Greenhorn Mountain November 16, 2014

After this snowy, cold week, it’s nice to think about starting seeds for next spring! This is the time of year we begin to sow seeds, especially seeds like Indian paintbrush that need a cold treatment. Catilleja chromosa, angustifolia, and scabrida are three species of Indian paintbrush that germinate best with four to six weeks of cold stratification.

In nature they would spend the winter outside, germinating when temperatures and moisture are right in the spring. Here in the nursery we like to speed that process along. The easiest way to do that is put the seeds in a ziplock bag, moisten them, and place them in the refrigerator.

Castilleja, Gilia, and Penstemon seeds.

Seeds in the ziplock bags with name and date.

Seeds after a few drops of water added.

Many people, or most people, or maybe even all people but me, add vermiculite or peat moss to the seed in the baggie. My method, without anything except seed and a minuscule amount of water, works for me.

Many of our native seeds benefit from cold stratification, including penstemons and columbine. If you try this yourself, don’t forget to add the moisture. Without moisture the seed will stay dormant in that cold environment almost indefinitely. Don’t overdo it, you don’t want the seeds floating in a puddle of water, that could cause them to rot. I add water to the seeds a few drops at a time. If I get too much in the baggie, I carefully strain it off.

As the weeks go by I check the seed to make sure it is still moist and to look for the first sign of germination. When the first root pokes out of the seed, it’s time to transfer the entire group to a flat of potting soil and put them where they can get light. We use our little solar greenhouse for most of the seed starting. In January it starts getting crowded in there!

And the picture below shows an equally tiny seedling, a strawberry: Fragaria ‘Yellow Wonder.’  Yellow Wonder is an alpine strawberry, it has small berries that are very sweet–and they’re pale yellow when ripe, so the birds don’t get them.  We really enjoyed these last summer.  Despite the tiny size of these seedlings at the moment, they’ll grow and produce berries before the season is over. And, once established, they’re everbearing, so next year expect an even longer harvest.

I mentioned getting a geranium (pelargonium) from our friend Alana back in November. We took cuttings a week ago and they already have roots an inch long! Here is the first flat of them. I hope to get another round of cuttings in a couple of weeks.

If you brought any of your geraniums in for the winter, you might notice that they’re getting a bit lanky by now. You can take cuttings and rejuvenate your plant at the same time.  Some people root the cuttings in a jar of water, but I have better luck in a flat with potting soil. They’re easy–cut about a 4″ tip, let it callous for a couple of hours, and then plant it. Keep the soil moist while it’s rooting.  By trimming back your stock plant, you’ll encourage it to put on new growth and be nice and full when you want to move it back outside in May.