Our daughters Emma, Sarah and her husband Chris and their children (our lovely grandkids) arrived Friday and today. Emma stays until tomorrow and the rest until Boxing Day. Christmas has started! I should be relaxing! However, I have to get up early tomorroy (Sunday) to talk to Mike Darcy of KXL radio, Portland, Oregon (kxl.com). This is what Mike says about the show, their time 11am Saturday.

Delphinium Seed Promotion
Last summer at the Farwest Trade Show in Portland, I met Terry Dowdeswell who is a delphinium breeder from New Zealand. His company, Dowdeswell’s Delphiniums has produced a strain of delphiniums called New Millennium, which are from hand crossed seed. I attended a presentation by Terry where he showed photos of these magnificent plants in bloom. Later that week, Terry was a guest on my KXL show.

As I talked about delphiniums with other gardeners, I learned that Portland gardener and Timber Press Editor-in-Chief, Tom Fischer has successfully grown Dowdeswell Delphiniums from seed. I talked with Tom and he told me how easy they were to grow from seed, the high germination he had, the healthy plants and spectacular flowers. Tom’s experience has been that if you sow under lights in January or February and plant the seedlings out in April or May (bait for slugs), you will probably get flowers that first summer.

Hearing the accolades about these delphiniums, I thought it would make for a nice promotion to be able to offer seeds to listeners at a special price and without the hassle of paying shipping costs from New Zealand. I found Terry Dowdeswell very willing to work with me on such a promotion and Tom Fisher was willing to be a guest and talk about his success with growing them from seed.

After talking with Tom Fischer, I knew I had to have some of these delphiniums in my garden and while I am not one to usually grow plants from seeds, I am going to try this and will report my progress. The photo shown is a sampling of the flowers you can expect.

So, as mentioned on my show, I purchased a quantity of these seeds to offer to listeners. Packets contain 50 seeds of mixed colors. The cost is $7.00. Send a check in this amount to Mike Darcy, KXL In the Garden, 0234 SW Bancroft, Portland, OR 97239. You also need to send me a self addressed stamped envelope and I will send you a packet of these seeds along with instructions. I must have your request for seed by January 4, 2010. "

Cheers

Terry