Saving Seeds. 9.18.2020

 From late summer, about mid August, until now, I've been collecting seed heads and seed pods etc. to save for next year.  Part of that will be for wildflower meadow, and part for vegetables or other flowers.

I saved flower and chive seeds buy cutting the seed pods or tops off, and putting them into brown paper bags, upside down, so the fried seeds would fall into the bag.   Others, such as cucumbers, I let the pulp ferment in water for 2 days, then let them dry on newspaper, the same as is done for tomato seeds.

These were the "bush" pickle cucumber seeds.  I was hospitalized when they were at their peak, so no pickles this year.  I let some of the fruits fully ripen to a tan/yellow color, with a husk that seemed a bit papery.  Then I cut three open, scooped out the seeds, let them ferment, and dried for a week on newspaper.   I thought they would stick together, but they did not.  This is enough to start a pickle farm.  Now they are in a paper envelope for the winter.

These were Oregon Sugar snow peas.  The holes indicate that a weevil has tunneled into them and hollowed them out.  So these are not viable.  I wasn't as crazy about Oregon Sugar as I was about Taiwan Sugar anyway.  Oregon Spring grew too tall, produced too late, and the snow-peas were not as good as Taiwan Sugar.  A similar thing happened to Taiwan Sugar but not as many.  I put them into a jar in the freezer, which is meant to kill the weevil.  If I can find them again.

Shirley Poppy seeds.  For these, I just cut off the pods when the stems turned brown.  After they are fully dried out, shake out the seeds like a pepper shaker.

Four O'clock seeds.  I saved, separately, red, yellow, and pink flowered types.  They come up volunteer anyway, but I thought I might add them to the fig tree area.

Marigold seeds.  These are messy.  I didn't realize that it's easy to pinch the pod, pull off the dry petals, then tear open the pod to release the seeds.  So these are seeds mixed with petals.  They have a nice herbal - floral scent.  I think the petals are OK.  There are enough seeds here to start a marigold ranch.  They will go into the wildflower meadow.  This is a yellow French variety that the honeybees liked.

When the seeds are dry, I transfer them into paper envelopes.  I'm not getting outtoo stores because of the coronavirus and stupid, stubborn people out there who want to be modern typhoid Marys, so these are home made using a paper tablet and painters tape.  They are just as good and basically free.  I use paper because it dries out, while plastic retains moisture that can cause mold..

What's Blooming. 6.28.16

Marigods

Crocosmia

Milkweed

Potato Onion

Roses

Classic Red Rose

Potato Onion

Chinese Chives

Overwintered Pelargoniums from Cuttings

Miscellaneous. 5.2.16

Saved Marigold Seeds.  5.3.16

Zucchini seedling.  5.3.16

 I planted rows marigold seeds around some of the vegetable beds.  If I had to buy the plants, or even the seeds, this many would have been expensive and a frivolous expense.  Since I saved seeds from last year, I have more than I can plant.  It will be nice for the honeybees if they grow.

Most of the squashes and pumpkin plants are in the ground.  So are the okra plants that I started.

The tiny blackberry plants that I started a few months ago are taking off now.  Leaves are nice and dark. 

Thornless Primocane Blackberry "Prime Ark Freedom"  5.3.16

Walking Around. 9.17.15

Yellow Single Marigold.  9.19.15

 Random photos.

The heirloom french marigolds had some atypical plants.  A single yellow - the rest were doubles.  And a taller, looser double red.  That one had more marigold fragrance, looks like a reversion to earlier type.  I am saving seeds from both.  I like the difference.

Only 4 seeds from Ning's beans.  Not much to start a self-saved strain but better than zero seeds.\

Squashes ripening and curing now.  The first of many.

Illinois Everbearing Mulberry is a pale green.  Not due to insufficient nitrogen.  It's been that way every year, and in 2 locations.  Other trees nearby are fully green.

The Four Saved Chinese Bean Seeds.  9.17.15

Atypical Large Red French Marigold.  9.17.15

The first Chinese Haws here.    Great to have a start.

This is the Year of the Squashes.  Lots to eat during the winter.

Squashes So Far.  9.17.15

Mulberry Illinois Everbearing.  9.17.15

Chinese Haw Red SUn.  9.17.15

Bee Forage. 9.1.15

My Bee Border.  9.1.15

Honeybee Foraging Buckwheat Flowers.  9.1.15

 This is a difficult time for honeybees to find forage.   There isn't a lot blooming in the fields out there.  Some dandelions, wild carrot, and tansy ragwort.  Tansy ragwort has toxicity issues.  The honeybees don't seem to care for the wild carrot and have been ignoring the local dandelions.

