Seed Collection and Plant Propagation So Far

This will be my first time attempting to add more plants to my garden by collecting seeds and making more plants from the ones that I already have.

So far I have collected seeds from Peaches and Dreams Hollyhock (and black ones), and only a few of the Montana Blue Skies delphinium.

Today (I hope) will be the day that I start some rose stems in Vermicullite and Perlite and water.

The cleome is definitely ready to collect.

I would definitely like to have some seeds from my Luna Pink Swirl Hibiscus. Hopefully I can find the seed and get them at the right time.

I guess that I'm trying to tell everyone which seeds I actually have so that I can send some to those who want to put them down this fall (if it is applicable). This will be more than a seed swap by mail because we can share the "how to"s as far as the collecting and propagating is concerned.

Looking forward to your expertise in collecting and propagating.

Teri

I like to collect my seeds using a nice size plastic bowl. This way I avoid losing seeds due to clumsiness.

Then I place the seeds in a coffee filter that has the ID of the seeds (do this before placing seeds in filter).

I fold and staple the filter. The filter is place in an area to recieve additional airing. After a week of additional airing ... the filter containing seeds is placed in a small box with other seed fill coffee filters.

Picture of packet of seeds recently harvested.

MARY

Great idea, Mary! Is it possible to use the coffee filter to start germination when the time comes?

Great idea Roses!

I never thought about that. ..... and I like being FRUGAL.

MARY

You gals are both so brilliant! Thansk for mentioning all that.

I want to cut some Coleus to keep over winter too. as small plants.
A zonal Geranium worked out well last year with the dry it out method.

Collected lots of Blue Balloon Flower seeds today. Also got some Echinasia Milkshake, but I don't know if they will grow from these seeds. Going out now for some Crape Myrtle, White Zinnia and Malva seeds. Don't know if I'll be able to get any Blushing Susie Vine Seeds. Great vine. Lots of flowers that stay open all day and small leaves that do not hide the blooms.

I will def be doing coleus cuttings again and saving my geraniums from last year worked great so I'll do that again

Impatiens .... now collecting their seed appears to be a challenge .... well at least for me.

Any suggestions??

Yesterday we went for lunch at Applebee's and my DH was shaking his head as we were leaving because I was deadheading their Blackeyed Susans and pocketing the seeds. Will I need to go to rehab soon??

Yes,
but empty your pockets here on the way.
I've been so tempted!

We might have a group meeting of the SSA Seed Stealers Anonymous include LPA Leaf Pinching Anonymous in that category as I'm embarrassed to say that I have on occasion I have been known to pinch a coleus or two.
Good luck with your seed propagating what a great tip of using coffee filters. I hope to do more propagation this year and hopefully I will do better with my seed starting.
Roses, I agree the Blushing Susie Vine is one of my favs and I think it looks especially nice with the coleus.

hee hee, speaking of...I have dwarf canna seeds in my pocket I almost forgot about

Roses----

Could you save me some seeds from the "Blushing Susie" vine? Will these live in part just filtered sun???
I wanted them this Spring--but no one had them ready....

If you could mail me some--I am wiling ti trade anything--or just send you postage.

Thaanks, Gita

Gita, I am having a hard time finding the seeds so far. Whether I find them or buy more, I will definitely send you some. Please remind me if I forget, because I always have some by late winter.

Roses!!!!

ME??? Remind YOU????
I am the one with 20 Senior moments every day!!!! I deserve them.....Getting older and older.....

WHAT was it you wanted me to remind you of now????? Hmmmmmmmm?????

OH! To pick up a Chicken on the way home from work! And some kind of Blush wine? Right?????
And some soil for this vine you are growing??? Isn't all the alcohol gonna kill it?

You said there is a woman working at the Nursery called "Blushing Suzy"????
How do I find her??? Will she be all red?--blushing???? Did she do something embarrassing?

