In my now annual seed influx from the Hardy Plant Society seed scheme, I signed up for a lucky dip packet which is made up from loose seeds. These are escapees from envelopes, spillage from the silver teaspoons used for scoops, that kind of thing. They are unidentified. I don’t have the expertise to identify the varieties from the seeds, so each one will be a surprise.
Well, what fun and games. Last time I had potted up most of the mystery seedlings from the first of two batches. Since then I have killed them all! I am a stone cold plant killer. In an act of gardening over-confidence, I put a liberal scoop of fertiliser in with the potting mix. This single hubristic folly resulted in the death by over-eating of a whole swathe of seedlings, including this lot. They all died, stuffed to the gills with nutrients they weren’t ready to take on. Like giving steak and chips to a baby. So we’ll say no more about this first batch, their identities having gone with them to the compost heap. Cue sombre music.
More happily, we still have batch 2, plus some from batch 1 that had germinated since I potted their stable-mates on. The game is thus still afoot. Here they are, in no particular order. Any you recognise?







Answers on a postcard or back of a sealed envelope. Send to: Multicoloured Swap Shop, BBC Broadcasting House, London W1A 1AA. Or alternatively you can drop me a comment below.
I’ll be back with another mystery seed update in a month or so.
My borage has white spots, so I’m more inclined to primrose or possibly teasel, but I think the leaves are more angular. Anyway – I’m doing the death, killer gardener thing this week! Could be a bit grim for such lovely weather..
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WHAT?! I was certain to get a few of those correct! I have no idea about these, not even #2. It looks like a weed!
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#1 maybe daylily? I’ve never seen daylily seeds so not sure. So much fun!
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Too much fertilizer? Hopefully, we can all learn from your mistake. My first thought on strappy leaf mystery seedling was agapanthus. Lots of votes for that one, so maybe it will be.
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I didn’t need to add fertiliser, the compost has sufficient for seedlings. Lesson learned
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I’d like to think that seedling 2 is a primrose or polyanthus. That thought is mainly because I am addicted to buying these little plants 🙂
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No 2 looks like something I am always pulling up in my gravel driveway! Hopefully yours is something much nicer 😀
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Had to come back to this as those leaves niggled me. Could it be Green alkanet? A member of the forget-me-not family, Boraginaceae, and is related to borage and comfrey. Hairy stems to 80cm (32in), leaves broadly ovate and noticeably bristly.
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Mystery 1 looks to me like corncockle seedlings, mystery 2 looks a bit like either verbascum seedlings or viper’s bugloss and I agree with the polemonium choice for mystery 3. What fun!
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#1 agapanthus? but fluffy…sthen allium? #2 borage ( looks like mine)
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Yup #2 looks quite like borage.
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Number one looks like agapanthus but that’s just because it reminds of that with those strappy leaves.
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Might be might be. I will pot it up to 1L I think.
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But the leaves look hairy/furry in the photo but who knows about seedlings sometimes they can be different to the adult
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The mystery continues. It might have to wait till they flower.
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Mystery seed #3 looks a lot like my Polemonium seedlings.
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Might be. Certainly feasible, lots of polemonium seeds were donated to the scheme. Thanks.
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Blimey! What an adventure! No idea what 1 might be. 2 looks like some kind of primula maybe? 3 and 4 no idea. 5 looks like courgettes!!
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It sure is. Made life difficult for myself. In theory the seeds should all be hardy plants but in fact some.veg seeds to get sent in to the seed scheme. So might be courgette, although those are normally more vigorous
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