Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Gone to Seed, Again

This is the time of year we seem to be heavily into "seediness".
We have just finished getting all the seed lots for the ARHS Seed Exchange cleaned, labelled and generally organized. The Exchange will be open in a couple of weeks and this years' list will be posted on our website.


Our "home" seeds were also in need of some updating. One task which always pains me is actually throwing out old seeds! My waste basket is full of seeds from our various collections that were deemed expendable.
Every year after the Rhododendron Seed Exchange, I try to get somebody to adopt some of the leftovers, but it never seems to be enough.
One thing about azalea and rhododendron seed is that they have quite a good shelf life , as long as they are cool and dry. Bill has sown seed that was several years old with good results.
Many types of perennial seed seem to have a shorter life span regardless of the storage conditions. Some, like Digitalis, seem to last quite a while.
Lilies, alliums and the like really need to be sown quite fresh.
We have a few seed requests from people across the province and country, so I really should get those packaged up and sent out in the next day or two.
This has been the coldest day of the winter( -17C), but of course that will change in the next few hours.

No comments: