Bursting at the seams
Mid-June is by tradition a period when various spring flowering species are maturing their fruits – many are literally bursting at the seams :-) and are a bit difficult to catch, even for experienced collectors. Cues of maturation are slight changes in color and/or in texture, but even so, fruits on the same plant will mature at different times, therefore using organza bags when possible is still a better way to go.
With plants being smart, the fruits are in most cases down-turned towards the ground (like in Stylophorum diphyllum, the woodland poppy), which makes the matter of capture even more difficult. The wild ginger fruits (Asarum canadense) are laying at the ground level and innocently keep the same color/shape until the ‘last minute’ of maturation – an open buffet for all ground crawling creatures.
Viola species capsules, we talked about them, are explosives and it is not possible to include all the stems in bags.
So, daily garden walks have a double goal, to admire the newly flowered and to also collect seeds from the ‘seeds defectors’.
Just one example of an Epimedium ex. ‘Amber Queen’ hybrid; colored young foliage and yellow spidery flowers in various shades
To make a long story short, there will be new fresh seeds listed in the Spring-Summer 2024 section of the SEED LIST very soon.
At this point, only Jeffersonia diphylla and one Helleborus are on the ‘wait list’, but not for long I think.
PS. In the featured image: capsules with seeds of Epimedium lishihchenii.
Free Epimedium seeds will be offered for all orders (while quantities last)!
This spring was good with them and there are plenty of capsules on Epimedium ‘Amber Queen’ and its hybrids, so it would be a shame to let them go to waste.
Stay tuned…
