Native Gardening

[JamieB]

To be cold stratified, do the seeds have to be planted first? Or just chilled? The wild seeds still on the vine I gathered are now in a ziplock, sitting out with the other plants in the gazebo.

 

[mrsclem]

I just put my seeds in the fridge. It's amazing that the seed companies don't tell you that the seeds need to be stratified.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

To be cold stratified, do the seeds have to be planted first? Or just chilled?

I put my seeds in wet paper towel and slide that into a ziplock bag that I close 2/3 of the way. I actually just took all my seeds out after 2 months. Hoping to see them start growing within a week. Some of my seeds will need light to germinate, so it may take them a little longer.

 

[CountryEscape]

I think the seed company that I love on-line has different time periods (30/60/90 days) for different types of seeds. For most natives that need cold stratification, you can direct sow them in the fall, if you have a bed prepared, or you can winter sow them like I did, and do that in Jan/Feb. (I'm zone 6a - south central IL) and you don't have to worry about cold stratification, because the weather does it for you. If you want to jump start them, as JB said, put them in damp paper towels in the fridge/freezer. The Wildflower Farm seed Company says in fridge for one day, then freezer, then fridge, for a week and they will be ready to go if only need 30 days stratification. Some need longer, but most milkweeds are good with that. I have all of mine in winter sown jugs outside. I won't have to worry about hardening them off, they will grow hardened off. LOL And, I won't have to worry about too much light, not enough light, etc. either. Mother Nature takes care of that for me for free. I won't have to water them unless it doesn't rain and then not until after I have seedlings. It's so easy and so much fun!
Here's the website:
http://www.wildflowerfarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=54

 

[JamieB]

I was thinking if the pitcher clematis growing wild. I gathered some of the seed spikes, they hadn’t fallen off the vine yet, birds hadn’t ate them. But it says they need cold stratified. I may go toss a few around the tree and along the porch where I’d like them to grow, see if that works.

 

[CountryEscape]

@JamieB that should work. The seeds were cold stratified in the winter all by themselves. I guess they didn't have the moist cold, like they would on the ground, but I'd put them on the ground and give them a chance. Good luck!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

and so it begins. New native seedlings are just beginning to grow.


Blue Giant Hyssop. Easy to grow, smells like licorice, and great for a wide variety of pollinators!

 

[CountryEscape]

JB, those are perennials, right? I think I have that on my "want" list from our native plant sale in April.

 

[addy1]

I have it growing, started from just tossing out seeds, sometimes it comes back sometimes it does not.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

JB, those are perennials, right? I think I have that on my "want" list from our native plant sale in April.

Yes. It's a perennial in the mint family. I bought one last year in the native plant section of a local garden center, Then collected hundreds of seeds last autumn. Also let a lot of them fall out in the garden. I've read that it can be a heavy self-seeder, which is great.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Over on my native garden's twitter page (yes, my native garden has it's own twitter page), I've started to celebrate made-up days to showcase certain species. Today is #LongheadedConeflowerWednesday. I thought I might start celebrating these made-up days here as well. Happy Long-headed Coneflower Wednesday everyone!

Unfortunately, they don't thrive in my garden as much as I'd like. They have a reputation of self-seeding quite heavily, but I haven't had that happen. I've gotten three plants from self-seeding and they never grow to their full potential. Might need to find a new location for them because I don't want to lose them. I really wanted them to fill in throughout the garden, but that may not be an option.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Received my Prairie Moon Nursery catalog today. Definitely recommend it for those new to native gardening. So many great North American native plants to choose from! I talk about them probably more than any other nursery, but there's a reason for that! I desperately wish I had a local nursery like them. Then again, I'd want to buy more plants than I have room for!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Got around 250 seedlings growing.

Blue Giant Hyssop is what I'm growing the most of. Not only will I be planting a lot of them, but I plan on giving quite a few to people I know as well as selling some. This is a pollinator magnet. All kinds of bee species like it, as well as butterflies.

I bought a Prairie Smoke plant last spring and it produced a few seeds so I collected them. Five of seven germinated.

I'm growing New England Aster just to try to sell it. I sold a few last year. It's easy to grow from seed and it grows relatively fast and often blooms in its first season. I grew a ton of it my in native garden last year. It's a great late-season pollinator magnet.

Prairie Coreopsis is something I've wanted to try for the last couple years. Unfortunately, germination was mostly a fail. 6 seedlings of 20 seeds. Still, those six plants will produce plenty of seed to try again in the future. One or two of these will be going by the pond.

I decided to grow another handful of Bush's Coneflower this year. Not quite sure at this point if they'll be going in my garden or if I'll be giving them to family members, but I figured I'd grow some either way and decide later.

Other than that, I'm also growing some Butterflyweed, Swamp Milkweed, and a lot of Great Blue Lobelia. Also growing Rocky Mountain Penstemon as a gift, but I may keep a couple and see if I like it and if it attracts a reasonable amount of pollinators. It'll be going in by my pond.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

My seedlings have grown quite a bit! I started them about 6 weeks ago, and they'll be planted outside in about 6 more, you know, if Winter decides to leave.

 

[Lisak1]

They look beautiful! I'm wintersowing a few varieties of milkweed - so far, nothing. Not surprising considering the weather!