I am so impressed with Country Mouse's propagation work. Floating row covers! Hand-collected seeds! A real gardener indeed.
My propagation experience, so far, has been decidedly mixed. A few years ago, before I went native, I took a propagation class with the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County. It was an excellent class, and I came home inspired. Started lots of little seeds in little peat pots. Had them in the oven with the light on for an extraordinarily long time (Mr. Town Mouse did not approve). Finally transplanted the survivors, and ended up losing almost all, somehow. Too wet, too dry... Actually, a few Black-eyed Susan Vine survived, but I've since found out that they just reseed themselves quite reliably.
Last year I scattered pretty seeds from the Theodore Payne Foundation throughout my garden. But Judith Larner (and Country Mouse) are right: you're really providing especially expensive and tasty bird seed.
This year, I put the seeds in small pots and covered them with chicken wire, as mentioned in an earlier blog posting. And, while that may be hard to see in the picture above, I now have some little plants. Probably more in each pot than I need, but I hope nature will sort that out. Who knows, I too may become a real gardener. On the flip side, my monkeyflower cuttings, some of which I took several months ago, don't look too impressive. I keep telling myself they're just growing roots, but I'm not so sure...
I've had better results, though, with some Heuchera maxima (coral bells). Some of those are ready to transplant soon. So, maybe I am a real gardener after all.
My propagation experience, so far, has been decidedly mixed. A few years ago, before I went native, I took a propagation class with the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County. It was an excellent class, and I came home inspired. Started lots of little seeds in little peat pots. Had them in the oven with the light on for an extraordinarily long time (Mr. Town Mouse did not approve). Finally transplanted the survivors, and ended up losing almost all, somehow. Too wet, too dry... Actually, a few Black-eyed Susan Vine survived, but I've since found out that they just reseed themselves quite reliably.
Last year I scattered pretty seeds from the Theodore Payne Foundation throughout my garden. But Judith Larner (and Country Mouse) are right: you're really providing especially expensive and tasty bird seed.
This year, I put the seeds in small pots and covered them with chicken wire, as mentioned in an earlier blog posting. And, while that may be hard to see in the picture above, I now have some little plants. Probably more in each pot than I need, but I hope nature will sort that out. Who knows, I too may become a real gardener. On the flip side, my monkeyflower cuttings, some of which I took several months ago, don't look too impressive. I keep telling myself they're just growing roots, but I'm not so sure...
I've had better results, though, with some Heuchera maxima (coral bells). Some of those are ready to transplant soon. So, maybe I am a real gardener after all.
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