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Showing posts with the label growing from seed

Cut and Come Again Zinnia Seeds - For Sowing Indoors - January 2024

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I've said it before:  I'm a foliage gardener.  I'm most comfortable talking about, working on, planting foliage plants.  I'm also a shade gardener, so that's (kinda) why I'm a foliage gardener.  Last Fall, I began to address a significant garden deficit:  conifers .  Via CSCF. Conifers Should Come First .  Those conifers came in a flurry in the late Fall. But, so too, did something else:  flowers.  I planted some new (to me) perennial flowers: Midnight Masquerade Pentsemon , a Pow Wow Wildberry Echinacea and some May Night Salvias - all in the IB2DWs extended bed.  I also tucked in a pair of Stachys monieri Hummelos (Betony) on the other side of the driveway that has upright, purple flowers.   In my 2023 recap post , I included a mixed list of lessons learned/things to think about going forward and included on that list:  plant more flowers.   Get out of my comfort zone and think about adding flowers to a combo bed and cut garden.   I started the 2024 season

Tree Seedlings And Shrub Cuttings - Nursery Update - September 2023

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One of the items (#16) on my annual to-do list was to keep working on 'seasonal tasks' and #24 was to 'try to get cuttings to root'.    I've been after a container-based tree nursery for a few years now and have posted about it from time to time.  The most recent post was this Summer .  I started in 2021 with Kentucky Coffee Tree seeds and seedlings.  Then, last year I tried with Limelight Hydrangea s.  And this past Fall/Winter, I went a little bit further.   I collected a variety of seeds (acorns mostly) and put them to bed in a damp sand container that I stashed in the fridge to simulate cold stratifying .   After the Summer, it appears that I have birthed a handful of oak tree seedlings.  And, have seemingly kept the Kentucky Coffee Tree and Catalpa trees alive.  I've also succesfully rooted a Limelight Hydrangea and a Boxwood evergreen shrub.   Below are a few photos showing the current situation.  First..the larger, 1# containers of two-year-old trees: Th

Growing Catalpa Trees From Seed - Fall Pod Havesting - December 2021

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In our backyard, we have a couple of mature (and a few smaller, understory) Catalpa trees .  I've posted about them from time-to-time and talked about how I've come around on them and have grown to really enjoy the species .  And how the Catalpa tree has become a sort-of gateway into the whole "Native Tree" world.  This Spring, we came across some Kentucky Coffee Tree seed pods at a Downers Grove park and successfully germinated them and grew some seedlings .   We're currently attempting to overwinter those tiny seedlings by digging their containers in the ground .  What I've learned from those seedlings was that the seeds required a winter rest.  Or...what they call stratification.  That means that they require a period of dormancy that comes along with the cold temperatures of Winter.  For the Kentucky Coffee tree, that happens with the seed pods hanging on the trees all Winter until Spring when they drop.   Based on that experience, I've decided to try

Kentucky Coffee Tree Seedlings - September 2021

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Earlier this Spring, I came across some Kentucky Coffee Tree seed pods at a park by Downers Grove South and began the journey of getting them to sprout and grow into tiny tree seedlings.  I posted about that process (cracking up the pods, soaking the seeds, planting them, etc) back in June here . Over the past 70 days, I've kept them alive in their little nursery stock containers and have watered them (enough) to get the little trees to grow.  In the photo above, you can see my tray of little Kentucky Coffee Trees.  And one little Maple seedling.   In total, there are five containers of Kentucky Coffee tree seedlings with to little trees in each one - ten total trees.  (And that one Maple).  Below, is a look at one of the containers showing the pair of seedlings.  As a milestone, the trunks of these are NOW woody.  No longer green - or red like the leaflets.  If you look closely, you'll see that the trunk has a TINY bit of 'turned wood' on it - near the top.  Meaning, t