Greenhouse seedlings and new buds

In an effort to learn to ID my wildflowers before they bloom, I am attempting to grow some of them in our greenhouse.  I am not known for my green thumb, so this should be a fun adventure.

Our seeds come from a great company called Applewood Seed, based in Arvada, CO.  They have been extremely helpful in choosing which wildflowers would work best for low-maintenance plots in Kentucky.

And their seed bags are delightfully colorful:

Here's what the butterfly seed mix looks like:

 And here's the three planted wildflower seed mixes:

We'll see how this works out...

In the meantime, the Operation Pollinator plots are full of buds!  The lance-leaf coreopsis looks ready to burst into bloom within the next week!

The purple coneflower is a long way from its dominant period, but I spy a single flower bud!

And the plots overall are looking pretty darn verdent!

There were even a few friendly predators living nearby, though I haven't seen very many pollinators out yet this year.

I am about to leave on a business trip to Syngenta's headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, so there won't be any regular updates on bloom progression for a few weeks.  My very hardworking undergraduate technician will be taking lots of pictures and keeping me updated, and I'm very jealous that I won't be here to see the first wave of blooms.  I will make sure to take lots of pictures as soon as I get back!