coral floral in a flower box
i’ve been reluctant to transplant the celosia since i read in various places that they don’t handle transplanting very well. but since it was my second attempt at growing from seeds, i messed up quite a fair bit.
instead of mixing the peat moss with the soil, i put about 2 inches of peat moss on top of the soil. which means that the seedlings are probably not getting enough nutrients after germination. it took forever to grow true leaves — more than 3 weeks after germination. germination also took quite long (well, longer than the statice, which took only one day — celosia took about 3 days or so).
i bought some transplant starter-fertilizer thing, and misted some on after the leaves started to look a little yellow. BIG MISTAKE. made is worse, and after some advice from naturemitch in garden web forum, i left it alone and thinned one pot. it was alright for a bit, but now it’s getting overcrowded again.
since naturemitch said he’s transplanted celosias without having them die suddenly, i thought, why the hell not, just give it a go. by this point, i’ve transplanted the sage, phlox and balsam okay (even though not all of them are surviving, but a majority are fine), so feeling a little less clunky.
mixed the usual soil with a little bit of peat moss and a little bit of vermiculite, put them in a flower box because i haven’t got the small cell things, and i am hoping that they’d just be happy in the flower box until they all grow up and make weird blooms. watered from top — flower box doesn’t allow for bottom watering — as gently as i could with a ‘rose’ spout watering can. plonked them under florescent light, near a fan for 2 days.
they looked okay as of last night (day 2):
a couple didn’t survive… and i think i saw a spider hanging out near it. hope it’s the good kind, and not the kind that’ll just eat them all up.
geez, with the slowly dying sunflowers and dead statice, i’m starting to think i’m not cut out for this. maybe i should give myself some timelines to quit, so i won’t be responsible for bringing more things into life just to die. *gleep*
but on a brighter note, finally saw some full-grown cockscomb of the ‘coral floral’ variety at a nursery on tuesday. it looks pretty damn strange! can’t wait for my little babies to grow and start blooming 
pulled these off the internet. it’s fluffier than the one i saw, but still wicked. like a cross between brains and corals and something entirely wonderful 