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#5083 Mar 27th, 2007 at 02:28 AM
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The Gnome
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The Gnome
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Collecting, Planting and growing Wildflower Seeds
(From that guy they call The Garden Helper)

#183100 Feb 17th, 2008 at 04:53 PM
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Wild Willow
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Wild Willow
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Oh wonderful post!! And I must admit, I am guilty of picking the occasional wildflower to take home and dry and harvest the seeds.. Shhh.. don't tell anybody. :( I won't do that anymore.. I guess I didn't realize the potential harm I could be doing.

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Good article on seed collecting.

Wild flowers don't always adapt anyway - some do best in the 'scrub' on the side of the road.

My day lilies were given by one of our tenants here - they were a small cluster when I go them and are now a big bush. So they worked well. And somebody brought a big bag of periwinkle once and that worked out.

And those little wild violets? I have a lot of them - they work well, but most of them were growing wild on our own lot, or one of the neighbours plucked them from their beds.

They make nice fill in spots.

But digging them up from the wild lands won't do - 'specially if they look like they're doing ok where they are - besides, it's more fun to collect the seeds and grow from scratch.

I do know this - WF clippings don't do well; I've tried to propigate the periwinkle that way - doesn't work.

It's the same thing as trying to raise wild animals and make pets out of them; a raccoon will make a fine pet, until it's a year old - then it goes wild and wants to go off on its own.

Maybe that's what the wild flowers want - picture them wandering over to the park in the middle of the night - ha ha!


When sorting seeds, do not whistle.
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Suggestion:

Walk around your neighbourhood when people are trimming their shrubs and bushes . . . sometimes you can take the discards home and re-root them.

And it's amazing what you might find in the way of 'discards'. Sometimes people take a whole bush out, to make way for something else - if you go out the day before or ON the day the city picks up garden waste, you get lucky.



When sorting seeds, do not whistle.
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A couple of years ago, a lady sold her house and the new owners completely renovated it - they also plowed up the front yard. Just before they did it, I asked if it was ok to take some of the plants - figured they'd look a lot better on my lot than the compost heap.

Got myself some nice tall mums, and a couple of (yet to be named) other nice plants.

All you have to do is ask - they can only say NO!



When sorting seeds, do not whistle.
#353551 Feb 11th, 2012 at 03:24 AM
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I didn't realize it caused harm! I am guilty too! :(


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