Friday, October 17, 2014

Gathering Seeds For 2015

Wish I could say it was planned but in reality it was just this gardeners dumb luck! A few Sunday's ago it was clear, dry, warm and no wind. A perfect day for gathering seeds from my few favorite annuals, so the seed jars are full and labeled for 2015. The very next day we had winds that topped 45 mph for most of the day and night leaving the gardens looking a bit of a disaster. I went out the next morning to put a few things right and skim debris out of the pond and  noticed not a seed head left on the annuals.
I much prefer perennials, no seeds to gather. They come back bigger a stronger each spring and then about the third year you dig the clump, divide it and you have enough to put back in the garden and enough to share with other gardeners.  Biannuals are off the list....well except for Lupines, but they are easy enough with their abundant and easy to gather seed pods that I start in the greenhouse every second year. Annuals.....while pretty to fill in pots or those little blank spots in the garden are a fussy bunch of plants that take too much effort for a busy gardener. Over the last forty years here at Menagerie Manor I have had my favorites but have narrowed that list of annuals to just a few favorites that I put the extra effort into saving the seeds to assure their survival.

Peony Poppy (Papaver paeoniflorum)
 
Burgundy Cosmos
 
Love-in-a-mist (Nigela)
Blue Honeywort - Cerinthe major 'Purpurascens' or as we call them Bee's Bottoms because they are usually covered in bee's and that is the only part of the bee you see.

 

9 comments:

  1. My only seeds this year are black hollyhock, from a friend. It's perennials for me, and a few hanging baskets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had some purple that kept traveling about the garden never coming up in the same bed until they traveled out of my garden and are now happily growing in the "Crazy Cat Ladies" garden.

      Delete
  2. All delightful plants. Just as you are seed saving I should be planting my garden out. Hope to get it done in the not too distant future.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great luck for the beautiful flowers. Glad you got the collected before the blast, Doc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes and we have had several more of those blasts

      Delete
  4. Strange, I've kept a load of black hollyhock seeds too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well I don’t believe it…..now they can swim?

      Delete
  5. Yes, I favour perennials but there are a few annuals that I wouldn't be without. Cosmos 'Purity' is a favourite but I've never yet managed to raise it from my own saved seed.

    ReplyDelete