This spring they had a tremendous amount of flowers and they appear to
have set seed. There are many 'capsules' on the end of springy stems.

What do you do with these, do you sow the whole capsule? Do you slit it
open? Do they have to develope further?

Any advice greatfully received.

Steve

"80/20" <sw [at] bewdleybytheriver.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1151154846.489488.254880 [at] m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> This spring they had a tremendous amount of flowers and they appear to
> have set seed. There are many 'capsules' on the end of springy stems.
>
> What do you do with these, do you sow the whole capsule? Do you slit it
> open? Do they have to develope further?
> Any advice greatfully received.
> Steve

Seed Collecting:
Allow seedheads to dry on plants; remove and collect seeds
Seed does not store well; sow as soon as possible
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/pbs/2004-October/019691.h tml

Jenny HTH

In article <1151154846.489488.254880 [at] m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>,
"80/20" <sw [at] bewdleybytheriver.freeserve.co.uk> writes:
|> This spring they had a tremendous amount of flowers and they appear to
|> have set seed. There are many 'capsules' on the end of springy stems.
|>
|> What do you do with these, do you sow the whole capsule? Do you slit it
|> open? Do they have to develope further?

You have to wait until they dry out. If you forget about them, they
will self-seed.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message <1151154846.489488.254880 [at] m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>
from "80/20" <sw [at] bewdleybytheriver.freeserve.co.uk> contains these words:

> This spring they had a tremendous amount of flowers and they appear to
> have set seed. There are many 'capsules' on the end of springy stems.

> What do you do with these, do you sow the whole capsule? Do you slit it
> open? Do they have to develope further?

> Any advice greatfully received.

> Steve

The seeds are in a kind of sugary coating which ants like; they will
scatter them if you want to just leave the capsules to split open and
disperse naturally.

If you want to control things more you need to wait until the capsule
turns a bit drier and starts to peel back revealing the seeeds inside.
As soon as this starts, harvest the seeds. You have to watch carefully
because if you leave them a day or two they'll just disappear.

You can sow the seeds about 1cm apart on the surface of very well
drained compost - lots of grit and/or sand in it - and cover with a
generous layer of grit. When they germinate leave them for a year or two
before separating and either pot on or plant out.

If that's too complicated you could just try sowing individual seeds
where you'd like them to take and just cover them with a bit of grit or
fine soil.

Janet G

Thanks for all your answers - I'll wait a little longer and see if I
can catch them.
Bet happens when I'm away.

Steve