OK, general question, now that we're all busy cleaning seeds. Any interest in cardoon "porto spineless?" I can clean tons if needed, otherwise I'll compost the lot.
Cottage Garden Seed Swap and Chat #41
I think the females produce seed for both sexes. But, what a velly interesting aberration that would be if males were to produce any seeds.
Maybe microbiologists have figured out a way to ascertain which sex a seed will produce, for dioecious species (species for which male and female reproductive organs are located on separate individuals).
Somewhere I read about a town that discovered its landscaping crew had planted ginko trees - but not all were males. When the female trees matured enough to bear fruit, the stink was so odiously impressive that the townfolks are said to have descended upon the female ginkos en masse and ripped them out themselves. If you ever step on a ginko fruit, you'll know what they were thinking heehee.
Opps, Colchi - our posts crossed. Those cardoons are gorgeous, but don't know where I'd put one here. I'd make some available to the piggy group at large, though.
Pam Sue, is this the wild Phlox you've got?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/171/
PamSue.... Could you possibly have 'Fuller's White' Wild White Phlox ? try googling pic s of it.
9KittyMom. The only way to tell the differenc ein the seed would be through a gentics test of the embryo's. Ya have to wait til they start growing to figur e out who is who.
Just like with the Ginko trees. You do need a male and afemla e for pollination. If you onyl want the male s and not the fruit, then you plant a bunch of the seed and that when you start looking at the leave s and trunks and the shape of the trees. Been a while sicne I had to ID Ginkos and would have to go back to notes, but it either t he male sor the females, if you look very closely you will see the differenc ein the shape of the limbs. One is more like having arms opened and the other the limbs rais e up just a little bit like doign that ballerina pose.
So what ya do is plant alot, let them grow for alittle bit in pots and then cull the females out that ya don't want. Usually ya cna start telling when they a few feet tall.
hi
thanks for your help and suggestions on the mystery plant ..i would say it closely resembles what neal suggested.. bouncing bet.. so it may be a soapwort..i will have to go out and see if the leaves do foam up when i lather with water. it does self seed and if you do not like it you can easily rip it out before it seeds the first blooming season. it took me at least a year from seed to bloom . i never noticed it being fragrant ill have to remember to smell it next time. i grow it because it came from my mom's garden and she really loved it.
pam sue
O.K. How do you tell the males from the females?
Wonder if the fruit carries both inside it? How many
seeds would I put in for a chance to get both?
We learn so much from these forums. Thanks
Charleen
This message was edited Oct 15, 2009 8:47 AM
Pam, on your soapwort, I better pass on this one. The trees have gobbled up so much light here that sunnier and partially sunny places have shrunk horribly and are my last refuge for lavender and rock garden species and cultivars of sage, dianthus, etc.
If anyone might be interested in aquiring seed of plants like various dianthus and salvia, etc (their list is enormous), you have a whole 'nuther universe waiting for you at the North American Rock Garden Society, which in actually makes seed available not only for rock gardens, but for just about any habitat on earth - perfect for us cottage gardeners - http://www.nargs.org/ Donated seed must be in by November 1. The seed list goes up by December 15. You do not have to donate seed; it just allows you to choose 10 extra seed packets. I could not find out from their website when dues are due in order to participate with their seed exchange.
Another seed exchange, while I'm at it, is the American Primrose Society - http://www.americanprimrosesociety.org/ - I think there may be less time to sign up for that one, you'll have to look it up on their website.
Thanks Star and Neil for the ID - I knew y'all would come to the rescue :) If it had been Star's possibility, Phlox divaricata 'Fuller's White' I would have oinked from Maryland to Oregon for that one - it's perfect for a wooded slope imho.
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Rides, I can't help you out any further with which is which with the persimmons. In Maryland, our favorite places, that we know of where they grow, is off limits to non-hunters for most of the year now, so we can't visit those places for further ID for you at this time. At least, under Governor Glendenning, we could all take a walk (or ride a horse or bike or walk a pooch etc) on Sundays. But the state finds hunting a great source of revenue - in addition to taxes we all already pay. DH and I really prefer the wilder places, as opposed to those areas gussied up with boring grass sod, asphalt roads, visitor's facilities which involve more fees, etc.
