ALERT; update of Carolyn's seed offer

[chiefbeaz]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Pat, I'll be putting up the germination thread in maybe a month or so, as I explained in the seed offer instructions, so those of you who are in the south and sow seeds way before those of us in the tundra, please do keep your results until I put up that thread.

Carolyn

I am planning to start sowing seeds tomorrow.I will keep up with the germination rate. Wish that I was up your way to enjoy the snow. Normally I would be out west somewhere snow skiing this time of year, but due to a total knee replacement I had in late October I will have to wait until next year to ski. Stay warm and enjoy the snow!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dukerdawg]

Been absent for awhile around these parts and didn't get the message....but always ....thank you Carolyn for your generous seed offer. I think I was the first person once or twice to be included. Getting through some personal issues and maybe for the first time in many years won't be growing a tomato garden. Not sure exactly but it's a possibility. Just wanted to pop in and say thank you though for years of knowledge and generosity. Bless you.

[luigiwu]

Carolyn, thank you so much for my seeds! This snow we've been having in the north-east however is making me think that spring is never coming! I am having to hold myself back from starting too early!!

[tuk50]

Many thanks, again for all the hard work and wonderful seed varieties you send out! Wish I could send you a jar full of our wonderful sunshine. I've lived in Tucson for over 30years and this is the first time my peach trees have bloomed in Feb. The baby maters are toughening up on the porch now.

[carolyn137]

Just saying that for those who said they got too many varieties from Gary's swap or just had too many varieties anyway, I went back and checked, and here's what I said on the first page:

(I also assume that any seeds you get from me will be grown out this or next season)

On the upside I know that seeds of many of the varieties I offered in this 2014 seed offer will still be available for my 2015 offer, but quite a few won't, not enough seeds to be able to offer for next year, I don't ask my seed producer folks to do new growouts for seeds, and I sure am not going to ask the two commercial folks Steve and Lee, to donate more of the same.

I had totally forgotten that Monday is a Holiday, so the few non-seed offer folks wants will go out Tuesday and I'mnoting it here since a fewof them are Tville members who read here.

I had a nice long chat with Linda at TGS yesterday, mainly b'c I'd forgotten to get her seeds for trial out early, but she said go ahead and send b'c she often gets a nice performance from plants set out in late summer, so I'll do that. And of course we had to do some tomato gossip as well. If you forgot, Linda is in Fort Myers, FL

I told her that I'd posted here about the copies of my book she was finally selling and she said they were all sold out ASAP, I don't know if from Tville folks or otherwise.

All for now.

Carolyn

[ScottinAtlanta]

Carolyn, I meant to ask since you mentioned you were not offering 2008 and 2009 seeds this year. What will be the fate of those older seeds?

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Just saying that for those who said they got too many varieties from Gary's swap or just had too many varieties anyway, I went back and checked, and here's what I said on the first page:



(I also assume that any seeds you get from me will be grown out this or next season)





Carolyn

And that's why I wasn't going to participate, but ended up bumping a swap variety to 2015 to make room for the one you sent. I keep my seeds in a pretty controlled environment, so I'm not too concerned with the swap seeds being a few years old when I do get around to planting them. Stay warm!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

Carolyn, I meant to ask since you mentioned you were not offering 2008 and 2009 seeds this year. What will be the fate of those older seeds?

Scott, in this offer I was listing 2013, 2012 and 2011 seeds, but not 2010 or 2009 or 2008 seeds, and you have to rachet up those dates so that 2010 seeds were my 2011 seed offer, 2009 seeds my 2010 offer, 2008 seeds my 2010 offer.

So what is the fate of the seeds from the three years I deleted?

For each year I have a box and inside that box are envelopes, small business size, labelled with thevariety and year the seeds were produced,that for the most part have inside them the coin envelopes of seeds for that offer. Some have just seeds, no small envelope with seeds, it just depends on how the seeds are sent to me that sometimes I have to remove them from vials sent to me or plastic zip lok ones, or whatever.

