September
1,2015, Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter
© Kim
Willis
Hi Gardeners
 |
| Hardy Hibiscus |
I am having a
hard time believing its September already.
The summer has flown by. The older I get the faster time goes. Of course when I was a kid dreading the start
of school again summer seemed to go pretty fast too. I used to dream of a time when I could decide
when and where I wanted to study- and when I could be outside anytime I wanted
to be. Well I have that now, that’s one
thing about being older and retired. I
still study- I try to study something new every month. Last month I read a lot about behavioral
economics, this month I’m going back into plant based information ethno-botany
and new plant based science info.
My hardy
hibiscus have finally started blooming and the sweet autumn clematis is pretty
right now but a lot of the garden is starting to look faded and past its prime. The toad lilies are starting to bloom. My brugmansia still hasn’t opened its flower
although I expect it to open very soon.
The one flower is almost as long as the plant, hanging down – it’s more
than a foot long. The plant is only
about 30 inches high. It’s loaded with
buds and I am hoping this warm humid spell of weather will allow a lot of them
to bloom.
I had two
interesting developments among my plants.
A Kousa dogwood I planted way back in April and thought was dead has
finally leafed out. It’s just a bit of a
thing and I have it in a tree tube. I
had planted a ninebark close to it in June because I thought it was dead, but
decided to leave the dogwood a bit longer.
Now I have to decide which to move.
I had also planted an ornamental ginger
rhizome indoors back in early spring that never sprouted. I moved its pot out on the deck when it
warmed up but still no sprouting. I kept
finding the rhizome out of the pot and one day I found out why. Gingers are
supposed to be left with the rhizome right at the soil surface. The cats were
trying to cover it with soil and in the process knocking it out of the pot. I guess the rhizome looked like something
they might leave behind that needed covering.
I finally moved the pot to another spot and wedged it between other pots
and put a little piece of cement over the middle of the pot. I finally have 3 healthy looking shoots
popping out of the rhizome. It pays to
be patient with some plants I guess.
September almanac
The Harvest
moon occurs this month on September 27th. (We just had a full moon on August 29th
) It’s called the harvest moon because farmers often used the light of this
month’s full moon to complete their harvest.
The autumn equinox, the start of fall is September 23rd. We’ll be down to 12 hours of daylight then.
The birth
flower for September is the aster or in some places, the morning glory. Asters are said to symbolize powerful love
and morning glories just affection so choose the flower you give this month
accordingly. The September birthstone is
sapphire.
September is
Hispanic Heritage Month, very appropriate this year, National Chicken month, Honey month, Classical
Music month and International Square Dancing month.
Besides Labor
Day (7th) holidays in September include Grandparents day the 13th
(who honors us grandparents anyway?) Patriots day on the 11th, the 13th is
National Peanut day, the 14th is Pet Memorial day, the 19th is National POW-MIA
day, 21st is International Peace Day, the 26th is Native American Day and the
28th is both Good Neighbor Day and Ask a Stupid Question day.
What’s at the Farmers market
This is prime
farmers market shopping time. Almost all
vegetables are on the market, squash, sweet corn, tomatoes, beans, peppers,
cucumbers, melons, carrots, cabbage, you name it. If you want tomatoes for canning better get
them soon because this warm wet weather will have plants dying of disease
quickly. Apples are starting to ripen
and come on the narket; peaches and plums are almost gone. Pears and grapes will soon be available.
We
have an extra Tuesday this month and I have decided to make this issue mainly
about seeds- since this is the time when many gardeners begin collecting seeds
for next year. Have a great Labor Day holiday.
The miracle of seeds
Plants are so
amazing. Despite the fact that we can’t
exist without them we don’t know as much about them as we should. But we are finally realizing that plants do
many of the same things animals do- we just have to realize they have a
different way of doing things than animals and it’s hard for us animals to fully
understand the complexity of plant life.
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| Baptisia produces lots of very hard seeds. |
For example
we now know that plants communicate with each other, that they experience pain
and other stimuli, and that they can even perform tasks which we thought only
animals did like defend themselves and make decisions about allocating
resources. One of the things plants have
in common with animals is that they protect and provide for their young. In animals embryos are protected in one of
two ways, in a uterus inside the animal or in an outside “egg”. The uterus or egg provides nutrients for the
embryo, sustaining them and protecting them until they are born. After birth some animals let their young fend
for themselves, but many animals protect and even feed their young for various
amounts of time.
