Hi... i seem to see that the mecardonia i have baught does not make seeds, i want to replenish the mother plant and sow again for next year. I read somewhere that one can take 'cuttings'... is this true
and what is the advantage of cuttings as opposed to seeds, and what type of conditions do i need for these 'cutting'
If i still want to go about collecting seeds, what can i do to make the plant 'produce seeds'
Happy new year
Tom.
I don't know anything about this plant specifically, but in general the advantage of taking cuttings is that you get new plants that will be exactly like the old ones. Plants grown from seed, especially if the original plant was a hybrid cultivar, may not come true from seed, you may get different flower colors, growth habits, etc. As to why your plant isn't producing seed--if this is a recent picture and it's still blooming, you just need to wait a bit, it takes some time after the flowers fade before you get seeds. If this is an old pic and it's been done blooming for a while, there's nothing you can do now to change whether or not it will give you seeds. Some hybrid cultivars are sterile and won't set seed, or sometimes even if the plant can set seed, if the right pollinators aren't around at the right time you may not get seeds either. Some plants you can manually pollinate if you're having trouble with pollination--if the plant's still blooming you could try that this year but if not you'll have to wait until next year if it makes it through your winter (PF says it's hardy to zone 6--I'm guessing you are either in zone 5 or zone 6, but even if you're in zone 5 if the winter continues to be mild it may make it for you)
Thanks ecrane3
Greatly appreciated
Tom:)
