomato soup coneflower(again)

I lost a post on what Marlene and I planted. This is to recreate that list

Triple curled parsley
Italian parsley
Cat nip
german chamomile
winter thyme
lemon balm
sweeet marjoram
bouquet Dill
garlic chives
russian tarragon
lupin blue purple
giant parsley of Napoli
french rosemary
savory
sedum autumn joy
centaurea montan blue
geum avens
lobelia cardinalis red flowers

I know there was more but I am not finding the seed packets and the jugs are under 10 inches of snow so I can't check ... I'll update this when i can find the jugs I know we totaled 56 jugs that day

more winter sowing here today today I sowed:

lobelia cardinalis red flowerd
lupin blue purple
campanula cup and saucer mix
playcodon grandiflora balloon flower
coneflower Tomato soup
coneflower Hot Lava
coneflower Hot papaya
monarda ruby red
gaillardia goblin

I received a seed donation from Baker Seeds in the mail this week!

 Donations so far:

Baker Creek seed company: seeds
Ball Hort: seeds
F.M Shumacker: tree seeds

I am planning a charity plant sale to benefit Children's Hospital Boston to be held this May 2014. I would like your assistance.
I have successfully facilitated this plant sale since May 2009. and raised $33,000.00 Costco in Avon donates the space for the sale
I hope to raise $15,000 in 2014. I am attempting to grow a great deal of the plants at my home without the benefit of a greenhouse.
This year's goal is going to take a lot more plants and I am looking forward to the challenge of growing them.

I am asking for your support in donating

• any plant material ,
  
• propagation supplies (seeds,light carts,trays, plug cells, starting mix, plant tags,,fertilizer seed mats, etc., etc.)
  
• Any staff that would like to spend a few hours sharing their knowledge of plants at the sale.( they will get a one day shopping pass to Costco Avon)
  
• Any items or advice you think would be helpful in this endeavor.. would be welcome as well.
  

Costco Avon will provide one extra large Children s Miracle Network Balloon with your business information for any donation worth $500.00 at retail.
The 5 Costco locations in MA and NH partnering with the Children's Miracle Network raised over $140,000 for Boston Children 's Hospital in 2013. Please join us in helping a great cause that has a tremendous impact on the lives of so many Children and Families.

You may call Shannon Collins, Warehouse Manager, or Carlos Marketing Manager at 508-232-4000 to verify this request.
Thank you for your help in this matter.
Michelle Tarver
508-386-0759 ( home)
774-273-0020 ( cell)

So with the help of my right hand lady Marlene this past Saturday we planted 56 milk jugs of mainly herbs with a select few flowers thrown in . We had to be picky about what flowers to do with the few remaining jugs that were left after starting all the herbs.

Just stopping by to blow the dust off the blog.... WE WILL be having a plant sale for 2014. Come join the fun. pop by the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/CrazyPlantLady-for-Childrens-Hospital-Boston-CMNH/278609422192023 and stay tuned for lots of updates

Popping in to say... we raised over $33,000 for the Hospital when you add the plant money to the money Costco in Avon raised! ( The plant sale did about $9,500.00)  Soo WHOO HOO.

The following is a piece Beverly Beckham of the Boston Globe wrote about the plant sale. She spoke primarily to Evan, and we briefly met. She wrote this with what she learned from Evan so it's good but incomplete...she was not told about the army of people this takes to make work.


She called me an ordinary person doing extraordinary things...And I am not doing anything great... If we had talked I would have told her about all of you. I could not do this without a LOT of help, If you are getting this Email YOU are my help. You make this sale possible.


People like: Marlene O'Brien is my right hand woman, Thank you and bless your crazy heart for adopting this as your pet project. Lori Packard the fairy godmother of plants who wonderfully donated for the 3rd year in a row van fulls of annuals and hanging baskets EACH WEEKEND in May that make my sale look pretty and draw people in. Without her help this would NOT work. My Dear Husband who also enables this nutty project and is my partner in crime. He's the garden master, driver, the scheduler, adviser and best friend. All of you Connie for your past tomato plants, and this years seeds, Chris ditto! New England pottery. Massachusetts Master Gardner Association for your support in manning the tables with such knowledge and enthusiasm. And of course Costco for letting us do the sale at all and for all the wonderful support they provide to the sale.

I could go on and on and on...but you want to hear the total we made for 2012 and get to the real story here that Beverly wrote..... So the est for this year is around $9500.00 So in 4 years with all your love and support we have made about $39,500 Just in plant sales. The money we have raised this year is combined with the fund-raising efforts of Costco Avon, and Costco Corporate matches a percent of that combined donation. So with your help in 4 years we have done a lot of good. Thank you. I hope I can live up to the very kind words Beverly wrote about me.