While, in bee terms, my gardening efforts are small, they do forage heavily on some plants that I selected for that purpose.

Buckwheat - the foraging is variable.  Sometimes when I look, there are few bees present.   Then I look again an hour later, and the buckwheat flowers are full of bees.  Overall, this plant seems to be very good for honeybee forage.

The Chinese chives flowers are always full of bees.  As a perennial, this plant has good potential for bee forage in a flower border.  I don't know how much it takes to make a difference, but the bees are crazy about it.

There are always some bees on the French marigold flowers.  More on orange flowers than on yellow or brick red.  I am saving seeds from these plants for next year.  I like the yellow and brick red better, but I am saving some from each so the honeybees get some they like too.

Borage continues to bloom and honeybees continue to forage it.  This is the 3rd wave, from volunteer plants.

Pink Sedum is in full bloom.  Each flower head is busy with multiple honeybees.

All of these plants make an attractive front flower border.  The annuals and perennials make a nice mixture.  The perennials can be divided for more plants next year. and in the case of the Chinese chives, both divided and seeds saved.  I have cut dried flower heads from those, saving in a paper bag to dry more thoroughly.  I am saving seeds from the annual French marigolds.  I might from the borage as well. So next year, this bee border will be zero cost, and little effort.  I don't  have buckwheat in the border.  The garden rol of buckwheat is to build soil and potentially provide some grain.  However, a few buckwheat plants would also be attractive in a flower border.

Honeybees Foraging Chinese Chives Flowers.  9.1.15

Honeybees Foraging Chinese Chives Flowers.  9.1.15

Native Bee Foraging Marigold Flower.  9.1.15

Native Bee

Honeybee Foraging Chinese Chives Flowers.  9.1.15

Honeybees Foraging Sedum Flowers.  9.1.15

Buckwheat Stand.   About one month after sowing.  9.1.15

Honeybee on Marigold Flower.  9.1.15

Bee Forage. 8.9.15

French Marigolds with Foraging Bumblebees.  8.9.15

Container-Grown Milkweed.  8.9.15

 There is not a lot out there for bees to forage.  Dandelions are having a moderate bloom.  On the deck, the large containers of marigolds attract many bees, continuously.  Mostly bumblebees.  Given the dearth of bee forage now, I am thinking I should plant some big patches of marigolds next year.  Each flower produces a big crop of seeds, so it will cost nothing if I save the seeds.

It looks like they prefer gold to yellow or red.  I am not certain about that.

Milkweed has not reached bloom stage.  As a perennial, I did not expect that until next year.  The plant I grew in container is much larger and more robust, compared to the plants I grew in the ground.  There is a big diversity of size and appearance, in keeping with what were probably wild-collected seeds.

Chinese chive is a major attraction for honeybees, more than bumblebees.  This variety is the heirloom type I collected as seeds from my parents' yard in Illinois.  I know those were there for more than 45 years, because I was the one who planted them.  They survived the intervening decades without care, in fact my parents didn't like them, so just mowed along with the rest of the yard.  This variety - land race?- is smaller and much later blooming, compared to the commercial Chinese variety Ning obtained.   Both are good forage for bees.  I will collect more seeds from my Illinois Chinese Chive, intending to have a large patch of those for bee forage in a couple of years.

It's interesting to view the Chinese Chive next to some Wild Carrot.  Both flowers are white, with small flowers.  But the bees very much prefer the Chinese Chive.

The second wave of borage is blooming.  Smaller than the first wave.  Bees constantly forage the borage.  There are 3rd wave borage sprouting from seeds.

The Joe Pye Weed that I grew from seeds last winter, is making flower buds.  The Anise Hyssop that I grew from seeds is growing, but I doubt they will bloom this year.  Perennials are a 2-year investment in time and space, but once established, I don't have to start from seeds again.

Milkweed Plants Grown In Ground.  8.9.15

Honeybee on Chinese Chive.  8.9.15

Blooming Chinese Chive.  8.9.15

Bees Prefer Chinese Chive to Wild Carrot.  8.9.15

Red Sedum with Honeybees  8.9.15

Red Sedum with Honeybees.  8.9.15

Saving Seeds and Making Hybrids. 7.18.15

Many flowers are setting seeds now.  For ornamentals, there is a choice between, letting them do their own thing, or deadheading to stimulate bloom and allow photosynthetic energy to go to root and stem storage, or let the seeds ripen and save the seeds.

