self-seeding
- Subject: self-seeding
- From: E*@aol.com
- Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 12:51:51 EDT
In a message dated 5/30/02 11:45:14 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
bhayes@catskill.net writes:
<< Here's another example of the mystery of Mother Nature: in my garden I
have never had Cleome seed itself, nor Verbena Bonariensis either,
though others think them invasive. I even have trouble growing them
from seed. >>
Isabelle,
Being up the river from you, we must have a somewhat similar climate and
environment for seedling.
Cleome makes it here about three years out of four germination being quite
late in the season, near the end of June. Makes sense for us to buy plants
or start it indoors.
Verbena bonariensis is name for Buenos Aires where it is a weed. I learned
that this past winter when I discovered this planted loved here is not much
respected there.
V. bonariensis self seeds in droves when the fall weather allows it to mature
seed. If we have one of those September 15 frost, the seedlings will be few
or none. If the plant is allowed to mature the seed, the seedlings are
numerous.
The first year I grew this plant,I paid around 5.00 per single 4 inch pot and
looked all over NY and CT for it on trips. Then it became common here and
little cheaper, in six packs. One summer day, it germinates, also in June,
outdoors, I was yanking out hundreds of them when a friend informed me I was
removing the the very seedlings I was complaining about being missing. The
seedlings are not distinguished in appearance.
So, maybe you have to wait into June and note that V. bonariensis seedlings
look like weeds of several kinds they grow along with. It helps with both of
these plants to remove the mature seed and scratch it into the soil where it
has grown so the next year you will have an idea what the germinating plants
might be.
Verbena bonariensis can also be kept over in pots in cellar windows cut back
and watered very little. They are perennials. Nicotiana alata can be treated
the same way. I have N. alata in bloom here now as it is also a perennial.
For me some seed (and there is an awful lot of seed) got into the older
concrete foundation of the my house and the warmth (well it must be warmth)
of the walls keeps these plants alive as perennials. They bloom with early
iris. A second wave come on from seeds dropped everywhere, also germinating
outdoors in mid-June, and bloom in late summer, the more normal process here.
I found a miniature cleome this year, purple flowers and about 20 inches
high. Has anyone grown that? Full of questions today, I wonder if anyone has
grown morning glories up shrubs successfully.
Self-seeders are the most reliable annuals. This year, beside the armies of
feverfew and tancetum niveum there are poppies of every kind everywhere,
Nicotiana, Viola, Dianthus deltoides, Lychnis coronaria, the Lychnis called
German catchfly, Hostas, Thlaspi, Corydalis, larkspur, Digitalis, Cosmos,
several kinds of Rudbeckia, borage,and more I must have missed. The second
wave of germination is in mid-June.
How many have cultivated a large and handsome weed until able to identify it
as a weed in the garden?
Claire Peplowski
NYS z4
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