Email
Print
Perennials less costly if you start with seeds
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: April 11, 2009
Taking on a new flower bed can be an intimidating project. But if you have been to the nursery lately, the cost of plants might be the biggest deterrent.
The average price for perennials is in the $7 range, a cost that can mount quickly when trying to establish a new bed or border with changing seasonal interest. One way to save a lot of money is to start from seed. A packet is less than half the cost of a plant, usually $2.50 to $3, and will yield greater results. If you figure in $10 for a bag of potting soil, you're still ahead. Starting seed indoors will help you to treat them tenderly and give them a good start.
Not all perennials will come true from seed. Most of the plants found in nurseries and garden centers are named varieties. These have to be propagated through cuttings or division to produce the same plant. Many of these will not even produce viable seed. Still, there are plenty of excellent perennial plants that can be raised from seed if you know a few tricks.
Perennial beds need a variety of plants to keep interest going through the season. I have selected four plants that flower in each of our three growing seasons. Some of these have special germination requirements, but once these are mastered just about anything can be grown from seed.
Spring
Dianthus: These are commonly called pinks. They include carnations and sweet williams, along with some great mounding and matting plants that make wonderful front-of-the-border specimens. Simply sow the seed lightly and keep moist. They will germinate in one to three weeks.
Columbine: This is one of the loveliest flowers spring has to offer. They come in a range of colors and forms from the large, long spurred kinds whose flowers look like shooting stars to tiny little Japanese species whose flowers nod over when the foliage is a few inches high. There are also woodland native columbines of the East with orange and yellow flowers and many hailing from the mountains of the west coast. All need a period of stratification to sprout their seeds. This means giving them two months of moist cold. The seed can be sown in a pot in the fall and set outside for the winter to accomplish this, but a better way is to put them in a zip-lock bag with some moist sand for two months in the vegetable crisper of the refrigerator. Once the period is over, sow the contents, sand and all, into a pot of soil. Seedlings will appear in a few weeks.
Hollyhocks: Tall and stately old- fashioned members of the cottage garden clan, hollyhocks are wonderful towering behind other perennials at the back of the border. Seeds can be sown anytime and need no special care other than surface sowing and to be kept moist.
Baptisia or Wild Blue Indigo: These members of the lupine family share a common trait in their seeds: They have tough coats. Chipping or scarring the coat allows water to penetrate and sprout the seed. The seed coat can be carefully chipped off with a knife or you can roll up a sheet of rough sandpaper and place it in a jar with the grit facing inward. Place the seeds in the jar, screw on the lid and shake the seeds to scratch their surface. Another alternative is to soak the seeds for 24 hours with regular water changes every couple of hours. Sow in soil afterward and plants should sprout in a few weeks.
Summer
Hibiscus: You may not be able to grow some of the finer nursery varieties of perennial hibiscus from seed, but there are several wild kinds with huge, beautiful blossoms. There is the open-face, brilliant red flower of the Texas star hibiscus, the pink of rose mallow and the similar large white flowers of crimson-eyed rose mallow. These beautiful plants are often seen growing in wetlands and seed can be gathered from the persistent pods even in spring of the following year. Despite their wetland homes, they do fine in a garden.
Echinacea or Purple Cone Flower: You will not be able to grow from seed all those cool new cone flower varieties that come in pumpkin, yellow and deep magenta purple. Still, the old rosy pink cone flower is great and the variety called white swan can also be raised from seed. These two big sturdy daisy flowers are beautiful together. For best results, stratify the seeds as outlined for columbine above.
Cardinal Flower: A stunning scarlet spike of flowers that works like a hummingbird magnet in the summer garden. The seed of this lobelia is tiny and should be stratified (see columbine). These seeds are slow to get established, but they are worth the trouble
Blackberry Lily: The plant looks like an iris, blooms like a small lily and the seeds look like a blackberry. Clean the pulp off the seed and sow in a pot of soil. Seed usually germinates in a matter of days. These plants with their long season of interest will carry you into the autumn.
Autumn
Asters: Though they are primarily North American plants, asters traveled to England to get their pedigree. There they were crossbred and developed into the colorful hybrid daisy flowers that grace the early autumn garden. The wild New England and New York asters are equally beautiful, and the seeds can be collected on the roadside in the fall. Stratify the seeds and sow them heavily. Asters generally have low germination rates.
Sneezeweed: It does not make you sneeze, but sneezeweed will never get over the name and become a popular plant. The stiff flower stems hold golden-yellow flowers with prominent button centers. Seeds are slow but require no special treatment
Goldenrod: Another one with an undeserved reputation for tickling the nose, goldenrod is not an allergy plant. But it is one of the finer flower forms for the autumn garden, especially as represented in the plumes of rough leaved goldenrod. It simply makes all the other autumn flowers look better. Seeds are slow to develop but do not require special treatment.
Perennial Sunflowers: Unlike the giant annual sunflower, the perennials need a cold period (see columbine) to get sprouted. These late-flowering plants are stunning against the changing leaves.
The great thing about seed starting is you will always have extras, which means more plants to share and trade and more money saved.
Green savings and cutting costs in the garden will be an occasional topic in this column. If you have ideas for saving money let me know about them at gardening @wsjournal.com.
■ If you have a gardening question or story idea, write to David Bare in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-3159, or send e-mail to his attention to gardening@wsjournal.com.
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