Summary? They will continue to sit in those boxes until I need to get them off the card table in back of where I pack seeds, to make room for the next year's seeds.

Seeds older than that are also filed and in boxes but not where I have ASAP access to them without help b/c of the walker, and seeds still older are stored in vials in 100 place scintillation boxes I "liberated" from where I used to work when a new scintillation counter was purchased.

More than once I've been asked to look for specific older seeds, Tania and Remy are two that I can remember, b'c they had trouble getting the right traits for specific varieties. And if it weren't for saving all those older seeds we wouldn't have been able to resurect Tadesse from my 1994 seeds and I wouldn't have been able to send a rin mutant to Mark, Frogsleap farm either. Also in those 100 place boxes are seeds of quite a few peppers but pepper seed longevity is far shorter than tomato seed longevity so by now useless.

You could say that my back room is a seedy storage area but it also has two large light setups which I can never use again as well as closets full of clothes I'll never wear again. ( that back room was the main bedroom for the two previous owners) plus my piano, well, you get the picture.Oh, and a queen size sofa sleeper where my brother would sleep when he was coming up here from NC to visit, but now is used to hold my boxes of nuts and chocolate, also soaps that I use for Xmas gifts since I'm a soap addict, and at the far end various padded mailers an manila envelopes and one cushion is left for my cat who likes to curl up there until she decides to bug me for more kibble, more shreds, more treats, more water, well those of you who are cat lovers will understand. I was raised with dogs, love them too, but no way could I keep a dog here now.

That room leads into the Master bathroom, but sadly the jacuzzi bathtub doesn't jacuzz, if that's a word, but I use the shower in my bathroom anyway.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

And that's why I wasn't going to participate, but ended up bumping a swap variety to 2015 to make room for the one you sent. I keep my seeds in a pretty controlled environment, so I'm not too concerned with the swap seeds being a few years old when I do get around to planting them. Stay warm!

I understad, I really do, my main purpose in addressing the issue was to share with folks that many from this offer will be available next time and that b'c many of the varieties are brand new, can't be obtained elsewhere and was giving Tville members first shot at them, if you will.

Carolyn

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

First, everyone received their first choices.

The last of the seeds go out today, right into a possbile predicted blizzard.

But the main reason I'm starting this thread is b'c I've found in the past that once someone sends me their SESE, or e-mail if non-US, most never go back to the seed offer thread to check on updates and read that thread.

If you haven't,please do so since there have been some changes that were made as to more proper names for some varieties, and alerting folks to items such as I listed Joe's Pink Heart, but it should be Joe's Pink Oxheart, for example.

I tried to correct some stuff on the coin envelopes I packed the seeds in, but could have missed some, and I know I didn't write the proper original name for Raspberry Miracle on the packs, and that correction is in that seed offer thread.

I used a bit over 500 coin envelopes. Most asked for 6, a few less than that, and last night I almost wept with relief when the last two I did wanted only ONE and the other TWO.

Yes, I've been a bit later in getting the seeds out this year, but then I also posted the offer later than I normally do.

Many folks I knew,some followed me here from AOL of years ago, some from GW, lots of repeaters from when I first started doing seed offers here at Tville in 2006, carry over from GW, and many who were new to me, so a warm welcome to the newcomers as well..

No one sent me SASE's with mint flavored glue this year, everyone had the correct postage and one person stands out for me b'c each year the combo of old stamps used is beyond belief. A couple of folks sent some new varieties, and I'll get back to them as well about those.

Lastly, when Mischka set up this site in Jan of 2006 it was envisioned as being a community. I also know that many just read here and never register, so can't access seeds or read the off topic forum, but for those of you who did request seeds, and all of you are registered here, my hope is that you might consider posting a bit more, in addition to requesting just seeds.

Many of you have had extensive experience in gardening and I know your contributions would be most welcome.

