iDJ got me a heated electric propagator. So far I’ve killed a lot of corn, grew a few tomatoes and a few super hot pepper plants growing in it. The heat makes stuff shoot up instantly or rot to mould instantly, so I’m still figuring it out.

Last week, I popped in some sunflower seeds, and also something I figured would be hard to grow: Buddleja, or Buddleia – otherwise known as the butterfly bush. I got the seeds free from my mother-in-law, of course. And I’m damned glad about the free part! We were at a garden centre over the weekend and holy shit – €4.99 for a pack of seeds!?!? No. Even worse that they wanted €7.99 for one plant I can grow from a tuber or bulb for €5 for three. Anyhoo, it is the most expensive place around, but also the only dedicated plant place around.

I’ve rambled.

The Buddleia. It’s a damned bush. So I expected some rather sturdy seeds in my free packet. Ah, no. They were tiny; so very tiny they were smaller than grains of sand. My only choice to get them started was to stick my damp finger in what looked like dust, dabble it on top the soil, and hope.

Hope worked. Or my green fingers did, who can say for sure? Either way, the tiny little sumbitches are growing.

I’m not sure how to explain just how microscopic these seedlings are. Do you see the tiny white things? Those are beads of what we used to call styrofoam. Not sure what it’s called in these post-CFC days. No matter, the beads themselves are tiny. Wee. Itty-bitty. Minuscule. And my buddleja bushes are way, way smaller and so very fragile looking. I have no idea how I will ever transplant these buggers!

Have you seen a Buddleia bush? They are quite large!

(Photo credit http://www.seedterra.com)

For true scale, I also planted sunflower seeds. Just take a gander at these ginormous things:

The sheer wonder I feel about growing from seed, hopefully visualised. If these tiny babies live, I will have enormous bushes for decades from the wee sprouts, but only one late summer batch of flowers from the big mofos.