Flowering
plants provide for their young in much the same way animals do. They make various types of seeds, some
surrounded by a fleshy protective “uterus” we call a fruit. All seeds have some food packed in them for
the embryo to begin life by germinating and a baby plant ready to grow when
conditions are right. The stored food
sustains the embryo until it can begin absorbing water from the soil and making
food through photosynthesis. If a seed
needs to go through a long period of dormancy before conditions will be right
for it to germinate it will have more food than the seed which can germinate
soon after forming.
If a baby
plant normally needs a long period of time before it can sustain itself after
germination because of environmental factors like poor soil or low light, it
will have seeds that still provide food long after germination. These are the fleshy looking cotyledons or
seed leaves one can see on the stem of seedlings until they get several true leaves.
These were folded up inside the seeds.
Some plants have one – monocots- and some plants have two- dicots. These cotyledons “nurse” (have a food supply
that is slowly released) the baby plant as it begins to grow.
Plants
provide their babies with many forms of nutrients, proteins, fats, carbs,
depending on the species of plants and what the baby will need most to
survive. No one knows yet why plants
developed so many forms of nutrients that are included in seeds in varying
proportions, to nourish their young.
Even a tiny seed, like the rape seed, can have a large amount of food
stored. But those fats, carbs, oils, and
proteins sure have made the human diet and lifestyle possible. Without them most animal life would fail.
(Some tiny animals might survive on non- flowering plants like mosses and
algae.)
Plants
further protect their babies by making hard seed coats, poisonous chemicals in
the seed, chemicals that regulate germination, juicy fruits around them that
keep them moist, devices which allow the seeds to disperse through the air or
in the fur of animals and by other means.
Unfortunately for plants animals have learned that the food stored for
the baby plant is a good food source for them also. Seeds and fruits, all formed by plants to
feed, protect and disperse their babies to good locations make up about
70% of the human diet, more in the case of those who are vegetarians.
So the next
time you eat bread, enjoy your blueberry cobbler, sip coffee, or munch a
chocolate bar thank a plant for sacrificing its babies.
Collecting and storing seeds
As the
gardener strolls through the garden in late summer and fall he or she may
notice a lot of seed pods hanging on various garden plants, maybe on some
plants you never dreamed you could start from seeds. Wilderness hikers and people touring public
gardens may also notice various seeds that they would like to collect. (Use some sense in these instances, many
parks prohibit removing any plant material, and you should ask permission from
someone in charge of a public garden before collecting seeds.) Gardeners want to help plant babies
grow. But collecting the seeds won’t
help you grow new plants if you don’t know when to collect the seeds, how to
store them and the best ways to get them to
germinate.
 |
| Sometimes mother nature screws up. In 2008 corn sprouted before it could be dried enough for storage. |
Seeds are
plant embryos and the plant kingdom has devised many ways to protect the baby
plant inside until the time is right for it to start growing. Some plants use a hard seed coat, some use
chemicals and some program their seeds to require periods of cold, alternating
heat and cold periods or periods of moist and dry conditions before the seed
germinates. Some seeds are ready to
germinate the minute they hit moist soil, others require months or years of
dormancy before they awaken. Some plants
even have seeds with a variable dormancy, some sprout quickly; other seeds from
the same plant delay their sprouting for various periods of time. This is to ensure that if conditions are poor
when the first batch of a plants seeds sprout, later sprouters may have better
conditions.
There are
special techniques for some seeds that a gardener needs to know if he or she
wants to be successful in germinating the seeds. And while almost any plants seeds could be
started, some garden plants seeds will probably be a big disappointment or take
years and years to become flowering or fruiting plants. Most gardeners will want to propagate these
plants in other ways. This article
explores collecting, storing and germinating conditions and techniques. The basics of growing seeds after they have
germinated has been covered in other articles.
Why some plants grown from seed may
disappoint you
Apples and
some other fruits never produce the same type of fruit from saved seeds. In other words Delicious apple seeds planted
will not produce a tree that has apples like the red delicious. That’s because apples are sterile if two
closely related varieties pollinate each other- and won’t have fruit. If the Delicious apple tree has fruit it was
pollinated by a different type of apple.
