Giving Seeds A Shot

After a dozen years of work I’ve finally fallen in love with my own garden. But a gardener is never completely satisfied, and there was this one spot where I needed something red.

Then, miraculously, three days later a dianthus barbatus (AKA Sweet William) flowered in that exact spot, and it was a brilliant and perfect red—but just one small plant and a tease at that. I had never planted it there, though there is a grouping of a different colored Sweet William about 3 feet away. This is one of the few biennials that I have in my garden, and this particular plant appeared as a result of my finding its cousin in an abandoned garden up the street nearly 10 years ago. I waited until the plant set seed weeks after I discovered it, and ever since I’ve been able to grow the plant in my garden, allowing it to self-seed and grow from progeny seed I collect and sow every year. This red one, though, is a very different color, pointing to the variability issues in seed-grown, open-pollinated plants. But maybe the bees and hummingbirds have left this red one alone and its offspring will be the same gorgeous red.

Maybe. But that means collecting the seed, sowing a few this summer and storing the rest over the winter, then waiting until next year or the year after to see if the children will be the same red. Which brings me to the topic for this week's column … the whys and hows of seed collection.

This is a subject I’ve touched on numerous times over the years, but I’m hoping that if I do so again, and at the height of the flowering season, you’ll be tempted to do some further reading and make this the summer you collect seed and sow some of your own experiments.

I think this red dianthus can be a good example of what’s involved in seed collecting, so let’s follow the process. I’ve found the plant and I already know that this particular variety is easy to grow from seed. I’ve tagged the plant with plastic tagging tape so I don’t confuse it with others and I can write notes (color, dates of flowering, height) on the tape with a fine-tipped marking pen.

Now I wait. If pollination has taken place it will be several weeks before the seed matures. The plant needs to be watched carefully, because the seed can ripen just perfectly and on the day I don’t check, drop to the ground. In most cases the part of the plant enclosing the seed will gradually turn brown, then when the seed is ripe it will open to let the seed drop or in some cases violently shoot it out. A good example of this is the jewelweed or wild impatiens … aptly called a touch-me-not, because when the seed capsule is ripe if you touch it without knowing how to catch the seed it’s sent flying several yards in all directions. And that’s why it’s called an impatient."

For now, though, let’s keep this simple. Columbines and our Sweet William make it easy, as the seed is very obvious when it’s ripe, and they can easily be tapped into a cup or envelope. Then what? Well, that depends on what you plan on doing with the seed. Are you going to save it? Plant it immediately? Or both?

I try to split my seeds, saving some and planting some, but you need to know what regime each seed needs for germination. Since this Sweet William has particular value to me, I want to save most of it and germinate it next spring in flats and sow only a small potion in the garden, where I’ll tag it and be able to see if the flower color comes "true" or not. The columbine seed, I may sow immediately since I know that ripe columbine seed will germinate in 14 to 21 days. But I also know that it needs to be surface-sown and not covered with soil. Always tag the outdoor area where you sow the seed so you have a reminder of where it is and what it is.

Before storing any seed I leave it on a piece of paper, dinner plate or cereal bowl for several days to ensure it dries. I leave a small paper tag with the seed so I know what it is and when I harvested it. The seed then gets packaged, first into small aluminum foil squares of about 4 inches. The seed goes in the middle and the square is turned into an envelope so it can’t slip out. This envelope then goes into a small plastic zip bag that can be sealed. Before sealing the bag, though, put your written ID information into the bag. I also try to write on the bag the same information … name, date of harvest. The seed now goes into the refrigerator, never, ever into the freezer. If the bag is airtight the seed will remain viable for several months to years, so long as it was viable when harvested.

One of the unknowns is what the seed will need to germinate. Is it a light germinator, a dark germinator or does it matter at all? Will the seed need vernalization (chilling) to germinate? Some seeds need such complex regimes to germinate that they may require several years of heat and cold treatment, but those are rare. In any case if this is of interest to you you’ll need to get a copy of Norman Deno’s book on seed germination, which you can find for free here: http://goo.gl/0mqcZR.

What you get from this saved seed depends on what you started with. If you collect seed from our local beach peas (Lathyrus japonicus) that you collect at the ocean dunes or bay beaches, or from wild perennial peas (Lathyrus latifolius) that you find growing along the highway, you’ll end up with variable colors. Sometimes you can isolate colors if you see a particular color growing in one large group, but you never know if there’s been some pollinator who played a trick on you until your plants flower.

Other local native plants that you can collect seed from include the prickly pear cactus, butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), the perennial hibiscus that grows along the south shore wetlands, digitalis that you may find in a garden or one or two that grow wild and of course the columbines and primulas. The digitalis and columbines are easy—simply sow the seeds on the soil surface and keep damp (not wet) until they germinate. The others are a bit trickier, so you need to read up on their germination needs.

Remember also that hybrids like roses, peonies, lilies and annuals like petunias and marigolds and the like will not come true from seed, so stick to native plants unless you just want to have fun. For several years I’ve been collecting seeds from my columbines and have ended up with some interesting results, as these are notorious for cross breeding. You can end up with singles, doubles, solid colors, spurred and spurless flowers. Then, if you’ve got a few years or decades, you can try to isolate one particular trait and end up with a named plant. That is, until it crosses with one of its pals behind your back.

As for my reddest of red Sweet William? No seed yet, but get back to me in a couple of years and I’ll let you know how it turned out. Gather some seed. And keep growing.

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