(The following article is from today's Sunday Boston Globe, Globe South section, p 6.)




A lesson from a garden

By Beverly Beckham

In the book I have never written, “Everything I Need to Know, I Learned in My ­Garden,” I would have a chapter called “It matters where you are planted.”

Here’s why:

I bought six flats of annuals last weekend, two dazzler white impatiens, two maestro salvia, and two raspberry parfait dianthuses. That’s 288 hardy, but very little, plants.

I bought them from a woman whose name is ­Michelle Tarver, but who calls herself Crazy Plant Lady ­because she is so crazy about plants in all their guises that she not only grows them but also writes about them on her website crazyplantlady.org, which is subtitled “Chronicles of a Productive Obsession.”

I met her outside of Costco in Avon, where this North Dighton resident has been setting up shop every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in May — not to line her own pockets but to raise money for Boston Children’s Hospital.

Most of the plants she sells she grows herself. Her son, ­Evan, who helped me load what I bought into my car, said she starts them in early spring, watches them sprout, feeds them, and keeps them warm.

Some plants she gets as ­donations from other gardeners, which requires her driving all over the state to pick them up. She sends every ­penny ­people pay her to ­Children’s Hospital.

What she does consumes her time and is a lot of work, but here she is, with her family and friends helping her, one more ordinary person quietly doing an extraordinary thing.

I thought of her and her teenage son with every hole I dug last Sunday. I was careful with each tender shoot. I ­watered every plant right after I patted dirt around it. And then when I finished, I connected the hose and ­watered all the plants again.

Despite my care in planting them and the Crazy Plant ­Lady’s care in growing them, they won’t all survive. I know this. I plant flowers every year (except for last year, which I took off).

And I have learned that you can plant seemingly identical flowers one right next to the other, and one will thrive and grow big and look exactly like the picture on its identification tag and the other will wither and die.

What I don’t know is why.

Most plants are easy to grow. And they come with descrip­tions so you always know what you’ll be getting. Salvia: Fiery-red flower spikes, dwarf plants. Dark green foliage. Grows to 10 inches.

Plus, they come with directions: Use in borders, beds. How to grow: Plant in sun or part sun 10 inches apart.

It should be a slam dunk. Follow the instructions, and everything you put in the ground should survive.

But even in plant life there are variables. Too much sun. Not enough sun. Sandy soil. Silty soil. Too close to a tree. Not close enough. The morning paper lands on it. The hose uproots it. A child plucks it. An adult steps on it. The hedgehogs devour it.

I dug permanent homes for all 288 little plants that someone else grew from seed. And I was gentle. But I saw how the soil changed every few feet, how it was darker and richer near the trees and lighter and dryer near the street.

I felt the sun’s angle shift, too, as I moved around the yard, going from hot to warm, from sunshine to shadow.

I noticed, too, how some plants absorbed the water I fed them from the hose and how with others the water just ran off.

I don’t know which of the seedlings will make it and which will not. Maybe run-off water is good. Maybe these plants will like it near the street. All I know is that it matters where you’re planted.

Whether you’re a raspberry parfait ­dianthus, a dazzler white ­impatiens, or the person who plants them, you need to be tended to. You need to thrive to grow.

E-mail Beverly Beckham at bevbeckham@aol.com.


--
Michelle

Today I'm heading out to R&C Farms/Simons Greenhouses (Scituate, MA) to pick up a donation for the plant sale.  Thank you Ronnie Simons.

This year's sale (The 4th Annual CMN Plant Sale) is nearly upon us.

• The replacement tie down anchors came in today, so the sign/banner is going up in front of Costco's entrance either today or tomorrow. I'll post a picture when I get it setup.
• The old minivan is going to be converted back into "the plant wagon" this evening or tomorrow morning; I just have to gather up all of the shelving parts (that I stored somewhere in the basement). 
• Lori Packard (of Packard Farms, Brockton, MA) is once again on-board. I'll be picking up our first van-load of flowering plants, and maybe herbs, this Thursday. 
• Friday morning I will be at Costco (9am) to setup the racks in front of the store, so Marlene can begin selling the goods when she gets there at 10am. From there I will be driving to Loudon, NH to pick up a donation from Pleasant View Gardens. Perhaps I can persuade them to make an additional donation later in the month. 