When you plant seeds from that apple they may be a nice eating apple –
or not- but you will wait many years to find out. Most apple varieties are propagated by
grafting cuttings onto a root stock. The cuttings will produce the same type of
apples as the tree they came from. Plums, sweet cherries, almonds, pears and
some citrus are also self- sterile and seeds won’t produce the same variety as
the parent.
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| Apples never come true from seed. |
Any hybrid
plant whether, a tomato or zinnia, will produce seeds that when planted, will
look nothing like their parent. In
general about 50% of the offspring of hybrid plants will be inferior to the
parent plant; the other 50% might have some value. This is true whether you grew only one variety
of hybrid tomatoes for instance, and they pollinated each other, if the hybrid
plant self-pollinated, or the plants crossed with other varieties of the same
species in the garden. That’s because
the genes of at least two plants were used to produce the hybrid parent and in
sexual reproduction the genes will be randomly re-combined. You can save the seeds of hybrid plants and
experiment by planting them, but you will often be disappointed with the
results.
If garden
plants are open pollinated- or pure bred- and you grew them close to other
varieties of open pollinated, pure bred plants the seeds they produce may also
surprise you. The seeds they produce
will grow hybrid plants, a cross between varieties. In many cases these will be nice plants,
because they have what is known as hybrid vigor, but they won’t be exactly like
the parent plants. If you want a
particular variety of plant to produce seeds that will turn into plants looking
like the parents, then you need to isolate that variety of plant from other
varieties. Thirty feet away from each
other is a good rule of thumb to keep plants from crossing, but some plants
will require even more space.
Of course
many people want two varieties of plants to cross so they can get new exciting
varieties, better flavor or more disease resistance. You can do this by planting two varieties
close to each other and hope the wind or insects spread the pollen from one to
the other. Or for more precise results
you can deliver pollen from one plant to another by hand, and prevent the
receiving flower from being pollinated accidentally by wind or insects.
Once
pollination has happened, the fruit (ovary surrounding the seeds) and seeds of
the parent plant won’t give you any clues as to what the seeds will produce
when they grow. You can save the seed
from a big round, orange pumpkin and get odd blue warty fruits when you plant
those seeds because pumpkins can cross breed with many types of winter squash
that might have been growing by it.
Other plants that cross easily are the summer squashes, gourds and
winter squashes because they are closely related and many species of
melons.
There is one
exception – at least in the common garden plants- where the seeds can tell you
if two varieties have crossed. If you
plant a yellow variety of sweet corn next to a white variety and when you take
the ears off the yellow corn and see bi-colored kernels, you’ll know the two
varieties crossed and if you saved those kernels (seeds) and planted them you
would get bi-color corn, white corn and yellow corn ears in the second
generation. Crossing varieties of corn
can also affect the taste of the corn, sweet corn pollinated by field corn, for
example, will be tougher and less sweet.
Many
varieties of flowers and vegetables cross breed easily within the species -
that’s how we get new varieties. There
is always some genetic variation in sexually produced plants- when you grow
plants from seed- even when you cross two supposedly identical varieties.
That’s because some genes are hidden. A
plant’s flowers may be white and if you cross the plant with the same variety
of white flowers, you may get white flowers again on seeds grown from that
cross. But if one parent or both had
genes for pink flowers you may also end up with some pink flowered plants.
If you want an exact duplicate of the hosta
Great Expectations for example, you would be better off dividing the original
plant than breeding one hosta Great Expectations to another and planting the
resulting seeds. But if you want to
produce something different or don’t care about color or leaf shape letting different
varieties cross breed and collecting the seed is fine.
Genetic
variability is the reason for sexual reproduction. In all life sexual reproduction allows an
organism to change to suit conditions or to be manipulated to suit uses humans
have planned for it. Helpful mutations
in genes can be passed to other organisms through the gene recombination that
occurs during sexual reproduction.