OH!! Maybe because you cannot find seeds for this vine of yours----and she does not know
WHERE they are???? You thought a bottle of wine would do. Blush wine--like White Zinfandel?
Ahem--I would blush too....after a couple of glasses....
After all--If I was working there--i should know where the kegs are! And all the Blush Wine too!
GREENHOUSE #8! Right?

THEN--The Manager came by and asked me---"What are you doing here with this chicken in your hands"????
I tried to explain to him that it was for "Blushing Suzy" and he looked at me like I had two heads and said:
We don't have anyone working here by the name of "Suzy".....You sure you are in the right place???

And I said---SURE!!! Someone named "Roses" told me to come here and find her....She was sure I could find her seeds here...She said you told her it was OK for her to look for them as long as "Blushing Suzy" was there to help....WHERE does SHE keep her seeds????

When i came--I looked all over for someone blushing.....I saw many women working here----
Mary--Judy---Geraldine---Sheila---BUT--None of them were blushing....Those hussies! They would not blush
no matter what they did--or were doing.....Like--Been there--Done that! The sleezes!!!!

So--I decided to go home--cook my chicken and drink a bottle of Blush Wine.....
I even called my next-door neighbor, Suzy, to come and share....Thought she would bring me an appetizer---
NOPE! She brought me a bag of potting mix.....I tell you--Some people are strange!!!!
What would I ever want a bag of Potting Mix for???? OHHHH! Now I know!!!
To bury that empty bottle of Blush Wine before my Hubby comes home!!!!

Now WHERE could I dig the hole?????
Got it! Under that 6-foot trellis where that weird. multi-colored Vine always grows....The one with all those multi-colored blooms......So weird!!! All different colors.....
I think that would be a great place! Nothing else would grow there anyway........Hic.......

Gotta get home and see how my Chicken is doing.....
See ya all! Gita

Geez, Gita, I'm really starting to worry about you!!

NOT to worry!!!
I am as sane (???) as they come--just my mind likes to wander-- if I let it....It's fun!

Wrap your brain around a topic (use Saran wrap--if needed--see? There i go!) and try it sometimes.....after that great chicken dinner and a couple glasses of that blush wine.....
Just type what comes to mind......use your imagination....

Serious question now:
Will the BSVine grow in filtered light? No direct sun in late afternoon? Shading from my big Maple...

Gita

I've never tried it in dappled sunlight. I have a feeling that it does best in full sun with very adequate watering.

Just a reminder that Hardy Begonia seeds are starting to ripen and can be planted to increase your stock

Roses, Last year I tried to find the seeds my Blushing Susies should have provided me but I never did find any, either. Nice to know that I wasn't the only one.

"The Forsythe Pot": easy ways of getting cuttings to root . . . also can be made to sprout some seeds

(1) http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/compo...

(2) http://www.plantswap.net/forum/f25/propagating-cuttings-usin...

Mary

I have seen those before but haven't tried one yet. Wonder how good they work?

This site may be of help if you are trying to collect Black-Eyed Susan Vine seeds

http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-collect-black-eyed-susan-vine.html

This site has some interesting ideas

http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com/2009/01/paper-tube-seed-pot-holder.html

No wonder I can never find the seeds. LOL
Great site thanks alot.

Thanks Merry,

Just went outside to put some really thin plastic sandwich baggies on groups of them. Hopefully the plastic will work until I get out there again with some used teabags.

Merry--

Are your Impatiens in a bed? The seed will drop and come up next year.

My Imps. come up all over the place from the year before---all self-seeded.
The growing seedlings can be easily dug up and transplanted.

Gita

This is where I usually buy me Blushing Susie seed

http://www.outsidepride.com/seed/ground-cover-seed/ice-plant-groundcover-seed.html

I only had 2 impatiens come up from last year .... and in the oddest place.

I am wodering if impatiens wait until cooler weather to set seed . I only recently noticed seed pods forming.

Please remember that this is my 1st year to collect seeds.