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Seeds are another area of mystery to me - so much going on in there with electric currents snapping around busy enzymes - I love pondering "what if" kinds of topics like being able to read just a seed for its future plant - like tea leaves lol. There's a point during germination of a morning glory when the seed coat is still attached to the emerging embryonic leaves (cotyledon). That crispy ol' seed coat is entwined with those leaves like briar smothering a hillside - the two together seem to make a maze of convolutions. You notice it most when the seedcoat is stuck and won't come off and you're trying to coax it off as delicately as you can.
There's a great post on seedcoats than Ron_Convolvulaceae wrote that can be dense reading, but well worth seeing what you can understand from it. This post is the first intimation I ever had about the fascinating world going on within a seedcoat. I miss his posts on the Morning Glory forum so much - I don't think DG has anyone else sharing his kind of botanic revelations. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=2997627
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Apologies to anyone whose post I may have crossed in cyberspace - Y'all are fun to muse with -
karen
Old wives tales say" you can open a persimmon to
see if it's going to be a good (fork) or a bad (spoon)
winter". Have you heard it? It is not easy opening that rascal Either.
Charleen
Hey Karen... if I have not commented yet... it's good to see you back in the CG forum.
Terese
Well, they were talking about that at work a few weeks back - only they said fork, spoon or knife. We opened one and thought it was a spoon but POSSIBLY a knife.... then opened a second and thought the same thing. Either way, I think it means a BAD winter........
I wouldn't doubt it. Been sort of a weird summer too,
hasn't it?
Hey Rides - if you can persuade 3 persimmon nuts to open, would it be possible to post pics of them on this thread? It really would be interesting to compare the shapes inside them to what kind of winter we get. I'm trying to think positive about the coming winter...not easy. My paternal grandparents were born in 1874 on North Carolina farms, and I imagine they really knew what it meant to be prepared for winter - talk about hard times. I feel like one of Rides' mules might on some occasions right now - chomping at the bit to go off topic lol. But the farm and kinfolk I had brief encounters with when I was little help to put thoughts about the coming winter in perspective. Now might be a good time to stock up.
Thanks, Terese - I missed y'all.
Back to bringing in plants and cleaning seeds -
karen
Yes, It is possible. Think I'll got give it a try too.
How about that. just take a picture with the digital
Or if you have a scanner, You could scan it, Let's go see!
O/K?
Charleen
Karen, I tried. One was fuzzy, other wasn't too bad.
Looks like a spoon.
#2
Ok... now hwo do ya tell if it a spoon or a fork. LOl Don't ya just love myths. But in old timey days that all folsk ha d to go by. remidns me need to look on Almanac pages and see what they say for weather and winter.
I’m sorry Karen did I miss something with Ron_Convolvulaceae, I’ve read a lot of his posts in the morning glory forum but not on there as much as I would like to be but never heard anything about him what did I miss. If you don’t want to get off topic just dmail me I really would like to know.
So what has been decided on the winter if we are going to have a bad one or not :) I can’t tell a thing from those seeds LOL
Neal, I got the baggies today thanks so much you know they will get used lol
Tcs, foxglove are easy as pie to germinate and they do need light :) Sorry just didn’t come back yesterday ended up cleaning house all day :( lol and oh doing seeds too :) I just mailed 16 foxgloves off for a girl in NY that I trade plants with that doesn’t do seeds that I planted under lights last year.
Star. I tried to cut them carefully and didn't want to chop any skin off with them,
Did you enlarge it? I love too enlarge it, I can see them better that way.
Now we just need to see a wooly worm. Seen any? What color was he?
Charleen
That looks the same way the three we cut open looked!
I was wondering about that. May be in for a hard winter, Huh?
I've seen black woollies here not as many as in the past years though, sometimes they are brown haven't seen any brown this year I hope we don't have a bad winter as far as I'm concerned we had a bad winter last year! It was for all of my plants in pots anyway and the trees.
Maybe that spoon you see is really a fork has anyone seen a fork come on folks lets see a fork Ha
LOL..... maybe it is a lack of imagination (or proper attitude).... ^_^
Meekly with my head hanging, it looks like a spoon to me too :( I'm going back to my seeds and trying NOT to think about it! Glad I got my LP gas filled yesterday now I can just hibernate in here LOL
Got mine phoned in this afternoon. Don't like to think about it.
