It wasn’t until high school that a friend of mine made the connection between chicken, the animal, and chicken, the pinkish food that comes on a styrofoam tray.

In every other way, this friend was an over-achiever: Straight A’s, excellent athlete, went on to a prestigious law school and legal career.

Precisely because she was so accomplished in every other way, we spared no expense in ribbing her for the, “wait, chicken is chicken?” moment.

It’s more common than you might think, this rooting of things & experiences in one context so that you can’t see them in another.

In my previous life teaching design research (aka Human Factors Design) at Stanford and Berkeley, discovering these moments was crucial. We called them “nuggets,” a not-so-technical term that describes the moment when a bit of information combines with an insight to change how you see things.

Black swans are one of the classic examples. Throughout most of history, Europeans presumed black swans didn’t exist. There was even a latin phrase, translated to “a bird as rare upon the earth as a black swan”, used a bit like today’s “when pigs fly,” to mean something impossible, or at least never before seen.

When Willem de Vlamingh, a Dutch explorer saw a black swan in Australia in 1697, the context of the swan suddenly changed for everyone.

I’ve been thinking a LOT lately about these moments of change, where you suddenly see the same old thing in a whole new way. And in fact it’s why you haven’t heard from me in a while. I’m having some big perspective shifts that are likely to bring some changes to Orta. So stay tuned for that - I’m not quite ready for any announcements yet.

This email about big shifts actually started because I was thinking about flowers.

For years, I’ve started most of my vegetables and herbs from seed. I’ve sown hundreds of perennials from seed. Somehow though, I still saw bedding flowers (violas, petunias, zinnias) as Things That Come In Plastic 6-Packs. It was like my friend with the definition of chicken. It’s a thing that exists only in one specific way.

But this year, I’ve had my own black swan moment with bedding plants. Here are the violas I started from seed last fall:

Here are some of the zinnias I’m going to plant out next month:

And I sowed petunia seed last weekend.

These are all plants I could get at the nursery for $10 or so for a 6-pack (though not necessarily in the colors I want). And I’ve done that for years! I love to have a little color around the base of the lemons in ½ wine barrels just outside the back door.

Petunias are tough and colorful and cheerful and fill a gap so easily.

There is a lot to be said for the instant gratification of buying plants in pots and popping them into the garden all in one day. The same way there is a lot to be said for buying your chicken already butchered. Someone else has already done a fair amount of work for you.

I’m not trying to argue one way or the other for buying bedding flowers or starting them from seed, by the way.

I’m talking about the shift that happens when you see, all of a sudden, that you have alternatives you might not have noticed; when you see that something you assumed was true actually wasn’t.

If you read this and it shifts something for you, and you’d like to share, please hit reply and let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

On the other hand, if you read this and think, “heck yea! I want to save some cash and grow annual flowers from seed in exactly the colors I want, but how?” Here you go:

Petunias: This is actually my first time with petunias from seed, and I’m growing this variety.​

Is it too late to be starting petunias? Maybe? The general consensus is that it’s 8-10 weeks from sowing to transplant. However, my seeds germinated in just 3 days, and with warm, bright spring weather, I expect they’ll be quicker than average to transplant stage. Conservatively, 10 weeks from sowing would put transplant in the middle of June, which is pretty much exactly when I want petunias. The big dramatic flush of spring flowers will be starting to ebb, and it will be time for tough, heat-tolerant summer color.

Violas: It’s not the time to sow violas right now. Here with our mild winter climate, violas are a fall-to-spring flower. I planted ours out into the ½ wine barrels with our small lemon trees back in about November. They made a few small flowers through the winter, and exploded with growth and color this spring. With cold climates, you would start them either in Jan - Feb for spring planting out or late summer to squeak in some fall color before frosts and snow.

Zinnias: Now is a GREAT time to sow zinnias. They grow quickly and love the summer. Last year I had lots of success with the Floret seed collection, especially the ones bred by Dawn Creek. Gorgeous and subtle peachy-pink colors with striking forms and strong plants. I’ve got the last of those seeds growing as starts this year, and will save a bunch of seed for next year because Floret is no longer selling the seeds, and buying them from Dawn Creek is $25 this year. It’s expensive, but also a great cause to support if you are financially able to do so, and you appreciate their aesthetic.

If vegetables are more your thing, something else you can sow right now is tomatoes, especially if your first frost isn’t typically until the end of September or later.

I received a special order of tomato seeds from breeders Steve Peters and Kanti Rawal this week, and have put them together into a sampler pack of 6 varieties that you can get here.​

All of the varieties have been bred for delicious heirloom flavor combined with the toughness, yields and vigor of the commercial varieties common to California’s central valley. They are especially adapted to adverse conditions for tomatoes: big temperature swings, cool nights, drought and wind.

Steve and Kanti's tomatoes have consistently performed better than anything else I’ve ever grown here in our coastal, but dry, climate. I’m really looking forward to seeing how these new varieties perform this year.

If you’d like to try them too, you can get your sample pack here.​

Happy Seedurday,

Anne

When you’re ready, here are some more ways I can help you grow a thriving garden from seed:

1. Plan your seed-starting schedule with our ​free printable planner.​

2. Download the free ​Orta Seed Starting Handbook with all the basics you need to succeed with seeds.​

3. Take the guesswork out of watering with Orta Self-Watering Pots. (Find discounted factory seconds here!)

4. Join the Orta Seed Club to have 5 hand-picked, unusual & high-yielding varieties delivered to you every season.

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