Collecting seeds
In most cases
you want to collect the seed when the seed pod or fruit surrounding the seeds
is fully ripe. Since we eat some fruits
before they are fully ripe, like cucumbers, you must know what a ripe fruit
looks like for that plant and wait to harvest the seeds. Corn should turn dry and hard on the stalk
before saving seeds. Watermelons should be mushy
ripe and the seeds black or dark brown before harvest. Peppers must be fully
ripe- and they can be many colors when ripe- and soft. Most seed pods or seed heads turn brown and
dry when the seeds are ready to harvest. The opening of pods means the seeds
are ripe.
In some cases
for seeds to be properly stored and then sprout, the fruit must first rot or
ferment. While you can cut open a very
ripe tomato and extract the seeds for storage, it’s better to let the tomato
turn to a rotting, fermenting mush before separating out the seeds, drying them
and saving them. Germination rates will
be higher. Eating a tomato and some
other fruits and then extracting the seeds from your feces would also be a way
to prepare them for storage, but fermenting them seems a bit nicer and easier
to do. Many seeds are prepared for
germination in nature by passing through some animal’s digestion system.
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| Seedpods on hosta. |
Collect seeds
on a warm, sunny dry day if at all possible.
It’s best to collect most types of seed before a heavy frost or freeze
but collection after that can still work for many seeds. The trick in collecting
seed pods and seedheads to get the seeds is to not let them split or otherwise
disperse the seeds before you collect them, but still be mature. Keep a close eye on ripening pods and
seedheads. On a warm day a closed pod in
the morning may have shot off the seeds or dropped them on the ground by
evening. If seed pods and seedheads are almost dry and nearly ready to harvest you
can cut them and put them in paper bags in a warm dry place to finish
drying. Separate the varieties and
species because they may drop the seeds.
Label your bags! Or you can surround seed heads or pods with paper bags
and tie them right on the living plant.
Sometimes
gardeners have a hard time distinguishing the actual seeds from the seed pods,
or remnants of flowers and fruit. Put
the ripe seed heads or pods in paper bags close and shake them. You may see loose seeds in the bottom. In most cases a ripe pod or seed head will
split or otherwise open or drop its seeds, but in some cases even ripe pods
must be opened. Some flowers like
Echinacea, rudbeckia, zinnia and others with daisy like flowers will have a bit
of dried petal attached to the seed. Even when dry some of these flower heads
must be pulled apart to separate the seeds.
When you do
have the seeds separated from pods and fruit let them dry for a few more days
in a warm dark location. Almost all
garden seeds need to be thoroughly dry before storing them so they don’t mold or
rot. Clean out pieces of stem, pod and
other debris before storing. It’s best
to place seeds in paper packages, even a twist of tissue or fold of newspaper,
before placing them in sealed glass or plastic containers. This absorbs moisture. Once again- label containers, there’s nothing
worse than forgetting what kinds of seeds you carefully saved.
After your
seeds are packaged store the seeds of most common garden plants in the
refrigerator crisper drawer or another cool dry dark spot. Some tropical plant seeds may do better in
warmer storage and some seeds may actually need freezing temperatures to
properly prepare them for germination.
Most plants grown in temperate climates, both annuals and perennials
need a period of cold dormancy before they germinate. Even if they don’t they will store better in
a cool location.
Storing seeds
– or a dry, dormant period – whether in cold or room temperature surroundings,
may be all that’s need for some seeds to germinate. You take them out of storage, plant them
inside or outside, keep them moist and soon get new plants. Common garden annuals, perennials and
bi-annuals like zinnias, marigolds, cleome, calendula, nasturtium, annual sunflowers,
petunias, poppies, hollyhocks, coleus, begonias, dill, borage, basil, sage,
thyme, carrots, lettuce, beets, radishes, spinach, cabbage, Brussels sprouts,
cauliflower, broccoli, peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons,
squash, pumpkins, and cucumbers will do fine this way.
It’s
important to note that some of the above seeds can fall on the ground in late
summer and survive moist freezing weather and sprout in the spring when the
weather is warm. But they don’t have to
be stored this way to germinate unlike some other plants. You could plant the seeds of the above plants
in the ground after you collect them and mark the spot, then hope they appear
in the spring. But you risk them blowing
away, being eaten by animals, getting too wet and rotting or you mistaking them
for weeds when they germinate in the spring.
