A seed packet is small. Filled with perennial seeds, you could balance it on your little finger and scarcely feel any weight.
Plants will grow from those seeds, bringing immeasurable joy and satisfaction, flowers to cut and share.
Perhaps even improved health to the gardener for having been out in the fresh air and sunshine while digging in the good earth.
Plant the contents and discover for yourself what is packed in a packet of seeds. So you’ve never had success with perennial seeds?
They just won’t grow for you. Nonsense! Wide choice varieties are as easy as zinnias if a little extra care is taken in planting.
Varieties Of Seeds
The kinds practical to start from seeds would be too long to list, but the beginner’s selection would not be wrong if he chose such varieties as the following:
- Balloon flower (platycodon)
- Daylily (hemerocallis)
- Lily (Lilium)
These are merely suggestions. There are many others equally good and easy.
Desirable Balloon-Flower
Balloon-flower is a very desirable perennial that blooms the first year from seeds.
A mixed packet would produce the most variation — blue, white, and perhaps pale pink blossoms in single or semi-double forms.
The buds are like little balloons, which explains its common name. Children like to pop the buds—if they pop yours, remember to save seeds to give them.
They can grow their balloons to pop, for the seeds are large enough that even a child can plant them. The plants are long-lived—a valuable addition to a July garden.
Hemerocallis Seeds
Seeds of hemerocallis germinate easily. Plants may bloom in the second year. They are long-lived, not fussy, and very dependable.
Seldom are there two seedlings precisely alike. Colors may be yellow, orange, red, pink-toned, or bi-colored. Each blossom lasts but a day.
Treasure the plants with the largest buds and those with blossoms that remain fresh and pretty well into the night.
There are many true lilies from which to choose. Not all are easy, but we can leave the difficult ones for the real green thumbers.
First Planting Experience
For our first planting experiences, we flesh-colored thumb gardeners can find sufficient excitement and satisfaction in growing kinds that come easily, like Lilium formosanum.
The name appears less formidable when we remember that Formosa is the native home of this lily—an island that is often mentioned in the news.
To be successful with these packets of seeds, the important point is to have a seed bed where moisture and temperature can be controlled. Choose a sunny location.
Seed Frame
Make a seed frame of convenient size from four boards (5” or 6” inches wide) nailed together or staked in place to form the boundaries of the bed.
The soil should be soft and humusy—water must soak down quickly and easily — the tender new shoots must not have a hard crust above them.
Plant the seeds early. There will be March days when the soil is unfrozen and the temperature such that it tempts one to work outside.
(I’ve planted in April, May, and even June, but germination and growth are far better with the earlier planting.)
Shallow Furrow For Seeds
Make a rather shallow furrow for seeds the size of a balloon flower. The daylily and lily seeds should have half an inch of soil over them.
On a windy day, mix the papery-thin lily seeds with a little damp sand to keep them from blowing away while planting.
Label each row with a marker, giving the plant’s name, source of seed, and date planted.
Recording In A Garden Notebook
There will be times when you wish to recall such data. Many gardeners take time to record these things also in a garden notebook.
Sprinkle the seedbed when the planting is finished. Cover the frame with a burlap bag to keep the soil from drying out and prevent heavy rain from washing out the seeds.
It keeps the seed bed cool when a hot sun bears down. The seeds will germinate in due time. The soil must always be nicely moist but never soggy or wet.
Platycodon Row: Two-Leafed Plants
Two-leafed plants will appear in the platycodon row—single green grasslike spears will first appear in the daylily and lily rows.
After the plants are well up, the rows can be mulched with rotted straw or partially decayed leaves to conserve moisture, and the burlap bag can be removed except on days when a strong wind is blowing.
Keep the plants growing as fast as possible by hand watering when the rains fail.
If the plants have plenty of space in the row, it would be better not to disturb the platycodons until late fall or early the next spring.
Resetting Of Plant When Crowded
If they are crowded, they will make better plants if the plants reset after they are large enough to handle easily. This will be when they are an inch or taller and have four to six true leaves.
Reset any plants toward evening or on a cloudy day. Even then, it is well to shade the plants in some way for a few days until they become settled in their new location.
I always have weeds close at hand that I can pull and tuck around and over the plants, but better gardeners would not have this dubious commodity at hand.
Pruning For Few Branches
A few branches clipped from a tree that needed pruning will do just as well, or berry boxes or tin cans with bottoms removed can be set over the plants.
The daylilies can be reset with good root systems—around 3” or 4” inches high.
Mulch them to conserve moisture and keep the soil cool. Then, shade them for a few days.
The swollen roots (fleshy, longish tubers) are quite different from the fleshy roots of the platycodon.
44659 by Olga Rolf Tiemann