For some plants, it takes intentional pollination.

My plan is to save the following seeds.

Ornamental Alliums - already discussed.  Cutting off dried seed-heads and shaking/rubbing the seeds into a bowl, then save in envelope.

Chives - same as Ornamental Alliums.

Dried El Dorado Peach Seeds.  7.21.15

Peaches - saving seeds from genetic dwarf tree to play with and experiment.  Those are dry in an envelope.  I need to crack them open and stratify some, plant others for nature to do its own stratification.

Peaches - from locally grown RedHaven, also dry in a bowl.  I want to grow one for a peach tree, maybe.  The others are for rootstock.

Apricots - see if I can sprout a couple to use as scion on a plum tree.

 Peacotum - ditto as for apricots.

Marigolds - save yellow and rust red varieties.  They are open pollinated so doubtless have mixed.  I'm not crazy about the more common orange ones, so I won't save those.   If orange dominates yellow or brick red, I could wind up with mostly orange again.

Tigridia Early Seed Pod.  7.21.15

Seed Pods Among Flower Buds on Daylily "Fooled Me"  7.21.15

Tigridia - I've been pollinating each, either self or with other color blooming at the same time.  no rhyme or reason.  I like the yellow/red mix the best.  I should cut off the seed pods for the others, why grow the ones I'm not crazy about.

Chicago Apache Early Seed Pod.  7.21.15

Dayilies.  Cross pollinating Chicago Apache (triploid) with Fooled Me (triploid).  Each gets the pollen from the other.  I am not emasculating them, so there could well be some self pollinating going on.

Also pollinated mystery variety "Vigoro" which has a triploid look, with pollen from Chicago Apache and Fooled me.

Also some others among the diploids.  Pardon Me with Stella De Oro, and with Luxury Lace.  Luxury Lace with Pardon Me.  Selfed the pale yellows.    I don't know if the one sold as Daring Deception is a mutant of that variety, or if in tissue culture it lost its polyploidy and became diploid, or was mislabeled, or is a seedling of Daring Deception that was mistaken as the real thing.  Still, it's the only lavender daylily in the bunch, so I used pollen from both diploids and triploids to see what sets.

No real strategy.  Only one currently with a contrasting eye color, which would be nice to pass on to progeny.

That's a lot of seeds.  It's all experimentation, doesn't matter if they don't grow, or if there is nothing worth while.  I bet some will grow, and there will be something worthwhile.

Bee Forage. 7.11.15

Bumblebee on French Marigold.  7.11.15

 Today I observed bumblebees foraging-

Borage, heavily.

French marigolds, moderately.

Penstemon, moderately.

Oregano, heavily.

Bumblebee on borage.  7.11.15

I have lilies, daylilies, and nasturtiums in bloom.  No bees are foraging those plants.

I also observed honeybees on squash blossoms.  They are open briefly, and somewhat hidden under the leaves.  They don't forage enough to guarantee pollination of the female flowers.  So I do that by hand.

Chives and cilantro finished blooming.  Bumblebees and honeybees foraged those heavily.  I cut off the chives, hoping for second bloom.  I am letting the cilantro go to seeds so I can save seeds, and have a big source for free instead of buying more.

Oregano with bumblebee.  7.11.15

Penstemon with bumblebee.  7.11.15

Walking Around. 6.20.15

Monarda.  6.20.15

 Another walk around the yard.   Some nice stuff blooming.  The Monarda was planted in 2012.  Becoming a nice clump.  I found one tiny daylily from a group of roots I planted early this year.  I thought they were dead.  It's either Playground or Strawberry Candy, if labeled correctly.   It has a tiny flower bud.  Kniphofia is cool just for the name.  Planted this one last year.  Starting to come into its own.  According to Wikipedia, they produce large amounts of nectar and attract bees.  My bees are yet to discover it.

This was the year of heritage flower seedlings.  The marigolds have the typical marigold pungent smell. 

The Callistemon critinus was at Lowes a couple of months ago.  I bought it on impulse.  Hummingbirds liked the flowers, a lot.  Now it seems to be growing.  I don't know what to expect - just new growth, or flowers. 

Tiny Daylily Start.  6.20.15

Various plants in front bed.  Featuring Kniphofia.  6.20.15

Front walk with marigolds and nasturtiums.  6.20.15

Calistemon citrinus / bottlebrush.  6.20.15