Many of you may remember that I teach 2nd grade at a public school in Louisiana. Well, this year I wanted to do a little project and start some seeds in the classroom that then maybe the kids could take home. Well, I called a particular seed company and asked for a donation. I was expecting some cheap seeds and only a few. I was shocked when about 3 weeks after making the request (I did it right before the Christmas holidays), I received the package. It contained 64 packets of seeds. There were only a few multiples of the same types of seeds. They were their prepacked seeds that they would have sent someone placing a regular order. I told my husband that there was no way I could use all of them in my classroom. I will be sharing with other teachers for sure. I just finished making a list of all the seeds they sent. I have no idea what I am going to do with all these seeds.

Just had to share my excitement.

There was even a pack of snapdragon seeds, salvia seeds, penstemon seeds, coneflower seeds and a few others that might come in handy at home after I get out everything I will use for school.

Now Jessica that is really excititng. The ones that you mentioned will be easy germinators so your two little ones will enjoy sowing them at home for your garden.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Jessica how very nice for all of you. You will probably have flowers for years to come from some of these seed.

Dianne
Southeast Alabama
Heat Zone 8
Sunset Zone 31

I looked up the prices of the seeds they sent and it was almost $170 worth of seeds. I think some of them are for indoor plants so I thought it would be fun to grow those at school and just keep them in the classroom in front of a window and then classes in the future would be able to see the plant the my this year's class grew. There are also some vegetable seeds. I may have to clean off counter space at school and move my big grow lamp to school and grow plants for my garden there. Then I will be taking care of two projects at one time (kids can experience growing plants from seeds and I can get my seeds started for home.)

The kids will take some home and can plant them at home. We could maybe also plant some outside our classroom or other places on campus. Extras will just have to come home. I will have plenty of seedlings for sure. I had more than I could handle last year.

Jessica
Saline, LA (North central Louisiana)

So who is this seed company? They deserve our appreciation.

Jessica,
what a wonderful story! I agree with Ward...please share the seed co's name

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Wow! That is generous! I helped with a garden project at my kids' grade school a couple years ago. They were able to get grant money for a lot of their plants and materials, and used kids and parents for the labor. It's a shame that here, school is out in the summer when most things are blooming. Maybe where you are, you'll have some flowers before school is out if you decide to start a garden at the school. If not, a summer picnic at the school might be fun.

Christie
Missouri
zone 6

Jessica,

I forgot to mention in my previous post that Snapdragons grown along the east side of my house here in NEW YORK are perennial believe it or not so they will probably be perennials for you as well. I had always considered them to be annuals everywhere but with a little mulch and roof overhang prtection, mine have come back 4 yrs. in a row now and the root is so big I can't dig it out without just chopping it up. I have just decided to letting do its own thing. This year it went through several freezes and continued to bloomed non stop until November.

Penny

Niagara Falls, NY

USDA zone 6a/6b

Heat zone 4

Sunset zone 39

Sorry it took so long to respond. School has kept me pretty busy.

The seed company is Park's Seeds.

I think we might start some seeds this coming week. I am going to spend some time this weekend figuring out what all we have and the planting info for each one.

Jessica
Saline, LA (North central Louisiana)