This post had me a little bit stumped if I'm honest... I mean, aren't all seedlings just green? With a little bit of white at the bottom? Perhaps some are a different hue. Little beetroot seedlings maybe. I'm not sure.
If the title was 'Seed' I'd have fared better. I could have waxed lyrical about humbug-striped sunflower seeds or pale, ethereal dandelion clocks. Or 'Bud'. I've taken a lot of photos lately of rhubarb-pink and coral buds on the very brink of bursting.
I suppose that for me I think about seedlings as promising little things: They've managed to germinate and, with the right care and conditions, they'll grow and flourish. It's all about imagination and having faith at this stage.
The dill will grow into tall, feathery plants with beautiful sulphur-yellow flowers. The calendulas will be a rich, bright orange and I'm hoping to make a salve from the petals.
Other seedlings on the go in our rickety little plastic 'greenhouse': Chillies (Jay has a thing about growing them), Angelica gigas (which will - fingers crossed - become imposing, bee-friendly plants with deep purple blooms and foliage), sweet peas and sunflowers in velvety rust colours. I've yet to plant some Ammi majus (Bishop's flower). They should produce frothy white flowers, not dissimilar to cow parley, in the dappled shade amongst my foxgloves.
So, seedlings. Little and green and nondescript now but they're the starting point for a whole riot of colour to come.
Don't forget to visit the other Colour Collaborative blogs for more of this month's posts, just click on the links below.
What is The Colour Collaborative?
All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff. Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together? Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too. We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.
Lovely photos, it's intriguing to seem them with the roots as well. You've reminded me that I haven't planted any sunflowers yet. I really must do that, and have a look through the seed box and see what else I've missed. CJ xx
ReplyDeleteI can see your garden in my mind's eye. I love dusky velvety flowers too growing alongside frothy white plants like Orlaya and Nigella. Don't forget to sow biennials such as Erysimum (wallflowers - I sowed 'Blood Red' last year, gorgeous colour), sweet William and sweet rocket soonish (no later than midsummer -preferably sooner) for flowering next year. These are all really good tough cottage garden plants and as an extra bonus all are deliciously scented. You can sow them direct in rows or grids and transplant them to their final growing position in the autumn or you can sow them in half seed trays and pot them on before transplanting. I do the former as the seedlings develop much better than those pampered in trays and pots and it saves time and resources too. Happy growing.
ReplyDeleteLovely photos and lovely thoughts. And I've just remembered some chilli seeds I need to plant!
ReplyDeleteSeedlings are so exciting and full of promise! I love your photos. They remind me a plates from an old botanical reference book :)
ReplyDeleteYes absolutely - not much to look at now but so full of promise and I am imagining the wonderful rich colours you're going to have in your garden this summer. I consider it a huge achievement if I manage to grow anything at all from seed that isn't a sunflower.
ReplyDeleteI think the roots are one of the most interesting parts myself. It's funny that we saw seedlings so differently; I saw plenty of colors and you saw green. If we'd written about seeds, I think I would have had more trouble. I like seeing each other's perspectives through these posts. :)
ReplyDeleteThey certainly are a wonderful sign of good things to come!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it strange how things that look so similar at the start can go on to look so different? I've barely done any seed stuff this year...and thank goodness as with no greenhouse and the snow they'd be toast! xx
ReplyDeleteWhile I think of seedlings as predominantly green, all you CC writers have helped me appreciate there are varieties of colors in them, often hinting at the grand colors that many plants will produce. Thanks for helping me expand my expectations for the promise of varied colors in seedlings, and the plants they will become, Sarah. xx
ReplyDeleteFull of promise of things to come, great photos too, look forward to seeing when they've grown and are doing their thing :)
ReplyDeleteFlower seedlings fascinate me, across the species the greens are subtly different but the colours of the flowers are wildy so!
ReplyDeleteseedlings are such a wonderful promise of things to come! had to go and look up Angelica gigas and now I really want some. gorgeous x
ReplyDelete