Branching Out's Seeds and Sprouts

[Branching Out]

We hare experiencing record low temperatures for this time of the year, sitting at just -7C(19F) overnight. Most of the plants do not look happy-- but the pansies seem to be able to produce their own antifreeze. They have not been phased a bit by the chilly weather. Granted these ones are placed close to the house where it is a bit warmer, and under cover of the roof overhang so frost does not settle in their petals (they are much larger than the ones planted out in the garden with no extra protection from the elements). Rather impressive winter hardiness.

 

[AMKuska]

Isn't it wonderful how you can reuse things? I'm anticipating the use of our sour cream and yogurt tubs so I can scurry off with the pots. They're perfect for planting in.

 

[Branching Out]

Indeed. Given that I have been scavenging planting pots for several years now I have grown a bit choosier about what I add to my collection, and number one on my list of items to look for at the moment is small square containers with fairly straight sides (so that they are less likely to tip over). Round ones are good too, but I already have a lot of them and I find they take up much more space in the tray. I can often squeeze in 6 more square containers rather than round ones. I have about 40 of the black nursery trays that I have gleaned from recycling boxes; they are very handy too. My garden benefits a lot from what others discard.

 

[Branching Out]

Last week I cross-pollinated a few amaryllis blooms, and then a couple of days ago I decided to remove a few spent blooms and managed to snap off one of the crosses in error. From now on I am making sure the tag noting the cross is attached to the base of the bloom, where I will notice it!!

So far all of my crosses are using Pink Rival as the seed parent, so I did one more cross using Picotee as the seed parent and Pink Rival as the pollen parent. I think you only need one grain of yellow pollen for this to work, but I really coated the stigma with as much as I could just in case. Then round 2 pollinating a second blossom a few days later. I would like to pollinate all four blooms, but I am afraid it would be too taxing on the bulb to produce that many seed pods.

Apple Blossom is gorgeous and I would love to use it as a seed parent too, but all accounts that I have read say that it will not produce viable seed. It makes a good pollen donor though.

 

[Branching Out]

I have many tiny jam jars of amaryllis pollen in my freezer, so deciding on which cross to try is kind of fun. Two blossoms were pollinated with Tosca pollen that was frozen two years ago. It looks like the ovary on the amaryllis may be swelling (at least I think it is the ovary...lol) so good chance that the pollination was a success.

This spring I hope to do a little zinnia breeding and I am so glad that I started with amaryllis first, because the parts of the flower are so large and easy to identify. It makes understanding how to pollinate a zinnia much simpler. I just finished reading The Zinnia Breeder's Handbook, by Tiffany Jones and she did an excellent job of explaining plant genetics in such a way that a home gardener has a hope of understanding some of it. It is still a lot to digest, so I will definitely be taking that book out of the library again soon.

 

[Branching Out]

The snow that arrived overnight is beautiful, but it is creating a supply-chain bottleneck with my trays of seedlings. I am glad that I bought a large soil blocker a while back, because many of my starts will have to be bumped up and placed outdoors under cover today. With soil blocks the bumping up is fairly easy, and quick too. The Vancouver area broke historic snowfall records this weekend and there is more in the forecast.

 

[Phaedra]

I have many tiny jam jars of amaryllis pollen in my freezer, so deciding on which cross to try is kind of fun. Two blossoms were pollinated with Tosca pollen that was frozen two years ago. It looks like the ovary on the amaryllis may be swelling (at least I think it is the ovary...lol) so good chance that the pollination was a success.

This spring I hope to do a little zinnia breeding and I am so glad that I started with amaryllis first, because the parts of the flower are so large and easy to identify. It makes understanding how to pollinate a zinnia much simpler. I just finished reading The Zinnia Breeder's Handbook, by Tiffany Jones and she did an excellent job of explaining plant genetics in such a way that a home gardener has a hope of understanding some of it. It is still a lot to digest, so I will definitely be taking that book out of the library again soon.

That sounds interesting, zinnia breeding! I am thinking of breeding Dahlias, but not sure if I can squeeze time this year or not.

 

[Branching Out]

That sounds interesting, zinnia breeding! I am thinking of breeding Dahlias, but not sure if I can squeeze time this year or not.

I read a blog from Floret last year ( https://www.floretflowers.com/dahlia-breeding-update/) and it seems that with dahlias it is a numbers game, with the breeder needing to grow hundreds if not thousands in order to get usable new varieties. And the thing with dahlias is that they take so very long from seed to bloom. At that point I decided that I may save seeds from one or two favourite dahlias, but I do not wish to try breeding them in a significant way at this time. I will let Erin and her team at Floret do the heavy lifting, and then once they have created gorgeous new varieties for cut flower production I will consider ordering tubers.

Zinnias, on the other hand, grow very quickly and can even be grown to the bloom stage under lights indoors if that suits your fancy. Those that are serious about it grow four successions per year, making for fast breeding. I also like the fact that zinnias have a small footprint; they can be planted in the garden with just 2-3" spacing if you are planning on culling the undesirable blooms. They are incredibly drought tolerant too, and deer don't eat them (yay)! And best of all you don't have to overwinter them in the ground, or dig them up and store them-- the pretty dried seed heads can go right in a box for storage. Interestingly, the woman who wrote the book on zinnia breeding started out reading the same lengthy zinnia blog that inspired me last year; it is so cool that she was able to organize all of the good information that she gleaned there into one resource that is so user friendly.

My garden journey seems to involve deep dives into certain plants, and then once I have learned all that I want about them I often come up for air and dive in to a new pool of plants instead-- so for this year it will mean growing fewer dahlias, and more zinnias instead. And beans. I just love beans.

 

[Branching Out]

Fava bean seedlings catching a few rays in a warm corner of the sundeck. They are liking the bright sunshine. Once the snow melts I will plant them out.

 

[Branching Out]

The Tezier French filet bean seedlings have been bumped up to a larger 6-cell for now, and are sitting in the window with a tent of row cover. The white Agribon19 traps so much warmth-- and it filters the sunlight as well, so the leaves won't get sunburned. Once they become accustomed to the sun I will be able to remove the row cover, although it adds so much heat that I may want to keep using it. Hopefully the beans will be happy with this set up. This is my first time growing beans indoors.