And now to relax a bit, read some good books, watch some Olympics while nibbling on some good snack food, and of course that includes dark chocolate, and wait now for the possible blizzard headed my way, if one believes each and every weather site and the local weather on the TV.

All for now, oh, if you don't see your seeds in the next week, for those who have not yet received them and non-US will take longer, usually, please post here and I'll look through the outer envelopes/e-mails for non-US, I save them all, to be sure your request did get to me.

Thanks,

Carolyn, also noting that she still has some seeds to send out to a couple of her seed producers, a few others, and then to certain seed sites for trial, and needs to contact the latter to see what they might want or if they want me to choose.

"combo of old stamps used is beyond belief"

Want to compare notes?

In my swap I reuse bubble mailers. One had 37 one cent stamps on it, along with all of the other stamps. I decided to use a new bubble mailer, and (maybe) peal off the stamps on the old one over the next several months.

Gary

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Tormato

"combo of old stamps used is beyond belief"

Want to compare notes?

In my swap I reuse bubble mailers. One had 37 one cent stamps on it, along with all of the other stamps. I decided to use a new bubble mailer, and (maybe) peal off the stamps on the old one over the next several months.

Gary

Better than sharing notes I'll save the original outer envelope with stamps and send it to you. After removing the return address. Only one this year, the same wonderful person, but I think I may have saved some from last year as well. I mean all of them b'c I wait until my seed offer is done before dumping them in case someone says they didn't get their seeds, then I can go through them to see if I got the original SASE.

I guess, I'm almost as bad when sending seed to non-US persons since I'm the one who uses my own stamps and since I don't have a scale here at home that would tell me if I was over the one oz limit, I plaster on more postage to be sure, but then all that does is to reduce my dark chocolate budget.

Carolyn

[NarnianGarden]

We can send you some dark chocolate from Europe, Carolyn!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by NarnianGarden

We can send you some dark chocolate from Europe, Carolyn!

No need to really, I just use that dark chocolate phrase as my second user name.

And I am expecting a semi-promise from Germany and I did a good deed for someone who is travelling to France and in return plans to bring back some dark chocolate and some Marron Glace for me.

Kees Sahin , now deceased, was co-owner with his wife of Sahin Seeds in the Netherlands. We were really good friends and he would feed my habit by sending me wonderful chocolate from Belgium and also the Netherlands.

And that was kind of in return for me sending him about 300 different varieties of tomato seeds. He had a huge tomato collection with some of the packs sent to him by Ben Quisenberry with the religious sayings that Ben wrote on his seed packs. And I've always wondered what happened to his collection after he passed on. At his place were bred Bloody Butcher, Brown Berry and I can't remember right now the others.

But his biggest love was peonies and he had a huge collection of those as well, all in addition to the many hundreds of flower seeds made available at his site. He won several Fleuroselect awards and also bred the first yellow Clivia. I think I read that the company was sold, but I haven't Googled it to find out who bought it.

But I appreciate your offer very much.

Carolyn, who will pack more seeds today, then retire to the living room to watch some tennis and Olympics, while snacking on some dark chocolate Buttercrunch.

[NarnianGarden]

The chocolate assortment available in the U.S. is actually quite good these days- in fact, I have even ordered some online, from a big health food site. A brand called Chocolove, among others, is very tasty.
I remember visiting the U.S.A in the eighties, and was appalled at the lack of decent chocolate there... Gld to see things have improved so much.

[bower]

I really enjoyed being part of your seed offer last year, Carolyn, and I hope I can take you up on the next one. The tomatoes I got from you were really special !!

But like others who posted here, I have more 'must grow' tomatoes this year than I have space for... Tormato's seeds arrived just before your offer, and so I was completely perplexed at the time it appeared, just with the clerical task of organizing all those seeds, reading about the new unknown ones, and figuring out how to manage to plant even more than the already too many. I had to forbid myself even to read about the ones on your list!
Ah well, I suppose there are worse problems than having too many kinds of tomatoes to grow!