Have you ever fallen in love with a flower?
I fell in love with sunflowers this summer, and then they broke my heart.
The garden that I supervise is a large community garden bed on Pine Street in Carlsbad. The Senior Garden Club meets weekly to plant, cultivate and care for vegetables and flowers in this 4-by-20-foot raised bed.
Our plot is one of 30 in the Pine Street Community Garden, and in an attempt to keep this large space in order, there are spatial and maintenance requirements.
The Russian Mammoth Sunflowers that we planted three months ago have lived up to their name, reaching a height of 10 feet.
Unfortunately, while the row of towering 10-footers has exceeded our wildest dreams, it’s also gone above and beyond the 7-foot height restriction as required by the Garden Committee, so we had to cut them down.
So, with the help of my son, Joshua Nightingale, and Hunter Rhoades from the Senior Center, we proceeded to clip the giants down, saving the seed pods for our seed saving projects.
The pruning process brought tears to my eyes, but I know we will be able to share the seeds with other gardeners and distribute them through the Carlsbad Library Seed Library Project.
HOW TO SAVE SEEDS
When saving seed from any annual or perennial, it is important that the pods be harvested at the correct time. Look carefully at the seed pod, and only harvest when the seed is dark and comes away easily from the seed head. If the seeds are still white, they are underripe and will not germinate.
After removing the seed, put a handful of seed into a fine strainer and shake the seed until the extraneous dirt falls out of the sieve. Do not wash the seed.
Place the seed in a small cardboard box in the sun for a few days to dry completely. Then package into small envelopes with seed name, harvest location and date harvested. Envelopes can be stored in a cardboard box in a dark, cool place for up to two years.
PLANT A FEW VARIETIES
If you love sunflowers as much as I do, I heartily recommend Katherine Whiteside’s book, “The Way We Garden Now,” in which she includes a garden plan for my favorite flower, and gives complete instructions for a “Sunflower Folly.” If you are an avid gardener, her book is filled with garden plans, and she has given us a list of some of the many varieties to plant, which will be a full-scale crowd-pleaser.
So try a few of these: Teddy Bear, Lemon Queen, Orange Sun, Piccola and, of course, my favorite, Mammoth Russian. The book is available online.
SEED SAVERS EXCHANGE
For those of you who love to collect seeds as much as I do, take a few moments to explore the Seed Savers Exchange website. This amazing seed collection is just part of the Heritage Farm in Decorah, Iowa, that offers an open-access seed bank and multiple plant collections. Contact Seed Savers Exchange to be a part of this exciting project.
We hope you have a summer full of seed starting and seed collecting. Contact me for further information at [email protected].
Jano Nightingale is a Master Gardener and Horticulturist who teaches gardening classes at the Carlsbad Senior Center. Contact her for upcoming classes.
