Over the last few days, I've separated and transplanted into single plug flat cells many of the flowers we will grow this season....as well as all of the Asian greens, beets, arugula and chard.  I am also part way through transplanting lettuce into 3 inch pots, 3 seedlings per pot.

I decided to plant a partial flat of some tomatoes that are my favorites for testing some of my oldest saved seed - just to collect some seed age vs germination success data, as well as grow out the varieties from seeds very close in generation to when I first obtained them.  I will post varieties and results in a future blog entry.

I've got three flats left to plant....experimental hot and sweet peppers, indeterminate and dwarf tomato experiments for the year.  I will probably plant the peppers tomorrow, and tomatoes early next week.

One thing that surprised me - our flowering cherry tree in the back yard is just about ready to start blooming - and our forsythia is in full bloom.  I must look back at my digital pics to see if this is abnormally early....or right on time.

Check out these pics...it was a really nice walk through the Arboretum - we were amazed at how much was blooming!

http://seedlingssewn.weebly.com/1/post/2011/03/spring-come-to-raleightum.html

The days (and weeks) are flying by so fast...my intention is always to write about something each day, but that's not how it is currently working out.  

So a few odds and ends....on Monday Sue and I took a walk in the Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, and it was well worth it.  We finally got to see some of the earliest flowering trees in bloom.  Sue is blogging about it, along with some nice pictures - I will post a link once she gets to it.  I suspect most people miss them, but the flowering nectarine and apricot trees are just stunning.  The other star of the day was the various Hellebores.

As we walk around our neighborhood, it is clear that the flowering fruit trees everywhere are about to burst into bloom - perhaps due to the recent warm days.  I just hope that a surprise frost doesn't come in and nip them, turning their blossoms brown...something that seems to happen quite often here.

I am pretty pleased with what I've germinated so far, in terms of percentage and health.  I will provide a full update in a blog entry soon.

The 2011 Northern Hemisphere part of the Dwarf tomato project is underway - all seeds are now distributed and it is all about waiting for the many reports that will come in.  I am just about to tackle the challenging task of finalizing my own grow list for the year, and hope to get my seasonal experiments planted tonight - tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.  Again - topics for future blog entries.  And tomorrow I hope to start transplanting lettuce and greens.