Mary

Yes! I DO think their seed pods come in Fall....
Be looking for slightly puffy, curved, "pods' on the plant.

And, YES! IF they are ripe--and you touch them, they will just "explode" in your hand....
The weirdest sensation....Like something moved in your closed hand....

Yes! Mine come up in odd places as well.....Like between pave stones--bed edgings, and, this one--which by now has to be 3' tall, because it had to fight to reach sunshine. It is smack against my house's foundation--behind my perennial Ferns....I guess plants do what they have to to exist....

Gita

Here's a close-up of the same.....

Just went out and took all these pictures.

And--Here is the ultimate survivor....YES! I could, gently, pull this up and re-plant it somewhere else,
and it would not even "blink".....

Gita

The following site was the most informative for me in regards to harvesting impatien seeds. You have to scroll down a bit to see the detailed pictures of the impatien pods.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/impatiens/msg040543179308.html

MARY

I never see impatien seedlings until mid to late summer. Not sure if the seeds don't survive the winter weather and the seedlings are coming from plants were planted in the spring or if my spring cleanup, weeding and mulch disturb the seedlings I would get in the spring.

Holly, all of my self sowed impatiens germinate after nite temps are well above 60 degrees, so same as tours. I get blooms mid July and later. Some varieties don't seem to produce viable seed. I do not save impatiens seed, I just but a number of flats each Spring. They are not the easiest plants to grow from seed IMHO. They also will reproduce from cuttings quite readily and the plants cuttings taken from will grow out in no time. Some times I buy 'reducedfor quick sale' plants, cut them back, feed them and root the cuttings. Works out pretty well for me.

Have any of you tried the "sunpatiens"? They grow huge! I like the 'jungle gold', too.

I do not get seedlings of impatiens in the spring so I don't think it's your clean up.

I haven't seen the sunpatiens will have to look for them next summer.
I haven't tried to save impatien seeds and I haven't grown them from seeds. Our Hobby Greenhouse Assoc has a plug program so I get them as very small plugs. But I was so surprised to see them self seeding as I had always thought they were hard to start from seed.

Merry---

I look at it this way.....

I am NOT going to take up space in my small Seed-Growing area to try to grow seeds of plants
that can be bought in a market pack/6 pack for $2. NOPE!
One has to be realistic about this! It just is NOT worth it!

Now--what they call "Premiun Annuals", that sell for about $3 a 4" pot, I will consider growing these from seeds or cuttings.....Such as Sun Coleus--that are SOOOOOO easy to grow from cuttings!!!
Or--Dragon-Wing Begonias--same thing! I keep these in the house all Winter and they do fine the next year....
Or--like Angelonias. They grow so easily from seed--and by the end of the Summer--they will be tall and bushy
and flowering away. Same for perennial Salvias....

Also--learn and know what is a great self-seeding Biennial......or a die-hard perennial. Just divide and go!
Like:

Rose campion
Rudbeckia Goldstrum
Cleomes
4 O'Clocks
Coreopsis
Daturas
Zinnias
Ageratums
Hardy geraniums
Echinaceas
Balsam
Shasta daisies
Autumn Sedums
etc...etc...etc....
etc.. Running out of ideas....I know there are many more!

Know your worth in time----is it worth it?

DG Plant Files will help you out a lot----as will DG members that have plants to share....
All you have to do is put out a request.....especially on the Seed and Plant trading Forums.

Usually--You can click on a member's name and scroll down to see their "Trade List".
Whether you trade--or just re-reimburse the sender for postage--you can get anything you want....
I seldom "trade"---I have no room in my beds for new plants.
I will share anything I have--that you want--just for postage reimbursement...

Gita

This is my 1st year of retirement. I am looking forward to attempting winter sowing (1st timer).

I am considering using plastic grocery bags to surround a few impatiens.

Mary

Hi Mary- What would the grocery bags be for? Just not sure I am guessing correctly.