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why cover seeds of hardy plants
November Member
Posts: 139
Last year I decided to see if hollyhock seed just about to fall from them would germinate and grow.
I just tossed them onto some spare ground and have had just about 100% germination . Some are nearly in flower.
Nature does not sow in seed trays and then prick out .Nature is trying to ensure only the strong do well.
Tomatoes that have self seeded are going to provide me with a bonus,they did not need a greenhouse for birth the seed knew when was the correct time to germinate.They are not far behind their cosseted neighbours raised so early in the year.
Also this is how new strains are developed naturally and why Darwins ideas seem to be so sound ...
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No chance of leaving seeds to germinate naturally here, the slugs would have the tops off the minute they showed through. I never see them again, except the stuff I don't want, like thousands of Verbena Bon, lambs ears, lychnis.,.,,,,
good theory though.
My garden is packed with hardy perenniels and of course they self seed and just grow where they fall without any help from me. That's one of the things I like about my sort of garden.
However I do know that if I want to be sure that they're gowing to grow where I want them and not eaten by birds or slugs or blown away or moved by passing hedgehogs, cats etc then I'll propogate them in the green house and plant them out once they're established.
I am the same as Lyn - I can't grow anything from seed sewn straight into the ground. When I first came here I thought there must be something wrong with me , it had never been a problem before, but then I became acquainted with the local slugs. They seem to be prepared to eat everything: those big orange slugs are the worst.
I no longer sow any seed in the ground, whether bought or saved from my own plants. There are too many obstacles - birds, dogs, slugs, competition from other plants and then there's OH who doesn't know a weed from a treasure when "helping" with weeding.
I'm always happy when I find self sown goodies such as hellebores and foxgloves and then can pot them up and bring them on and plant them where I want them and I don't mind verbena bon and hollyhocks popping up as they're easy to pull up if in the wrong place.
I sow all my veggies in trays or cells and plant them out when they're big enough to cope with my local weather conditions as we're prone to late frosts and strong winds. Works for ornamentals too.
Oh, Obe, you put it so much better than me!!
me and English language don't go together very well
It would never work for everything. I have many plants that have never self sown.
Any many that don't know when to stop
In the sticks near Peterborough
Hi November member,
I think you might have a point. Last year I tried to grow my own yellow rattle plugs for a wild flower meadow I'm creating. I must have painstakingly sown some 300+ seeds each into individual plug trays. I then ran out of plug trays so just broadcast the remaining seed over the meadow rather than waste it
The plug trays were lovingly nurtured over winter and spring .... protected from the snow and frost ... but not one germinated.
The seed that was scattered has flowered beautifully this summer .... nature knows best.
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
Bee witched, yellow rattle is parasitic on grass, it needs the grass
In the sticks near Peterborough
To my point precisely and also Bee witched's though perhaps by accident.
The plant world evolved (and is still doing so) , long before we came along
thinking we know better.