Growing full circle
COLLECT SEEDS NOW FROM YOUR FAVOURITE PLANTS SO YOU CAN ENJOY A GREAT DISPLAY NEXT YEAR
AS THE summer draws to a close, it’s the perfect time to think about collecting seeds from a few favourite plants.
Did you know there is a secret bunker in West Sussex where scientists are trying to collect a sample of seeds from every known plant in existence?
The Millennium Seed Bank in Wakehurst Place is a sort of “backup” where they are storing seeds in case some dreadful natural event happens in a particular area and the plants are lost for ever.
It’s a sort of zoo for seeds, the largest ex-situ conservation programme in the world. It stores an incredible 2.4 billion seeds on site, and has already used this insurance policy against nature to help re-establish areas of Australian bush destroyed by wildfires.
Seed saving is a craft we’ve practised for thousands of years – mostly in agricultural settings where the grains are dried and stored for use throughout the year.
You can harvest seed from one plant for generations – recently I heard of a family that had saved seed from a runner bean every year since before the war! At the end of the season, they simply left a few beans to mature, ripen and dry, and then the following spring they could sow this seed, and so it went on for years!
As gardeners, it’s nice to save our own seed as it saves money, while also being extremely satisfying and a quick way to propagate a large amount of plants when needed.
Lots of seeds are best saved and stored over the winter, and sown the following spring when conditions are more favourable. Choose a dry day and simply place a paper bag over the seed head when you begin to see seed fall from it.
If you take seed too early, it may not be ripe enough to germinate, so wait until the seed is ready to fall from the plant with the slightest touch. Once the paper bag is over the seed head, simply close it around the stem and cut it. Then turn the seed head upside down and shake it to allow the seed to fall into the bag. Sometimes it’s worth leaving the seed in a cool dry room for a few days to allow it to fully dry and the pods to open.
You can then package the seed into paper envelopes, making sure to label carefully as you go! Paper is important as it breathes, and if it gets wet, it will dry out, unlike plastic bags which can trap moisture and allow the seed to rot.
Ideally sow your seed the next spring at the latest, although some seed can remain viable for decades and occasionally hundreds of years.
If in doubt about whether you can save and successfully grow the seed of a particular plant, the best advice is to simply do as above and give it a go. You’ll be amazed how easily some plants germinate, and very soon you’ll have hundreds of plants to give away or, better still, swap with another gardening friend.