Seedlings

They came to the water's edge carrying aluminum pans that seemed perfect for a sheet of lasagna but were filled instead with a marshy mix of sand, soil and grass. Some slid into too-big chest waders and slipped into the creek, where a biologist dressed like a frogman scooped a handful of brown and green and disappeared beneath the water's surface.One wild celery plant planted, 99,999 to go.That might seem like a lot of celery grass, or it might seem like a pittance when set against the vast waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Either way, the elementary, middle and high school students who yesterday brought their classroom-grown seedlings to Baltimore County's Rocky Point Park were literally delving beneath the surface to learn a lesson in save-the-bay ecology.

Once on the verge of becoming a golf course and housing subdivision in the 1980s, Cromwell Valley Park near Towson is returning to its 19th-century agricultural roots -- with a baby boomer twist.The Baltimore County-owned park off Cromwell Bridge Road is about to become a cooperative farm in which participants contribute money for organic produce but don't have to get their hands dirty. Farmers do all the work.The budding farm venture is part of a county partnership with Earthome, a Baltimore nonprofit educational group that recently signed a three-year lease with the county.

Now that wildflower meadows are the up-and-coming thing in lawns of all sizes, it behooves us to take a look at how they are best acquired.Contrary to the blithe representations of the "Meadow-in-a-Can" sold at many suburban garden and home-improvement centers, there is more to establishing a successful wildflower planting than simply walking out and scattering some seeds about the yard or on bare spots. While there is something splendidly beguiling about such a lighthearted approach, it is notdestined to get you many flowers, meadow or otherwise.

4,000 seedlings planted in median of Route 100The state Department of Natural Resources has planted 4,000 loblolly pine seedlings and 300 red oak seedlings in the barren median of Route 100 near the Route 10 interchange.The original trees were cut down in the 1960s so the 6.3-acre area could be used as a base for crews building the first sections of Route 100 from Mountain Road to what then was Route 3.The median remained bare until until local residents and Republican Del. John R. Leopold of the 31st District pressured state officials to reforest it.Pub Date: 6/06/97

Can I grow tomato seedlings in a sunny window and get good results?A window with an unobstructed Southern exposure may give you sufficient light. However, vegetable and flower transplants grown windowsills are subject to drafts and temperature extremes. Often the result is a spindly plant.It's best to grow transplants under 4-foot-long "shop lights," fitted with cool, white fluorescent light tubes. Run the lights 14-16 hours each day, keep the tops of your seedlings only 1-2 inches from the light tubes and don't overwater.

I'm going to grow cauliflower this year. No, I'm not. Yes, I am. At least I'm going to try. There are no guarantees when it comes to raising cauliflower, the fussiest of all crops.Some vegetables are easy to grow: beans, radishes and tomatoes come to mind. Lettuce is a no-brainer, providing the plants are thinned correctly. But cauliflower? A more demanding veggie, there isn't.Here's a plant that doesn't like hot weather and can't stand the cold. A plant that can't abide wet feet but won't tolerate dry. A plant that requires close supervision but squawks at being disturbed.

There were many questions but no opposition at a public meeting last night on a master plan that would clear about 1,000 acres of scrub Virginia pine trees from Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area near Randallstown.The plan, drawn by the state Department of Natural Resources, would be implemented over several years, restore about half of the area to grassland, and help preserve rare plants shaded by the pines. Controlled burning every three to five years would eliminate pine seedlings and revitalize grass, the plan says.

PRESTON -- John Ayton's hands are red and chapped, the result of years spent outdoors. But his touch is sure as he spreads a pine cone to reveal the seeds within it, seeds that he and others will harvest and nurture into seedlings so that Maryland's forests are replenished.That same deft touch is visible throughout the state's new tree-seedling nursery, a 300-acre facility designed by Mr. Ayton and tucked between farms in Caroline County. From the neatly planted rows of seedlings outside to the big yellow seed separator inside the building, the fruits of Mr. Ayton's knowledge of Maryland's trees and how to grow them are everywhere.

Flowers are pretty, it's true, but let's get to the root of their charm. A plant's soul lies beneath the soil. Beauty is only stem deep -- in gardening, as in life.Behold the lowly root, unsung hero of the garden. While flowers bask in brilliant sunlight, winning praise for their good looks, roots toil in total darkness to support their verdant kin.Roots claw their way through the soil, seeking nourishment for plants. Roots anchor plants in place and help to hold them upright. Roots defend their underground terrain against the invasive roots of other plants.

Here are three ways to get seedlings started:1. Save and wash three or four small yogurt containers and poke drainage holes in the bottom. Fill 3/4 -full with potting soil. Poke a hole in the soil in each container and drop in a seed. Mist with water.2. Place three or four peat pellets (available at garden shops) on a dish and gradually add warm water. When the pellets are fully expanded (about 20 minutes), pour off excess water. Poke a seed in each pellet. Label each pellet.3. The easiest way to watch seeds sprout is to set each one on damp cotton on the bottom of a clear glass jar. Keep the cotton moist.