Special germination needs
Some plants
need stratification to properly
germinate. In nature stratification
occurs when seeds lay in moist soil and are subjected to freezing and
thawing. Then they are ready to quickly
germinate when warmer conditions occur- the amount of warmth to get them
sprouting will vary by species. The
period that they need to be cold also varies.
In most cases cold stratification is needed, but in a few plants the
seeds must be stored in warm and moist conditions to get good germination.
Many common
garden perennials need stratification to germinate properly. These include; Aconitum, Alchemilla, Asclepias (Milkweed), Baptisia, Bloodroot,
Buddleia, Candytuft, Caryopteris, Chelone, Cimicifuga, Clematis, Chinese
Lantern, Delphinium, Eremurus, Evening Primrose, Filipendula, Fuchsia, Gentians,
Geranium species (Cranesbill Geranium), Helianthemum, Helianthus, Heliopsis,
Helleborus, Heuchera, Hardy Hibiscus, Hypericum, Incarvillea (Hardy Gloxinia),
Knautia,
Lavender,
Marsh Marigold, Mazus, Nepeta (Catmint),
Penstemon, Persicaria, Phlox (all types), Platycodon, Primrose, (all types),
Ranunculus, Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan, most types), Saponaria (Soapwort), Saxifrage,
Scabiosa, Sedums, Sempervivums (Hen-and-Chicks), Sidalcea, St. John’s-Wort, Stokesia,
Thalictrum, Tiarella, Tricyrtis (Toad-lily), Veronica, Violas Violets, Virginia
Bluebells.
Many
wildflowers/natives that a gardener might want to establish also require cold
stratification. Check with experienced
growers or it wouldn’t hurt to assume that most wildflowers that drop seed in
late summer and fall would need stratification.
Gardeners can
achieve stratification by simply planting the seeds of the above plants in the
fall in the ground where you want them to grow and marking the spot. Or you can place the seeds in moist
vermiculite in containers in the crisper of the refrigerator, which will be
cold enough for most seeds. A compromise
is to plant the seeds in pots of sterile potting mix, well moistened and sink
them in the ground covered with mulch.
Remove the mulch when the ground thaws.
If you want
to start plants early inside, make sure that they get about 12 weeks of cold,
dark treatment before moving them to a warmer, lighted place for germination.
Scarification/soaking
Some seeds
require scarification to allow seeds
to germinate. This is the breaking of
the seed coat to let moisture in. These
plants may also require a cold period before the scarification process. In nature the breaking of hard seed coats may
happen when animals eat seeds and pass them in feces, with freezing and
thawing, with long periods of soaking, or other mechanical breaching or
softening of the seed coat.
Some common
garden plant seeds that require scarification/and or soaking include morning
glories, moonflower vines, wisteria, bedding geranium-(Pelargonium), purple
hyacinth beans, babtisia and canna.
These may also require soaking.
Assume that
very hard seeds will at least need soaking before they can take up water and
germinate. Soak most seeds in warm water for
overnight only. Too much soaking may
drown the embryo inside. Then wrap the
seeds in moist paper towel, slide that in a plastic bag but leave it open just
a bit for air. Place the bag in a warm,
well lit place and watch for signs of a root sprouting. As soon as you see roots the seed can be
planted in the ground or pots and kept moist until the leaves are seen.
To actually
break the seed coat you can use a nail clipper to chip a tiny hole or a nail
file to score one. Examine the seed
before you begin. You do not want to
damage the embryo inside. There will
generally be a slight indentation and a tiny pore where the embryo rests
against the inside. The spot may be a different color. Score or chip the seed
on the opposite side. Some people even
resort to cracking larger hard seeds with a nut cracker, but you only want to
crack, not remove the seed coat. Then
soak the seeds as above.
Seeds that should not be stored very
long
These seeds
should be planted soon after you collect them.
If they are cold hardy you can plant them outside. Otherwise plant in
pots inside. The sooner they are planted
the better germination will be.
Anthurium, Asparagus
species, Clivia, perennial Delphinium, Geranium (Pelargonium) Gerbera, Ginkgo, Impatiens, Kochia, Philodendron,
Magnolia, onions, Passiflora, Potentilla, Salvia splendens Tanecetum coccinium
(or Pyrethrum).
