Miss Willmott’s ghost – and more sowing advice
The latest species added to the Seeds List: Eryngium giganteum, better known as Miss Willmott’s ghost (this is the common name, NOT a cultivar name).
A spectacular species for a sunny, well drained garden spot, which doesn’t need much presentation. The seeds require a period of cold/moist stratification in order to germinate well.
With this in mind, and after exchanging emails with people who bought seeds this fall, I think it is a good occasion to draw attention to the Germination page which I don’t think it is used to its full extent.
Take some time before sowing and browse the various links. There is a wealth of info about when and how to sow, all from personal, practical experience (beware copy/paste info you find on many websites, all ‘sounding’ the same).
For those in zone 6 and below, at this time I recommend to follow the advice from “Practical considerations for sowing in late fall –winter” (I changed the title from “sowing in the winter”).
True, it is not winter yet, but in colder climates the temperatures remain below 10C during the day now and the night temperatures often dip below 0C. In these conditions, if sown and put outside right away, the seeds cannot imbibe properly for the cold stratification to be effective.
Please have a recap on how to proceed for sowing at this time, including if you wish to provide cold/moist stratification in the fridge:
Practical considerations for sowing in the winter
One more thing, there are just a few moist packed seeds pck. left in the inventory at this point. Hurry up before it gets very cold!
Moist packed seeds
All species with hydrophilic seeds must be purchased and sowed at the right time in order to obtain good germination. Until next, here’s how Hepatica acutiloba seeds look when starting to germinate. We can already start dreaming about spring!
Hepatica acutiloba – white fragrant germination start, Nov. 2020
A splendid plant!
Do you have it Gill? I am tempted to sow few seeds, although I’ve already exceed my fall sowing quota :)
(hmmm first try at comment apparently didn’t work)
I HAD to find that common name, did you know about it?: “She became increasingly eccentric and paranoid: she booby-trapped her estate to deter thieves; secretly sowed seeds of the giant prickly thistle Eryngium giganteum in other people’s gardens, leading to it to be colloquially known as Miss Willmott’s Ghost; and carried a revolver in her handbag (from Wikipedia, Ellen Willmott)”
Yes Hollis, it is common knowledge among gardeners that she used to sow it in other people’s gardens, hence the common name. But I didn’t know she got
paranoid and booby trapped her property! Maybe sowing seeds in other people’s gardens was a sign.