Baby sprooolings!

Yesterday, there were no signs of life, just like every other time I've looked over the last few weeks since I potted these little sea buckthorns up. I was worried. Should I have stratified them anyway? Should I have scarified them? Is our (admittedly cold) house too cold? 

It's been a study in not freaking out. In just waiting and watching. And this morning there was one little white root. By dinner time, there were two! Even if the three other seeds in there don't sprout, I've got two awesome little berry babies!

I'm not super good at being patient. But being a gardener is forcing me to suck it up and wait, because all the fretting in the world won't speed up a seed that isn't ready to sprout.

And I think I'm also waiting on metaphorical seeds, too, that I'll wait on through the winter and see what they're like in the spring, and I'll get back to you. 

What're you waiting on?

NOTES:

- The seeds are from the lovely Lynsey at biodiverseed.tumblr.com -- she sends out bundles of neat seeds if you pay shipping, and there were so many wonderful things in my bundle. Most are stratifying, and I'll plant them after we move.

Gardening - Free seed catalogs

Here's the list I stole wholesale from Better Hens And Gardens, which is one of my new favorite loves in blogdom.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed - bills itself as “America’ s Top Source for Pure Heirloom Seeds” and they produce a beautiful color catalog filled with open-pollinated, non-GMO seed.
High Mowing Organic Seed - certified organic, non-GMO, heirloom, open-pollinated, and hybrid seeds.
Johnny’s Selected Seed - non-GMO, open-pollinated, organic, and hybrid seeds. Johnny’s wasn’t taking requests for their 2011 catalog yet, keep checking back.
Pinetree Garden Seeds - offers heirloom seeds and hybrid seeds – this will be a new catalog this year for me.
Seeds of Change - certified organic, heirloom, and hybrid seeds.
Wood Prairie Farm - certified organic seed potatoes.
Seed Savers Exchange - ”Our Mission – Since 1975, Seed Savers Exchange members have passed on approximately one million samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners. We are a non-profit organization of gardeners dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds.”
Bountiful Gardens - “Heirloom – Untreated – Open Pollinated varieties for sustainable agriculture”.

And here are the ones I'd add to it, that I also love:

• One Green World - Based in the Pacific Northwest, and they sell plants rather than seeds, but they are a fantastic catalog with really great prices--they even have things like Tea, Shipova, Medlar and all sorts of native plants you never see anywhere.
• Le Jardin du Gourmet - Everything you could ever want for a kitchen garden, in seeds and sometimes even in plants!
• Bountiful Gardens - Heirloom and open-pollinated seeds!
• Stokes Seed - Another one of the ones that's been around since the 1800s, lots of great stuff.
• Gurney's Seeds - One of the lower-cost ones, good for getting all your basics out of the way before you start investing in the really fancy stuff, and sometimes something really awesome.
• Henry Fields - One I just found this season that looks cool.
• Park Seed - A really nice website!
• Burpee - A classic seed company, with a great catalog.

I ordered a bunch of new ones, too, so I'll let you know how they look when they come in.

What catalogs do you order seeds from? What plants do you plant every year? What plants will you never plant again? And, most excitingly, what plants will you plant for the first time this year?