Re: Deadhead, deadhead, deadhead
- To:
- Subject: Re: Deadhead, deadhead, deadhead
- From: M* T*
- Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 01:51:54 -0500
Interesting theory, Jeanne, but IMO, if your plant set seeds, it is likely
that the normal percentage were viable, whether from first set flowers or
second set....so, it is more likely that it is cultivation practices or the
fact that the ground hasn't warmed up enough for the seedlings to sprout or
that some critter or bird made off with the seeds over winter or that they
fell to the ground but didn't like where they landed. I have many plants
who never seed into the beds they are supposed to grow in but love to throw
seeds into my gravel driveway, where they sprout with abandon...plants can
be pretty contrary sometimes.
Tiny seeds can have trouble sprouting if they fall into deep mulch and end
up at the bottom...and, if they do that and are seeds requiring light to
germinate, they may not receive enough and just sit there.
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
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----------
> From: jeanne latta <jplatta@yahoo.com>
> Date: Thursday, April 01, 1999 6:08 PM
>
> Hi there,
> Recently I wrote frustrated over the fact that My self
> sowing perennials had forgotten to sow. Janis wrote,
> suggesting that maybe it was cultivation practices and
> mulching. I think to a big extent she is absolutely
> right but I also have another idea.
> I pondered what you wrote, Janis, and looked back on my
> deadheading routine last summer. Being a newbie
> gardener, I deadheaded as religiously as I apply a
> deodorant. Every single book I read said that if you
> want to have a second bloom from your plants, you have
> to deadhead them, which I did. When the second bloom
> came, I let it go to seed so that it would self-sow and
> I would have lots of little Columbines, poppies,
> foxgloves, etc.
> Do you think it's possible that the seeds from a second
> bloom are not as "potent" as the seeds from a first
> bloom? I have no idea what kind of hanky-panky goes on
> in my garden after the sun goes down..I suggested once
> last summer that it was a veritable hotbed of carnal
> delight out there because the soil was so juicy and
> fertile after all the emendments I added. I am not a
> voyeur, inquiring into the sexlife of my
> foxgloves..frankly, it's none of my business but I have
> the feeling that the second bloom seeds just didn't
> have the oomph it takes to reproduce. What do you all
> think?
> Jeanne
>
> ===
> Jeanne
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