Special needs plants
Baptisia australis needs to be stored
cold (dry) about 6-8 weeks (or longer is fine).
Then soak overnight in warm water, add inoculant for peas and beans and
plant inside or outside after danger of frost.
Or plant outside immediately after collecting the seeds using inoculant
and expect sprouting in late spring.
Lilies- Asiatic and trumpets -
plant outside as soon as seed is collected or save seed in cool area and plant
in pots in early spring inside at 60-75 degrees. They take a long time to germinate, up to 6
weeks, and should not be left in pots very long before transplanting
outside. Oriental lily seed should be
planted in baggies or small pots of moist vermiculite and left in a warm, (65
degrees +) bright room for 3-4 months until a small bulb forms. Then they should be placed in a cooler area
for 3 weeks- about 50 degrees, and then an even colder place, just above
freezing for a cold dormancy of 12 weeks.
Keep barely moist. After 12 weeks
bring them back into a warm bright area or plant outside. Lilies grown from seed take several years to
bloom.
Gladiolus To possibly have flowers the first
year store glad seeds in the refrigerator crisper until January. Then pot them in a warm bright place, they
can take a month to germinate- and move outside after frost is over. Dig up corms before frost and store
overwinter. Almost all will bloom the
second year outside.
Iris- Bearded
iris- you can plant them in the ground or pots sunk in the ground right after
collecting. Or rinse seeds in a mix of
10% chlorine bleach, and store seeds in a bag of moist vermiculite in the
refrigerator crisper for 3 months. Then
germinate at 55 degrees in bright light.
Plant outside in spring. It will
take 2-3 years to get blooms.
Siberian
and Japanese iris seed should be soaked in a bowl of water which is emptied and
re-filled each day for 2 weeks. Then
they are given a final rinse of 10% chlorine bleach and stored in moist
vermiculite in the refrigerator crisper for 12 weeks. Any that have sprouted should then be potted
and placed in a warm bright location.
Un-sprouted seeds should be warmed every day for three days by placing
them in water that feels barely warm to the touch for about a half hour. Then plant them in a warm bright location and
plant outside as soon as possible.
Yucca- yucca has a low germination rate
outside but a better one if started inside.
Keep the seeds in moist vermiculite in a warm, dark location for at
least 30 days. Then pot up and keep at
65-75 degrees and in bright conditions.
The potting mix should be very well draining, but kept moist. It can take a year for germination so be
patient! They can be planted outside
when they are a few inches tall at a frost free time.
Wisteria – the seeds need to be nicked or
cracked and soaked for 24 hours before planting, preferably outside in fall or
they can be planted inside at normal room temperatures and bright light. They take years to bloom from seed.
Trumpet vines- You can plant the seed outside
after collecting or store it in moist vermiculite in the refrigerator crisper
for 12 weeks, then plant in pots at a moderate temperature inside. Germination may take weeks. Plants take a few years to bloom and should
be transplanted while still small.
Canna- Canna seeds are very hard and need
to be first nicked or scratched and then they are put in a pan and boiling
water is poured over them. After you
hear pops – or in a few minutes- remove the seeds. They are then soaked in cool
water overnight and should have doubled their size. Next they are planted in pots in a warm 75
degree + room with bright light. They
should sprout within a week. The
temperature can be lowered slowly to about 65 degrees. Plant outside after the danger of frost is
over and if started in February they will flower by August generally. They do not sprout well if the seed is simply
planted outside in the spring.
Daylilies- daylilies can be direct seeded
in the garden and will sprout in spring.
However daylily breeders believe they germinate better if started
inside. The seed must be placed in moist vermiculite or in rolls of damp towels
in the refrigerator for 6 weeks. They
are then potted in individual small pots and kept in a warm, bright room until
they are planted outside in spring. It
takes 2 or more years to get a bloom.
Hosta- hosta seed can also be planted
outside in fall but many gardeners collect the seeds and store them inside dry in the refrigerator. To
germinate after at least 6 weeks cold storage, soak the seeds for a half hour
in warm water and then pot them in early spring to get a jump on the season. Grow in bright light inside in moderate
temperatures. Plant outside in late spring.
Full leaf coloration may not develop until the second year.