In the spring, a young girl's fancy turns to - well, helping preserve the environment. That was the case for 9-year-old Bethany Ingram, anyway, as she took a break Friday from her task of digging a hole in a bit of soggy turf in Edgeley Grove Park in Fallston. The fourth-grader, nature enthusiast and member of Girl Scout Troop 883 in Bel Air was getting ready to plant the 2-foot seedling of a red maple tree, one of about 1,000 trees put in the ground by volunteers on an unexpectedly sunny morning as part of Harford County's seventh annual Arbor Day Celebration and Conservation Project.

What kind of light bulb is best for starting seedlings indoors? We recommend using a fluorescent, shop light-type unit containing two standard 40-watt fluorescent tubes or one cool white and one warm white tube. This provides adequate light for growing transplants and is more economical than special lighting. Suspend the unit so the lights are 1 to 2 inches above the tops of the seedling plants and raise the lights as the plants grow. Adding some natural light also improves results. For more detail, call us or go online to read our publications on starting and transplanting vegetable seedlings.

It wasn't the typical scene on the grounds of a state prison. Inmates in matching blue outfits and hats, alongside the governor, bent over in a muddy field to plant hundreds of seedlings behind the barbed wire-lined fencing of a maximum-security prison. But with the help of those couple of dozen inmates - and the seedlings - Howard County will be turning a little greener. Officials announced last week a new initiative that calls for inmates at Patuxent Institution in Jessup to tend to 1,100 seedlings until they mature into trees that will be replanted at local parks.

It was "a real tough year" for Maryland's Christmas tree farms, as the drought killed off many seedlings and saplings and stressed the mature trees that will go into homes this holiday season. While there should be a ready supply of market-size trees for families looking to cut their own, they "do look a little bit more sparse than they normally look," said Mike Gagarine of Good Spirits Christmas Tree Forest in Hagerstown. But Gagarine said he lost close to two-thirds of the 3,000 seedlings he planted this year, twice what he would lose in a typical year.

Long after William L. Ackerman fell in love with camellias during his horticulture career at the National Arboretum in Washington, the retired botanist is still searching for new ways to make the showy flower grow farther north. "I don't grow Southern [camellia] belles, " the 82-year-old said. "My objective is cold-hardiness." The ancient shrub, Camellia sinensis, is native to China and is known for leaves used in making green and black tea. But Ackerman is more interested in the looks of camellias - and proving they can bloom in colder climates such as the Mid-Atlantic region and coastal New England.

PRESTON - They stand not particularly tall in the last row, past the burgundy leaves of the pin oak, the bright green sawtooth oaks, the stark and spindly Indigobush. Here, in the corner of what can best be described as a miniature forest, are the most precious seedlings of all: the descendants of the state's best-known tree, the once-mighty Wye Oak. As local tree lovers know, the Wye Oak - believed to be 460 years old, the oldest in Maryland - was toppled in a storm two Junes ago. But interest in the tree didn't die with it. Pins have been made from its crumpled leaves.

Fifty volunteers, including Boy and Girl Scouts, Harford County government employees, high school students and members of AmeriCorps recently helped transform a Creswell cornfield into a newly planted forest. The effort was part of the county's first Arbor Day celebrated at Creswell Park. The project was sponsored by the county, Maryland Trout Unlimited, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' Forest Service and Harford County Forest Conservancy District Board. "Harford County has long known the importance of reforestation," said County Executive James M. Harkins.

Laughing and joking in spite of a steady drizzle, members of the St. Mary's High School Environmental Club gathered around a narrow wooden table and hungrily devoured the pizza and cookies laid out before them. After an hour of planting 100 foot-tall red oak seedlings, the students were famished but satisfied. "I understand that the watershed has a problem and even though we've only planted a hundred trees, we're helping the environment," said Stephanie Channing, 15. Channing and the other students were the first wave of volunteers for the Annapolis Environmental Commission's "tree grow out" at Back Creek Nature Park.

While looking through a seed catalog, I came across a plant called calendula or pot mari-gold. Is this plant different from the annual marigolds that I usually buy at garden centers in the spring? The pot marigold, Calendula officinalis, is different from the African marigold, Tagetes erecta, and the French marigold, Tagetes patula. All three mari-golds are in the aster family; however, as you can see from the Latin names, the pot marigold is in an entirely different genus from the other two. From a distance, the pot marigold may be confused with the African and French mari-golds because their flowers have similar, shape, texture and color.

PRESTON - Kneeling in the hot sun beside a long row of 3-year-old white oak seedlings, Frank Gouin took an old paring knife and sliced down into the bark of one knee-high tree, just above the soil. The blade removed a thin chip of wood and exposed the thin inner layers of the seedling's stem - an oval wound about an inch long in the little tree grown from a Wye Oak acorn. Into that wound Gouin placed a tiny green leaf bud. The bud was cut from one of the hundreds of footlong shoots, or "bud sticks," that were salvaged last week from the 460-year-old Wye Oak after the great tree fell in an afternoon thunderstorm.