How to Save Seeds of Echinacea (Coneflower)

Fall is that time of year when gardeners begin the process of cleaning up the garden but also is the time when we begin to think of next year. One of the many things gardeners enjoy doing in the fall is saving seeds. Saving seeds allows us to continue to grow genetically diverse plants that have thrived in our during the previous season. Seedlings can range from being extremely close to the parent plant or can be quite different if they have been hybridized with another of the same species. It can be very exciting for home gardeners to experiment and see what comes up the following year!

How to Separate and Save Seeds from Echinacea (Coneflower)

This week I've been collecting seeds from various plants that have matured in our garden. One plant in particular that I've been collecting from are my coneflowers - Echinacea purpurea and Echinacea tennesseansis (The Tennessee Coneflower which is of course native to Tennessee). I've grown coneflowers for several years now and pretty much left them to their own designs but some of my plants have produced some very nice blooms. They have good coloring, nice sized blooms, or produce strong plants with a good form. When I find a plant that has some of these features I collect it to try and sustain the genes in my garden. I've also done a few hybridization experiments on my coneflowers the results of which really won't be known for a couple years but it requires that I save the seed from my coneflowers.

If you've spent any time around coneflowers you'll know that the seed heads produce very sharp pointed cones that make separating the seed very painful. I have a short video I put together on how I separate my coneflower seeds. It really isn't that hard if you know the trick!

After I've separated the seeds I put them in small coin envelopes like in the picture to the right. (Clicking on the picture will take you to Amazon.com)  Be sure to label the envelope with the kind of seed you are saving with the botanical name, the date you collected it, and where your plant was located.  That helps me to keep up with everything I need to know about the seeds.

What seeds are you saving this fall?

Garden Status Report: Mid July

It hardly seems to me that spring had even started before it was gone.  This growing season has gone by so quickly, or maybe I'm just getting too busy!  Unfortunately the garden has been through some rough times.  Drought and unbelievable record heat have crippled gardening in many ways from killing plants to keeping gardener's with common sense indoors (although I'm not sure I completely fit in that category!)  Here are a few photographs of how the gardens are doing now.    

Zucchini - Costato Romanesco

The vegetable garden is growing along just fine despite the weeds and weather.  I need to spend 3-4 days out there getting the weeds in check which should be a lot easier now that we've had rain to loosen the soil.  Before the rains removing weeds was like trying to remove the Sword In the Stone!  If successful I guess that would make me king of ragweed...?

Tomatoes are just beginning to ripen.   We've picked a grand total of 4 ripe tomatoes so far: three cherry tomatoes and one yellow pear tomato.  Yes we're rolling in tomatoes...not literally of course.  Actually we will have quite a few coming in very soon.  The excessive heat slowed their production down and since the temperatures have now dropped the ripening has really begun. 

Melons are coming in like crazy.  They aren't ripe yet but I have a feeling we'll have more than we can eat soon.  Unfortunately I had to throw away a developing Yellow Midget melon due to a rabbit's appetite.  I wish they would at least have the courtesy to eat the whole melon and not just take a few bites to ruin the fruit!  I won't be saving leftovers for rabbits.

Aster yellows disease on coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea)

The ornamental gardens are getting by OK now.  The tough as nails coneflowers have made it through the drought decently but not all is well in coneflower land.  Aster Yellows the dread disease spread by annoying leafhoppers has reared its ugly head.  I pulled one coneflower plant out of a front garden and a second one out of the backyard garden.  It also took down one of my favorite gaillardias, an 'Oranges and Lemons'.  Once a plant has aster yellows there is no cure.  The best thing to do is to remove the infected plants to prevent the spread of the disease to healthy plants. 

My daughter and I transplanted some coleus that we started from seed a few weeks ago in the from garden with the sitting wall.  It was a mixture of colors from a store bought package. Some of them look very cool while others rather lackluster.  I'll save seed from the best and plant that seed next year.  Who knows? Maybe I'll even take a crack at hybridizing some coleus!

I'm excited to see flowers forming on a blackberry lily.  One was given to me a year or so ago that was covered in seeds.  I didn't plant this one here but the seeds may have landed and sprouted on their own.  I think interplanting blackberry lilies with irises would be a good way to disguise the foliage of irises in the summer.

Bees on passionflower

With the drought the insect population seemed almost non-existant.  Except for the ticks, chiggers, and mosquitoes of course.  But the bees are back in force! It's good to have the pollinators back at work!

How's your garden growing?