In good time…

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Have you ever found yourself in possession of seeds that you were impatient to sow and watch grow? I’ve been in that position so many times, especially with seeds given from other people’s gardens. You seem to start off with so many seeds and you think you’ll plant more than you need, to give some allowance for fatalities, because there always are some along the way – seeds don’t sprout, seedlings die off if you forget to keep them happy, young plants get attacked by pests, etc.

My Bachelor's Buttons seedlings.

I’m going to talk about my Bachelor’s Buttons (gomphrena globosa) in this case. I was given a couple of dried flower heads, and decided to start with one. I prepared a self-watering container (SWC) and broke up the flower head over the earth, then mixed them in so the dried petals and seeds (which I couldn’t identify from the dried petals) were just beneath the surface of the soil. Then I let the SWC do it’s work to keep the soil moist and I minded my own business.

The first sprout appeared 5 days later. The second sprout popped up 5 days after that. They kept each other company for 2 months – still in the SWC since I tend to procrastinate transplanting plants – and suddenly I noticed that a new plant had germinated! Now, more than 3 months since I first planted the seeds, there are even more sprouts still appearing. Still in the SWC. So I finally decided to give the plants their freedom and plant them out in the garden. Since I was concerned that there could be more viable but dormant seeds in there, just biding their time, I decided to try to keep as much as the top of the soil intact when I transplanted them. In Singapore, we have a term for that – it’s called being kiasu, or scared to lose out. I absolutely resent the idea of wasting any good seed left in there, and I will try to observe if any more sprout in the coming weeks.

What this situation with the slow-to-sprout seeds shows is that seeds will start germinating when they are good and ready. I haven’t figured out the conditions yet, because I have other pots where I’ve planted seeds but nothing has happened. Or, one plant started growing and that was it. The notorious non-sprouters for me are marigolds, coriander, basil , nasturtiums and Dahlberg Daisies. Either I haven’t given them the right conditions to grow, they’re not ready yet, or the seeds are non-viable. I am almost tempted to just toss the seeds here and there in the garden and let nature choose where to let what grow – but then I wouldn’t know what was what. Is this a situation of nature versus nurture? :D

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How a sunflower blooms

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I used to think that a flower blooms once the petals open up, but since a sunflower is a composite flower, the process is a bit different.

To refresh your memory: composite flowers are made up of the ray and disc flowers. The ray flower is made up of the outer petals – what we ordinarily consider regular petals – and the disc flowers are the cluster of flowers in the middle of the flower – generally speaking, of course.

And, yes, to my great enlightenment, there are disc flowers on sunflowers! I’d never thought about it, nor really looked up the nitty-gritty about sunflowers. As you should know, my normal modus operandi is to get seeds, plant them and have my happy surprises along the way. So I did indeed enjoy watching the sunflowers bloom.

The ray petals open on one side first, and the disc flowers start opening along the outer rim. You can see how the disc buds are forming from the outside to inside. Undeveloped buds are still black.

The ray flower is fully open (and attacked by insects unknown) and the disc flowers continue opening in a tightening spiral. I also love that pattern of overlapping spirals in the middle!

Finally, all the disc flowers have bloomed and the centre of the flower protrudes like a pincushion. Now I have to wait while the seeds ripen in the head before I can harvest them.

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Extracting roselle seeds

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Notice the brown seed capsule within the red calyx?

When my roselle plant went to seed and started sprouting from the pod encased in the calyx, I thought I’d leave it alone to see what would happen if it was left to it’s own devices. However, when the leaves of the sprout growing out of the pod began to shrivel from lack of water inside, I immediately changed my mind and plucked the fruit. No surprises there! :P

First things first, I think I need to get the terms correct. The red exterior is the calyx (plural: calyces). That, and the flowers (when dried), are the edible parts.

The roselle seeds, and the sprout that grew from the pod, exposed after stripping away the calyx.

Within the calyx is the seed capsule. It is segmented and appears to contain two seeds in each segment. This capsule is initially light green in colour, then turns brown as it matures.

So back to my plant. I broke away the calyx to get to the seeds inside. The seed capsule had deteriorated to the extent that each segment of it was a hard, translucent shell. There was quite a bit of slimy goo inside as well – I suspect a combination of the water that had been trapped inside and the degrading capsule. Between the shell-like pieces and the goo, it took a while to extract all the seeds. The seeds were black and between 2 to 4mm big.

Nice, healthy roselle seedling.

A few more had also begun to sprout, but were nowhere as advanced as the one that had caught my attention. All of them have been placed in a pot filled with potting mix and topped with a layer of cocopeat to keep the moisture in. One of the sprouting seeds has already broken through and has opened its seed leaves. I’m hoping that more follow suit as I’ve promised some plants to friends when I have them. So far, though, it’s just the two plants that are growing. Let’s hope they’ll be joined by more, soon!

© 2010 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.


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Red Lady papaya plants – 4 months old

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There I was taking measurements in preparation of my monthly update on the Red Lady papaya trees when I noticed something interesting happening at the crotch between each leaf and the main stem of the biggest plant. No, I’m not talking about anything naughty! I thought I saw offshoots forming – it looked like more leaves sprouting, the same way my tomato plants branch out. Yet, something looked interesting…

I had to pretty much crawl to get under the leaves so I could take a better look. Again, that sounds naughty, but it’s not. The plant in question has grown quite a bit since the last update. Back then, it was 36cm high; now, it stands at 72cm from ground to apex of stem, or 90cm if you include the leaves in the measurement. Last time, I measured to the crown of the plant, so that’s a staggering 54cm of growth in one month! Nevertheless, it’s still shorter than me, so that’s why it took some maneuvering to get closer to the stem without breaking off any leaves.

And here’s what I saw:

Are those flower buds growing at the crotches? Be still my beating heart!

As I said, my first thought was that the tree was beginning to produce offshoots, but then I recalled my last post about how quickly the tree had grown and that it was reaching the right height to begin to flower. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I think those are flower buds forming right now! 8)

And so the nail-biting time begins – will it be a boy, a girl, or an in-between? To get ready for any eventuality, I’m familiarizing myself with the article that Mama Cina brought to my attention at local gardening guru Wilson’s blog about identifying papaya flowers. It’s very informative.

As for the other trees, Red Lady One – so named since it sprouted first – is now 43cm from ground to stem apex, or 52cm from ground to crown. Red Lady Two is of course our budding beauty mentioned above. Red Lady Three is the first transplant, and it is doing well, too, at 27cm from ground to apex of stem.

Red Ladies 4 to 7 are still lagging behind at between 15 to 24cm high, but are beginning to grow a bit faster now. They are still in pairs, but I think I’m going to transplant the smaller of each pair anyway, because I really can’t bear to cull a growing plant unless it’s a weed.

I’m actually grateful that the plants are developing at such different rates, because then we won’t have a huge glut of fruits (assuming they can all bear fruits) at the same time. Am I crazy to keep so many trees growing simultaneously? Probably, but I had to take the gender/pollination issues under consideration when I planted them. It will break my heart to have to cull any even if they’re non-productive trees.

Stay tuned as the Red Lady papaya saga continues…

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