Seeds

It's the time of year to collect seeds for next year's planting. Two of the seeds we are collecting are for lavatera "silver cup" and canterbury bells.

canterbury bell seeds

lavatera seeds

The difference in the seeds is interesting. The canterbury bell seeds are extremely tiny and look round until you get them under a macro lens and see that they are oblong.

By contrast, the lavatera seeds have shell-like sculpting and are maybe a hundred times bigger than the canterbury bell seed. Why? Who knows why a plant that grows maybe half again as tall as the other would have a seed many times bigger. It's a wonder of God's creation. Figuring out the seed configuration was perhaps just one small detail of why He called it work--very good work.

canterbury bell pods

Canterbury bells usually reseed just fine. Hundreds of these little seeds come out of the dried, brown seed cups on the top. But, we put down a good layer of barkdust this year to cut back on the weeds. And barkdust is not great for either weeds or reseeding. So, we are gathering the seeds to hand start the plants next year.

lavatera seed pods--green (still maturing) and black (matured)

The lavatera is supposed to reseed and puts out a good quantity of seed as each flower leaves a seed pod (they are green and turn to black when dried--both can be seen in the photo) with 15 or so seeds in each one. But, they rarely seem to survive the winter, and now they too are surrounded by barkdust. So, for sure they won't reseed for next year.

We're having fun planning for next year's planting and the macro lens has given a little extra interest in the seeds themselves.