Heirloom Seedlings for Sale

[Update 4/21/09. I've been getting a lot of inquiries, which is Great™, but from the requests it's obvious that my post below wasn't as clear as it could have been. Most of the seedlings are started inside 6-8 weeks before they are transplanted outside. That's why the original post went up on 3/15. The idea was that people would place their seedling orders and I would get them going. It didn't play out that way, I think I know why: It's hard to think about summer plants when there's snow on the ground. Now that it's getting warmer, people are focusing on gardening and seedlings, a little late for me to help. Which is a long winded way of saying, All we've got left are the 'extras'. Seeds that I planted with the expectation that not all would germinate, when in fact most of them did, and so we have more than we can use. Here's a current list of what we have available. If there's nothing there for you, there are a couple of other options: Both the Lincoln Park farmer's market--on Sat--and Green City market--Wed--sell heirloom seedlings through the month of May. And the Wicker Park Garden Club is having a seedling sale on 5/2 and 5/3.]


A new seedling light rack was in order, I just couldn't fit all our seed starts in my utility closet. Putting that together with plenty of extra seeds, we thought that a few of our local readers would like us to grow seedlings for them for a nominal charge. [$3 per seedling in a two cup (4") container. $5 in a quart container. And you'll need to pick them up.]

Below is a listing of what we're starting. What's more, if you have your own seeds you'd like us to start, drop them off (we're 2 miles NW of downtown Chicago, near Ashland and Division) and we'll get them going for you. That includes hardening off, so they're ready to plant outside as soon as we turn them over to you.

Have a look at the list and let us know what you'd like. An email to greenroofgrowers [at] gmail [dot] com or a comment below this post will get things started. Frost sensitive plants--tomato, eggplant, peppers, and herbs--will be ready around May 15th. There's still time to start broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage and other cold loving plants too.

Some Seed Company abbreviations:

Victory Seed Co.= VS
Seed Savers Exchange = SS
Reimer Seed Co. = RS
Wild Garden Seed Co. = WG
Seeds from Italy = SI
Renee's Garden = RG

Beets
• Bulls Blood (VS)

Broccoli
• Green Sprouting Calabrese (VS)
• Green Goliath (RS)
• Romanesco (SS)

Brussels Sprouts
• Catskill (VS)

Cabbage
• Red Acre (VS)

Eggplant
• Pingtung Long (SS)
• Udumalapet (SS)
• Diamond (SS)
• Black Beauty (VS)

Greens
• Collards 'Champion' (WG)
• Mustard 'Indian Mix' (WG)
• Cress 'Wrinkled, Crinkled, Crumpled' (WG)
• Swiss Chard 'Rainbow' (VS)

Herbs
• Basil 'Genovese' (Seeds of Change)
• Basil 'Lemon' (from our saved seeds)
• Basil 'Lettuce Leaf' (from our seeds)
• Black Cumin (SS)
• Curled Chervil (VS)
• Dill (Ferry Morse Seed Co.)
• English Lavender (SS)
• English Sorrel (VS)
• Greek Oregano (SS)
• Lovage (RS)
• Garden Thyme (VS)
• Parsley (from our saved seed)
• Rosemary (RS)
• Savory (from our own saved seed)
• Stevia (SS)

Kohlrabi
• Delicatesse Blue (VS)

Kale
• Red Russian (VS)
• White Russian (WG)
• Lacinato (WG)
• Lacinato Rainbow (WG)

Lettuce
• Arugula (VS)
• Red Velvet (SS)
• Carmona (WG)
• Green Salad Bowl (VS)
• Spinach 'Bloomsdale' (VS)
• Marveille des Quatre Saisons (SS)
• Endive 'Full Heart Batavian' (VS)

Peppers
• Napolean Sweet (SS)
• Rooster Spur - hot (SS)
• Sweet Chocolate (SS)
• Santa Fe Grande (SS)
• Purple Beauty (VS)
• Pimento (VS)

Tomatoes
• Abraham Lincoln (VS)
• Black Cherry (VS)
• Brandywine Yellow (VS)
• Carbon (RS)
• Caspian Pink (VS)
• Cherokee Purple (SS)
• Hillbilly (VS)
• Kellogg's Breakfast (SS)
• San Marzano (SI)
• Matina (RS)
• Stupice (RS)



Ornamental Grass
• Dacotah Switchgrass (Seed Swap with Nance Klehm)



To make this complete, here are the rest of the plants that we'll direct seed this year.

Amaranth
• Burgundy (WG)

Beans
• Climbing French (SS)
• Empress (SS)
• Fin de Bagnol (SS)
• Hidatsa Shield Figure (SS)
• Red Swan (SS)
• Scarlett Runner (Lakeland Seed Co.)
• White Emergo Runner (VS)
• Valena (Saved from previous yrs VS)


Cucumber
• Armenian seedless (RG)
• Diva (RS)
• Lemon (RG)

Leeks
• Lancelot (Gethsemane, though the link is to Dixondale Farms)

Lettuce
• Mesclun (RG)

Melon
• 'Banana' (Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co.)

Onion
• White Lisbon
• First Edition (Gethsemane, though the link is to Dixondale Farms.)

Peas
• Mammoth Melting (VS)

Potato
• 'Inca Gold' (Ronniger Seed Potatoes)

Summer Squash
• Zucchini 'Romanesco' (SI)
• 'Summer of Squash' mix (Botanical Interests)

Sunchoke
• 'Clearwater' (Fedco/Moose Tubers)

Sunflower
• Giant Greystripe (VS)

Winter Squash
• Delicata 'Honey Boat' (Botanical Interests)