A little seed help please?

Good evening!

After watching and reading about taking off seed heads for collection I have a couple of queries that I seemed to have missed the info for please!

I have taken the seed heads of 4 different varieties of aqualegia and 1 pink ornamental poppy. Ive put them in paper bags and are now sitting on the dining table (good thing we never use it!)

Queries are -

1) do I just leave them to brown and drop the seeds themselves?

2) When do I plant them for next years growth?

3) Should I just put them straight in the ground of try and grow from seed trays?

Im trying to control the aqualegia so that they dont appear in the middle of the lawn like this year, but I think I may loose that fight!

Any help appreciated and thanks in advance!
Sam

 

Hi sksholden and welcome.

First you have done exactly the right thing in putting the seed heads into paper bags. I always like to leave them on the plant for as long as possible to ripen naturally. But its always a matter of judgement - if you leave them too long they just spread themselves disappear.

I note that you have collected 4 different types of Aquilegia. However many seeds don't come true. And Aquilegia is one of the worst. Its famously promiscuous and the offspring could be anything. But whatever happens you should get some variety. In answer to your questions :-

1) leave the seeds for a bit to ensure that they are fully ripe. They will fall out of the seed cases very easily when ripe. If they are green and soft - they are not ripe. They tend to go darker and hard when ready. After a while you can help them out of their cases - I just keep the seeds in an empty Yogurt pot (with a label of course). This helps to clear up the dinning room - but in my case not by much. :D

2) The traditional time for sowing is spring next year. Many people say 1st March. But as Aqililegiaa are hardy perennials, there is no reason why you can't sow some now. They have planty of time to grow up and become hardy before winter starts. They probably won't flower this year, but they will flower at the normal time next year.

3) I like to sow everything in seed trays (or small pots). If you direct sow there are so many things that can go wrong. They can get eaten by birds or slugs. They can get too wet ot too dry etc, or you could weed them out by mistake.

Best of luck.

 

It don't take many aqullegia seeds to kill you, so don't get em mixed up with your poppy seeds & put em on your home made bread.

I've never been very popular in the village since last years W.I. charity bake.

 

:hehe: :hehe: :hehe:

 

Excellent, another candidate for my planned 'Poison Garden'...if I ever get round to designing one!

 

When i first started gardening and didn't know what any of the plants in the garden were, for a couple of years i just left everything to seed itself, was really pleased with all the aquilegia that appeared, but now 16 years later i'm still constantly fighting the battle to stop them taking over and smothering everything else in sight.