Just a reminder that the sale is running through the month of May.  The official hours of the plant sale are Fri/Sat/Sun from 11am - 5pm (only 4 weekends this year, as opposed to 5 the past two years). These hours are just a guideline as we may actually start earlier and run later (depends how business is going).

BTW - A big thanks goes out to Susan G. of Newton, MA.  She invited us over and contributed numerous perennials from her garden; elephant ear hostas, Black-eyed Susans, Rose Campion and Ornamental Grasses to name a few.  (And thank you to Marlene for finding Susan on the Freecycle forums.)

If you know of anyone that might have something to contribute, please refer them to me.  If they have perennials to divide in their gardens I can provide pots to put them in.  Just let me know.

A way to join in the fun

Seasons Greetings Fellow New Englanders,
For the past few years when people ask me what I want for Christmas I ask that they make a donation to a charity. It used to be St. Jude's and I would get a very nice acknowledgement card from them. I think most large organizations do this. This year a good friend of mine got married (she is in her 50's) and although it was her first marriage, she, like me, does not need another "thing". I gave her her wedding invitation in a silver frame and a donation to the Childrens' Hospital in Boston. (She was also sort of styling her wedding on a lower scale Will and Kate version and that was along the line of what they requested as wedding gifts).
In response to my "Question Impossible", along with great responses from diggerdee and diggingthedirt, gardenweed sent me a lot of perennial seeds to wintersow for Michelle's (ontheteam) Childrens' Hospital plant sale in May. I've tried wintersowing before with mixed results and was wondering if there is anyone out there who would be able to help. This is what I propose - if you're in the greater Boston area (I live in Newton) select at least 2 seed packages from the list below and wintersow them for the plant sale and "give" the plants and your time and efforts as a gift to someone this year (just include a notation in a card). As long as there are at least 20 plants (or if you pick more than 2 seeds, at least 10 plants per seed package) in the Spring, I'll come pick them up. If your wintersowing efforts are not successful, at least you tried and you'll get some experience for the future. If you succeed, you'll be donating some plants to the plant sale but also get to keep some to give the remainder to family, friends or swaps. Either way, you've given the person who has everything a gift of yourself to benefit the Childrens' Hospital. I'm trying to make this a win-win for everyone so if you're interested or have any other idea, please send me an email.
Thank you for you time and patience reading my long winded message. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Iris sibirica - Siberian iris (at least 50 seeds)
Stokesia laevis 'Klaus Jelitto' - Stokes Astor (at least 25 seeds)
Dianthus barbatus - Sweet William 'Sooty' (at least 50 seeds)
Baptisia australis - False Indigo 'Starlite Prarieblues' (at least 50 seeds)
Baptisia australis - False Indigo (at least 25 seeds)
Verbascum chaixil var. album - mullein 'Milk Shake' (at least 100 seeds)
Gaillardia aristata - Blanket Flower (at least 50 seeds)
Lychnis coronaria - Rose Companion (at least 100 seeds)
Dianthus plumarius - Cottage pinks (at least 25 seeds)
Hosta 'Sieboldiana Elegans' - Plantain lily (at least 100 seeds)
Leucanthemum/chrysanthemum x superbum - Shasta Daisy (at least 50 seeds)
Lupinus perennis - Lupine (red) (at least 25 seeds)
Penstemon digitalis - Foxglove beardtongue 'Mystica' (at least 50 seeds)
Trollius ledebourli - Chinese globeflower (at least 50 seeds)
Aquilegia - Columbine (mix)(at least 100 seeds)
Aquilegia vulgaris - Columbine 'Winky Mix' (at least 50 seeds)
Phlox paniculata - tall garden phlox mixed (at least 25 seeds)
Livingstone Seed Co. - 2 packages Lupine - Russell's Prize Mix
Livingstone Seed Co. - 1 package Foxglove - Gloxinaflora Mix
Burpee - 2 packages Iberis sempervirens - Candytuft
Burpee - 3 pacages Painted Daisy Mixed Colors - Margarita Mayor

CMN Endorsement Letter for 2012 Sale ;)

Scroll down and click on the middle of the letter below to see a full screen view of it.  CrazyPlantLady.org is now specifically named in the letter.  Awesome!  :)

And 2012 plant sale prep starts!

So most of you are running around trying to tie up the 2011 loose and get set for Christmas... Well  ends here at Casa de cucoo.. We are gearing up for the 2012 CMN plant sale. Recruiting volunteers! Getting donation letters written,refining the address list. and choosing what seeds we are going to grow for you!  So Think warm May thoughts and think about how  YOU can help.