Cleaning Japanese anemone seed

Has anyone cleaned Japanese anemone seed? Do ya really hafta extricate that teeny-tiny little speck from all that cottony fluff before sending it off in a seed trade? Is there a way to do it and keep your sanity, too? A root canal seems like more fun.

bluespiral, do you have any extra seed of the Jap. anemone's? Names or colors of what you have?
I lost most of mine 2 yrs ago, when we didn't have any snow cover.
Or do you have mature plants you would wish to trade for in the spring. Winter here now in Wisc.
I have an extensive plant collection that I can trade with.

I never cleaned the seed, just took it and spread it where I wanted them to grow.
Don't know if this helps or not.

Maxine

Hi Maxine, I would love to trade with you. I'll be happy to send you those seeds if you don't mind extricating those specks from the grrrr fluf. Also, I could send you a plant each of the two kinds I have. You might like to use the following technique for propagating by root cuttings with a portion of the root systems you receive. I have 2 kinds:

Anemone hupehensis 'Honorine Jobert' - blooms very late into October for me and the flower stalks get up to 6' tall. It's very floppy (probably would hold itself up in more sun), but over the years I have learned where to put the flopp-ees and the flopp-ers with respect to which way the sun is pulling flowers out of the shadows. Ferns and hostas make great "flopp-ees" for Japanese anemones.

The other one is what I got when I ordered 'Honorine Jobert' the first time, so I don't know what it is called. It blooms earlier from mid-July through August. It is a single, silvery-pink with a gold boss and when blooming makes an etheral cloud - nice with silvers/greys of Japanese painted fern and a blue, pleated hosta sent to me when I was also ordering something else. It is shorter, gets more shade than Honorine, but does not flop.

Here's the technique I mentioned above:

Propagation by root cutting is a good way to propagate this plant. (This anemone does not often transplant well for me). The Handbook on Propagation from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Vol 13, No 2, printed March 1981 on page 52 says it well:

"...a few large, strong roots are removed from the plant (it may be necessary to lift the plant to do this) and cut into pieces 1 to 2 inches long. The pieces are laid horizontally in sandy soil and covered to a depth of about 1 inch. Some root cuttings will develop shoots at the end which was nearest the parent stem, and roots at the other end; others develop roots and shoots anywhere along their length."

This method is useful also for: Dicentra spectabilis - soon after growth starts; Gypsophilia paniculata - fall or spring; Oenothera spp.; and Papaver orientalis - late summer (August when it's dormant here).

I would love to see your trade list, and will email you mine - it's not complete yet, but is something to work with. I can do SASE for you if we turn out not to have a trade.

Karen

Get back to me in April. by then I should know what survived and what didn't.
I know that I will have named and un-named TB iris and some un-named dwarf iris to trade.

Other than that I hate to commit myself and then have to tell you that it didn't make it.
We are having an open winter so far, we get a skiff of snow and then warm temps and rain and it all dissolves!!
Talking a major ice storm here today. Hope they are wrong.
Oh forgot to say also, most of my flowers are mulched under 3to 4 inches of wood chips.
I do know that I would have or should have an named orange lily [asiactic] that I could trade also.

Happy New Year and happy digging in the spring of 2005.

Maxine

Will do.

We have had a few clear blue, balmy days in the 50's and 60's here with balmy breezes. DH was born around here and has never seen a new year's day like today. Spider-webbed my snoot striking hardwood cuttings in the garden under glass jars yesterday. No-see-ums and moths flitting about today. I hate to think what Mother Nature has up her sleeve to make us pay for this.

Happy new year yourself, and may all our feet find firm footing between now and spring.

Please explain about your hard wood cuttings under glass jars?

Can I take cuttings off of my "Sensation Lilac" and a few other shrubs now and they will root?

Just recd. snow flurries, sleet and snow balls, didn't amount to much.

Our temp. on Friday was 50. No one has ever heard of that temp. here so close to the new year.

Go figure.

Maxine