Lots of Rain & Lots of Growth


Black-eyed Susans August 3
Same Black-eyed Susans August 15

North End of the Wildflower Garden August 15
I may no pretense regarding my love of seeds over cuttings. To me, there is something Frankensteinish about cutting a plant down into pieces and forcing them to make roots. It is a method that also reduces the gene pool of one's plantings - unless you take cuttings from a lot of different plants. I like the process of planting seeds and watching for them to start sprouting.  It's kind of like my childhood at Christmas. Weeks of anticipation that is eventually rewarded. It may take a bit longer to grow plants from seeds instead of cuttings, but to me it is worth it.
Over the past week, my landscape has seen more than its share of rainfall. It was the perfect time to plant my small seedlings from my Hawthorn Hill nursery. Some of these plants were teetering on the brink of death - they hate being confined to a pot. Species that I truly love, like woody goldenrod (Chrysoma paucifloculosa) and Florida paintbrush (Carphephorus corymbosus) are finally starting to add new foliage and giving me encouragement that they will catch on. It is unlikely these new, still-fragile additions will bloom this year, but I've got patience if they are willing to stick with me until next fall. Others have been developing by leaps and bounds. I've written about this several times before in this blog, but I can't stress it enough - plants respond to real soil in a way they can never do in potting mix.
The native black-eyed susans (Rudbeckia hirta) that were starting to send up flower stalks 10 days ago, are now vigorously blooming with dozens of flower stalks still emerging. I don't use mulch in my wildflower beds and never have. I find that most mulch restricts the emergence of the wildflower seed produced by my plants. It also limits the ability of most ground-nesting bees to find a place to raise their young. For the first 8-9 months of this new experiment, I knew that every seedling that emerged in my open soil was a noxious weed. There were no native wildflowers producing seed that needed to be recognized. It has gotten a bit more complicated now. The rains, coupled with the growth of my initial plantings, have given rise to seedlings of desirable plants as well. My ability to recognize each of them at their 2-4 leaf stages is important if I want this landscape to fill in properly. I've planted it with spaces between my plants, but eventually these spaces should be filled by the growth of my existing plants and the seedlings they produce. Both species of tickseed that I initially planted (Coreopsis lanceolata and C. leavenworthii) are popping up in new places. The most abundant seedlings, however, are the native wild petunia (Ruellia caroliniensis). I originally planted 2-3 seedlings, but these have matured quickly and, because their seed capsules "explode" on ripening, their seedlings are now in every nook and cranny of this garden.
I do not let many of my plants reseed on their own, however, and I'm collecting seed for next year's offerings at my nursery.  Scattering seeds into a prepared bed almost always seems like the economical way to plant a large space. I hear that from a lot of new wildflower gardeners, but the reality is that most seeds planted that way will never make it to blooming stage. I collect seed, but I don't scatter it in my landscape; I grow it out in potting soil in flats. If you have patience, you can take the 3 plants you purchase and turn them into dozens more within a year.
Seed Collecting is a Year-round Effort

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