Posts tagged ‘columbines’
Seed harvesting begins
Do you harvest the seeds from your plants? I do. I know this sounds like a tedious, painstaking chore, but actually, for the most part, it’s not. And when you compare how easy it is to harvest a handful of seeds to what you would pay at a garden centre for a tiny envelope of those same seeds, it’s an easy and satisfying thing to do. I love walking around the garden in late summer and fall collecting seed pods from the plants. Already I have a stash of small jars starting to fill up with chive, columbine, poppy, tomato and cosmos seeds. Sweet peas and nasturtiums will be next – these are in their peak right now, but it won’t be long before tiny seed pods form in place of the flowers.
Here is a quick outline of a few of the easiest seeds to harvest. It’s probably no coincidence that they are also some of the easiest plants to grow from seeds. (more…)
Columbines
I’m amazed at columbines – this flower has become a huge favourite of mine. There are countless varieties of columbines, and for me, they are among the prettiest of all flowers. They come up early in the spring and bloom for most of the summer, and then create abundant seeds that are easy to harvest and easy to grow.
I have several clumps growing in both shade gardens and in the sun, and they’re all thriving. I’ve had good success with perennial plants purchased at the garden centre and I’ve also grown a few plants by sowing seeds directly into the garden (seeds will create flowering plants the next year if you plant them in the spring). I’ve read that columbines last only a couple of years, so it’s a good strategy to continually scatter new seeds around existing plants to ensure a steady supply of these perfect perennials.
Grows in shade, even under a giant evergreen
A giant pine tree is the dominant feature on the northwest side of our small front yard. I really love this tree. It reaches up as tall as our house and provides us with a really private space on the balcony off our bedroom. It’s also home to many birds and squirrels, something I thought about a lot after recently finding a tiny blue robin’s egg crushed and fallen to the ground following a very vocal tussle among the robins and magpies.
When we landscaped our front yard last year, I wasn’t sure what to put underneath this tree. It is very shady and I’ve also noticed that this spot is quite dry with the big roots of the tree sucking up all the groundwater. I settled on two small hostas, columbines, violets and a tall fern-like plant; later in the year I also added some daisies transplanted from my parents’ yard. Because of the dryness and all that I’d heard about how hard it is to grow plants under shady evergreens, I didn’t have high hopes of seeing any of them again after the winter. But the columbines were the first sign of life in the front yard, which is about a month behind our warmer, south-facing backyard. And the fern (I have no idea what it is, unfortunately) sprung up almost entirely overnight, going from nothing to the 2′ high plant in this image. The hostas and daisies are poking up now, and tiny violets seedlings are everywhere. I’m so impressed with the hardiness of all of these plants and very glad we’ll be free of any ‘dead zone’ under our lovely evergreen tree.
