Wealden Times | WT230 | July 2021 | Education supplement inside

Garden
Seed Collectors
Sue Whigham’s top tips for gathering and storing for the next generation of blooms
Well, today’s been a bit
of a disaster as I’ve
just realised that I am
about to lose another mature
tree to what I assume must be honey
fungus. I did an early morning
inspection and there were a few
signs of life but not many.
Anyway, whilst I was in that part of
the garden I was also looking for snake’s
head fritillary seeds for a friend. All
I could find amongst wild tangles of
common vetch (and myriad feasting
bees) were two remaining fritillary seed
heads awash with seeds which looked
as if they would be dropping to the
ground in the next gust of wind. So
as a delaying tactic to sitting typing
indoors on a glorious day, I’ve retrieved
them and sown them in a pot of gritty
seed mix for her and they’re now safely
tucked in a shady corner where they’ll
stay until next year (they need a period
of ‘stratification’ so a cold winter should
do the trick). The reason for all this
haste was that these seeds should ideally
be sown as soon as they are ripe, as older
seeds develop germination inhibitors.
Fritillary seeds are dispersed by the wind
and land on the soil surface so the idea
is to emulate this by surface sowing.
It is so interesting to see the myriad
methods of seed dispersal that plants
have in their arsenal and to know
different methods of collection too. I
was trying to find out when to collect
seeds of sweet rocket which pop up all
over the garden in June but failed as
most of the seed had dispersed before
I got to them. Hesperus matronalis or
sweet rocket was described as a ‘noxious
weed’ on an American website I
stumbled upon the other day but I think
it is a glorious plant with its clear white
or purple flowers which waft a sweet
fragrance across the garden.
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