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Gathering Seed To Grow Later

Variegation is generally nontransferable by seed.

Deadheading, or the removal of deteriorating bloom, is contrary to the purpose of bloom. It conserves resources for subsequent bloom or vegetative growth. It neatens associated vegetation. Deadheading is certainly justifiable. However, it eliminates most seed before it can develop. Seed is the priority of bloom. Gathering seed can be a good compromise.

Techniques for gathering seed are as variable as bloom and subsequent seed. For some popular annuals and perennials, it is as simple as deadheading. Their seed develops as fast as their bloom deteriorates. Seed is easy to shake from dried stems of rose campion, campanula and columbine. Cut stalks of lily of the Nile must dry for their seed to mature.

Gathering seed from vegetable fruits can be a bit more complicated. Some are mature as soon as their containing fruits ripen. For example, seed from ripe chile peppers are ready for drying and storing immediately. However, zucchini must mature too much to be edible for its seed to finish developing. Furthermore, squash seed is likely to not be true to type.

This is often a consequence of cross pollination from other varieties of the same species. Progeny of very different parents inherit genetic qualities of both parents. Similarly, many extensively bred varieties exhibit reversion. Their progeny can be more similar to distant ancestors than direct parents. Reversion may be progressive through a few generations.

Reversion is less likely among hybrids only because most hybrids are sterile. Gathering seed from them is generally either futile or impossible. Some hybrid canna develop seed capsules that contain no viable seed. Seedlessness is an advantage of seedless hybrid watermelon. Viable seed of the few hybrids that could produce it is wildly unpredictable.

Most mutations, such as variegation or dwarfism, are not inheritable. Seed of variegated Kaffir lily therefore grows into unvariegated specimens. Some seedlings mature through a juvenile phase prior to bloom. This is why avocado seedlings grow so lean without fruit in their first few years. Ultimately, gathering seed is most practical for simple wildflowers, annuals, perennials and some vegetables.

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Sports

This white lily of the Nile appeared this summer within this exclusively blue colony.

Horticulturally, a sport is a genetically variant growth. Although it is more common among extensively bred or genetically aberrative cultivars than simple species, the most basic of lily of the Nile can, on rare occasion, change floral color from blue to white or from white to blue, as I mentioned on the sixth of July. Unvariegated or ‘green’ sports are a more common annoyance among some cultivars with variegated foliage, such as popular cultivars of Euonymus japonica, since they grow faster with more chlorophyll, and can overwhelm the original and more desirable variegated growth. The yellow hybrid gladiola that I posted a picture of for Six on Saturday on the twenty-ninth of June could be a sport of an adjacent orange and yellow hybrid gladiola. I did not give it much consideration because I assumed it to be the first bloom that I noticed from one of a few bulbs that somehow survived for a few years longer than expected. Until last summer, the only hybrid gladiolas to survive from a mixed batch planted years earlier had been either purple or the aforementioned orange and yellow. However, now that the yellow bloom is gone, an equally unfamiliar orangish red bloom emerged from the same small colony of bulbs that had bloomed only orange and yellow. As their common name suggests, hybrid gladiolas are hybrids, so are innately genetically unpredictable, and therefore have potential to generate sports as they multiply. Although I do not know for certain that this new orangish red hybrid gladiola did not survive without blooming for the past few years, I sort of suspect that it and the new yellow hybrid gladiola are more recently developed sports of the original orange and yellow hybrid gladiola. I hope that both are as reliably perennial as the original.

This orangish red hybrid gladiola seems to be a sport of the orange and yellow hybrid gladiola.
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Leyland Cypress

Leyland cypress ‘was’ an intergeneric hybrid.

Taxonomy is a mess for Leyland cypress, X Cupressocyparis leylandii. The X preceding its genus name indicates that it is an intergeneric hybrid. Monterey cypress, Cupressus macrocarpa is the paternal parent of the original hybrid. Nootka cypress, Chamaecyparis nootkatensis, is the maternal parent. However, its name is now Cupressus nootkatensis.

Therefore, Leyland cypress is now Cupressus X leylandii, and an interspecific hybrid. It inherited attributes from both parents, as well as innate vulnerabilities. It can grow very vigorously to more than thirty feet tall in fifteen years. However, it may not live for another fifteen years afterward. It is very susceptible to cypress canker and a few other diseases.

This is why Leyland cypress often accompanies more permanent but slower vegetation. By the time it finishes its life cycle, the other vegetation is ready to replace it. Most large specimens are less than forty feet tall, with densely conical form. The evergreen foliage is grayish deep green. Less common cultivars are more grayish, yellowish or variegated.

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Abutilon

Bloom may become more scarce with cooling weather.

Abutilon X hybridum grows wild from seed within some of our landscapes. Although not prolific enough to be naturalized, dispersion of any viable seed seems odd for hybrids, since most hybrids are sterile. Of course, I do not know for certain if their ancestors were actually Abutilon X hybridum. They could have been other simple species of some sort. Besides, the name seems to apply to any cultivar of unknown parentage, including a few that are not actually hybrids.

Furthermore, even those that are generally sterile hybrids only needed to produce a single viable seed to start the process. Such a seed would likely grow into something that is more genetically stable, and therefore less sterile than its parents. Regardless of their supposed genetic stability, or because of their lack of it, their individual floral color is delightfully variable.

I am no more certain about the common name of this genus, species or group of hybris, which I know simply as flowering maple. Some know it as Chinese lantern. A few may know it as Indian mallow or parlor maple.

I am not so keen on the flowering maple, or whatever it is, for refined landscapes. However, the landscapes here are not so refined, and some are quite rustic. They benefit from the relaxed style, sporadic bloom, and open form of whatever this is.

Bloom is always sporadic, but is a bit more abundant during warm weather. Conversely, it can get scant while the weather is cool through winter. I am impressed by the few flowers that continue to bloom on this particular specimen. So are the hummingbirds. Bloom will likely become more scarce now that the first mild frost occurred last night. Also, foliage may get sparse until warmer weather next spring initiates regeneration to continue the seasonal cycle.

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Dragon Wing Begonia

White blooming dragon wing begonia are still quite rare.

The modern hybrid of wax begonia and angel wing begonia, known as dragonwing begonia, wants to be out in the garden like wax begonia, but like angel wing begonia, needs to be sheltered from direct sun exposure in summer. This time of year, it also needs shelter from frost. It gets two or three feet high and wide, and makes quite an impressive display with abundant red or pink flowers against glossy foliage. A white blooming cultivar became available only recently. Pruning scraps are easy to root as cuttings.

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‘Peaches and Cream’ Grevillea

71011No one knows for certain who the parents were, so the hybrid Grevillea ‘Peaches and Cream’ lacks a species designation. (If it is important, the parent are most likely Grevillea banksii and Grevillea bipinnatifida.) It is an evergreen shrub that gets about four feet high and wide, with intricately lobed light green foliage. Individual leaves are about four inches long and two inches wide.

Four inch long floral trusses of tiny flowers can bloom at any time, attracting hummingbirds. Flowers bloom greenish yellow and then fade through a range of yellow, peachy orange and pink, from the bottom of the truss to the top. Warm and sunny exposure promotes bloom. Established plants do not need much water. Like other grevilleas, ‘Peaches and Cream’ grevillea can cause contact dermatitis. (It is best to know if one is allergic to it before planting it.)