I've been setting up my seed starting stand. One of the warming mats is cleaned up, I wShed plastic pots, soaked some seed starting medium, and today planted seeds.
Onion Sweet Spanish. Heirloom Variety. Baker Creek Seeds 2021.
Red Wethersfield Onion. Heirloom variety. Fedco Seeds 2022.
New York Early Onion. Heirloom Variety. Fedco Seeds. 2022.
Grocery Store Shallot. I planted them last winter. Some bloomed. I saved seeds Fall 2021.
Camelot Red Shallot hybrid. Fedco Seeds. 2022.
Heishiko Japanese Bunching Onion. Heirloom Variety. Victory Seeds. 2022.
Rudbeckia hirta "Marmalade". Outside Pride Seeds. Undated, maybe last year.
Rudbeckia hirta "Prairie Sun". Park Seeds. 2021 or 2022 growing year. These are labeled "Origin Germany".
Most sources state that onion, shallot, chive seeds only keep a year. We'll see if the year-old Spanish Onion seeds grow. If no germination in 2 weeks, I'll plant more of the others.
The grocery shallots might be F1 hybrids. That would make my seeds F2 and they might (1) not grow at all or (2) might be all sorts of sizes and shapes or (3) might turn out similar to their parent. It is an experiment. Plus, I didn't cover the flowers so they might have cross pollinated with onion flowers. That's fine with me. I also don't know if that is possible.
In my garden, NY Early and Sweet Spanish grow very well, the onions are excellent, store a long time, but might be a little too large. This year I want to compare those and Red Wethersfield. All three are open pollinated. Whichever ones I like, can set aside bulbs to make seeds in their second year.
The Rudbeckias are for the flower beds. I'm not clear on whether they will bloom in their first year. If my memory is correct, I started Rudbeckias early, many years ago, and got nice flowers during their first year. I can interplant them with French marigolds so the area will bloom either way.
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