Just got to make it as best we can. Wonder what kind of
butterfly a wooley worm makes?
I have the Woolies with stripe... i looked them up once, they are some sort of moth.
You know, sice I've been down here I think I have seen one.
When I was a kid in Mo. We saw them all the times. You
don't miss things til you don't see them for a long time.
I always liked the little wooly critters.
Charleen A moth is nice. Thanks
What is it you all are callign woolies?
I been haulign pants all into gh today as cold is comign this weekend and as I went to move the tropical hibbie s in I found a wooly somethign or other. Never see anything iek it.
At first I thought it was soem sort of butterfly but was to weird for it, I think. Was kinda a beige brown color and in the front na din the back it had thes e longer haired little tufts sticking up and soem whit e ones too like I coudl barely see the eyeballs for all the white, black, brown furry stuff aroudn it. remidn me the face of a pomerain dog with all that fur and cant see eyes.
Have no idea from what it came from. After experiencign how painful a saddleback caterpillar is was no way I gonan touch it and no batteries.
If anyone has soapwort or stevia please stash me back a few. I have always wanted to try both of those. :) Thanks
There are large quantities of what I believe is Helianthus angustifolius, growing near my house.
http://www.floridata.com/ref/h/heli_ang.cfm
If anyone is interested I will try and gather extra when they are ready.
Pam, I've tried to get suds with soapwort, but never had any luck. I don't know if there's some trick to it?
Oh, I'd definitely be interested in some Helianthus angustifolius! They're lovely!
Here you go Star:
http://www3.islandtelecom.com/~oehlkew/indexarc.htm
When I googled they had a page for telling the weather with them but it wouldn't come up :(
If anyone has any fresh Japanese Maple seed, I would really be interested, so please collect them for the swap.
I bought some off of ebay 2 years ago, gave them 2 years to sprout, but none did. :o(
I would love to try again, but don't want to spend $$$ again.
I know a while back we were talking about Helenium's.
I wanted to say I collected some seeds from my Helenium - which was grown from open pollenated seeds from Helenium Flammendes Kathchen. To my novice eye, my flowers certainly look almost exactly like the pictures of Flammendes Kathchen. So I will list them as Flammendes Kathchen 'look alikes'. LOL
We were just up at the cottage in a cold zone 5 and they were blooming their heads off, well about 50% done blooming. Wow, I really love them, they will be the last thing blooming in that garden.
I love the look of the wooly caterpillars. I've seen only 2 so far this year. We have the stripped, just like your picture Lea.
tofew, I would like some of the seeds of your "Helenium Flammendes Kathchen" if you have enough.
I also grow these plants, but right now don't know the names of what I have. Will post when I get home to Wi. but please wait as my computer won't be hooked up to DSL until my son has time. My son-in-law is in the process of wipeing everthing off my computer and resinstalling things.
would you please put my name on a pack of the seeds when you send them?
Maxine
Maxine
Hi I have Heirloom Zinnias- Pink/purple shades, 3-4 Foot tall, double flowered, 4-5" flowers, prolific bloomers. I am trying to get an idea of interest...so if you would like some, please let me know. Thanks.
OH, me !! me !! me!!! please - wildly waving arms!! I would LOVE some zinnias!! I tried several in last years swap but lost most of them shortly after transplanting in our abnormal extreme heat in June. I had one profusion zinnia that has survived and it is still blooming like crazy! I love it...... just wish I could get some SEEDS from it but with all this rain, I am not having any luck!
Man how I wish the zinnias were hardy here!!! But, seriously, I would love some of the seeds!!
Thanks
Genna
I too Love Zinns.
crap -- i know i wanted to ask a question in here... but now i forgot....
I am interested in Zinnias, too, so sounds like you could save a bunch of seeds with no regrets!
This little piggy is gettin' right hungry! Just a little over two more weeks! Got my spreadsheet caught up and ready to copy a few columns (name of plant, # available and Dave's PF link) into that list on November first. I really encourage folks to have that PlantFiles link for each plant if you can. It sure makes "shopping" or should I say "chomping" so much easier for those of us who are still learning all these plants.
Oh, I guess I need to spend a little time on my want list! In between cleaning and packaging seeds, that is. BTW - I will be patient this year. I was a newbie last year and I jumped to gun, posting my list before it was time!
Tonya