Pink Chinese Celery and more

 The pink Chinese celery is coming along well. There are several plants that could be potted separately I don't want to fill up my windowsills with celery so it will have to stay crowded until I can plant it outside.

 Many echinacea varieties are hybrids or patented but I was able to buy Green Twister echinacea seeds. So far about ten have sprouted so I'm pretty pleased. I saw individual plants selling for $8 so my packet at $3.50 is quite the bargain.  They may not have time to mature enough to bloom this summer but hopefully most of them will survive until next summer.

This is black-eyed Susan vine, a cheerful annual vine that blooms in shades of yellow, orange, and peach. These seedlings were starting to show roots at the bottom of the pot so I put them in a larger pot  To save some potting soil, I thought I would try just putting soil half-way up the peat pot. The vine doesn't seem to be making much in the way of side roots, and  if roots start poking out the sides, I can put more soil in then.

Years ago I bought some salpiglossis plants from a local nursery.  I loved the metallic veining and rich colours of the petunia-shaped flowers. They struggle with strong summer heat but I felt I wanted to give them a try again so I bought some seeds. The seeds are very small but they have sprouted like crazy. I have 7  2-1/2" peat pots of them and each one must have about 20 seedlings. Yikes, that's a lot of salpiglossis! They are not small plants like lobelia; they are more like pansies or petunias. I will try them where they get morning sun and afternoon shade where the sweet peas were happy last year.

I made some red lentil soup for lunch and it was quite tasty. I like making soup because it's not something you have to be precise about.  I used about 2 cups red lentils, 1 large sweet potato, 3 sticks celery, a small onion,  a third of a yellow pepper and seasoned it with salt, pepper, ginger, dried parsley. I put enough water in the pot to cover everything by 2" and simmered for 40 minutes. It made a thick, hearty soup. Other ingredients that would have worked with the lentils: squash, carrots, green beans, ground beef, chicken.

Hope you all stay well.