Erythrina herbacea no guessing

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:36:11 PDT
Dennis wrote: " That's fascinating (to me) to have hardy
seeds from a non-hardy plant!"

Dennis, I can remember when that first dawned on me, and yes it's intriguing.

But if you stop to think about it a minute, it's probably the rule rather than the exception. The seeds of most of the freeze tender plants we grow as annuals seem to be freeze tolerant. Even those plants which go with the first touch of frost in the autumn often have seeds which survive the winter; in my garden right now are patches of begonias, ageratum, torenia and scarlet sage which are all self-sown from plants which flowered last year.

Some plants give the impression of not having hardy seeds, but that's usually because the seedlings germinate in the autumn and are then killed by subsequent freezes. If you wait for the arrival of real winter weather and then sow the seeds in question, you'll get good results.

And I know I'm not the first person to store surplus seed in the freezer, where it seems to retain viability for decades.

Jim McKenney

 


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