Why
some plants don’t develop seeds
Some hybrid plants have been genetically modified so that
they are sterile and don’t produce seeds.
This may be because they are invasive, or because we don’t like eating
the seeds as in the case of seedless watermelons. The seeds or fruit could be
too messy or look bad. Or the sterility
could be a side effect of breeding for double flowers, odd colors or other
things. Besides watermelon you may get
sterile daylilies, roses, crabapples, and various other plants. The common
ditch daylily is always sterile. These
plants are propagated by cuttings or division.
 |
| Some types of garlic produce bulbils instead of seed. |
Plants may not produce seeds because they are not mature
enough. If a plants flowers don’t get
pollinated because of poor weather or lack of pollinators there won’t be seeds.
Some plants require pollination by another plant and if the right partner isn’t
close enough they can’t produce seeds. In
some exotic plants a pollinator is required that doesn’t exist where the plant
is being grown. And some plants require a set of environmental conditions that
are just right before they bloom and produce seeds.
Many plants that reproduce by runners, rhizomes or bulbs
don’t produce many seeds or any seeds.
They can reproduce quite well without seeds and don’t put the energy
into seed development. And of course if
you dead head flowers- take the flowers off after blooming- you aren’t going to
get seeds
Count the number of
seeds and fruits you are eating at your next meal and thank the plants they
came from.
Kim Willis
“He who has a garden and
a library wants for nothing” ― Cicero
Events, classes and other offerings
Please let me know if there is any event or class that
you would like to share with other gardeners.
These events are primarily in Michigan but if you are a reader from
outside of Michigan and want to post an event I’ll be glad to do it.
Do you have plants or
seeds you would like to swap or share?
Post them here by emailing me.
An
interesting Plant Id page you can join on Facebook
Here’s a
seed/plant sharing group you can join on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/875574275841637/
Here’s a facebook page link for gardeners
in the Lapeer area
Here’s a
link to classes being offered at Campbell’s Greenhouse, 4077 Burnside Road,
North Branch. Now open.
Here’s a
link to classes and events at Nichols Arboretum, Ann Arbor
Here’s a
link to programs being offered at English Gardens, several locations in
Michigan.
Here’s a
link to classes at Telly’s Greenhouse in Troy and Shelby Twsp. MI, and now
combined with Goldner Walsh in Pontiac MI.
Here’s a
link to classes and events at Bordines, Rochester Hills, Grand Blanc, Clarkston
and Brighton locations
Here’s a link
to events at the Leslie Science and Nature Center, 1831 Traver Road Ann Arbor,
Michigan | Phone 734-997-1553 |
http://www.lesliesnc.org/
Here’s a link to events at Hidden Lake Gardens, 6214
Monroe Rd, Tipton, MI
Here’s a
link to all the nature programs being offered at Seven Ponds Nature center in
Dryden, Michigan. http://www.sevenponds.org/education/progs/springprograms/
Here’s a
link to events and classes at Fredrick Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids Mi
http://www.meijergardens.org/learn/ (888) 957-1580, (616) 957-1580
Exhibitors/demonstrators
wanted
Seven Ponds
Nature Center ( Dryden Mi.) Heritage Harvest Days, scheduled for September 19
and 20 is looking for additional artists and crafters who can demonstrate, display,
and sell their work, especially that related to nature. All exhibitors receive free admission to the
event, as well as free lunch on one day of the festival. Please contact the
center at 810-796-3200 if you would like to set up a booth or exhibit this
year.
Newsletter
information
If you would
like to pass along a notice about an educational event or a volunteer
opportunity please send me an email before Tuesday of each week and I will
print it. Also if you have a comment or opinion you’d like to share, send it to
me. Please state that you want to have the item published in my weekly notes.
You must give your full name and what you say must be polite and not attack any
individual. I am very open to ideas and opinions that don’t match mine but I do
reserve the right to publish what I want.
I write this
because I love to share with other gardeners some of the things I come across
in my research each week. It keeps me engaged with local people and
horticulture. It’s a hobby, basically. I hope you enjoy it. If at any time you
don’t wish to receive these emails just let me know. If you know anyone who
would like to receive these emails have them send their email address to
me. KimWillis151@gmail.com
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