Time to maturity grape hyacinth Muscari armeniacum from seed

I wrote an earlier post explaining how to grow muscari grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) from seeds.  Muscari grow very easily from seed, but they will NOT flower in their first year.  Growing them from seed is simple, but I thought I should record some timeframes to provide an indication of what to expect.   

Germination was inconsistent, but almost every seed germinated if they were left in the fridge for long enough.  After they germinated I planted them in a little punnet with soil and watered them occasionally.  Eventually I planted them in a larger pot of soil, and they pretty much just looked after them selves. 

Muscari grape hyacinth flowering

Unfortunately I grew my seedlings in a cup of soil for far too long and they were somewhat stunted, and when planted out I had them in poor soil, so they have not grown to their potential.  Few people are going to give them perfect conditions so I think it still shows the rough time frames that can be expected when growing muscari grape hyacinth from seed.


Days to maturity Grape Hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum)

Seeds in the fridge     02/12/2018                           Day 0
Seeds germinating    31/01/2019 to 11/03/2019     Two to Three months
Flowering                  Late August 2020                 Around twenty one months

Muscari seedlings flowering in under 2 years

Some of my seed grown plants are flowering now, meaning it took them a little under two years from seed to maturity. 

Some plants are far larger than others.  Some are not flowering this year, these will most likely be large enough to flower next spring.  Considering how little effort and how many new plants I now have, just under two years from seed to flower is a really good outcome.

It took less than two years for muscari to flower when grown from seed.  I have read in gardening books that muscari take up to six years to flower from seed, other places claim 3 to 5 years from seed, there seems to be unilateral agreement not to bother.  I guess these people never actually tried to grow muscari from seed themselves.

Very few places in Australia sell muscari grape hyacinth seeds.  When I have fresh seeds I list them on my for sale page.  I don't know how long the seeds remain viable, when the next lot are ready for harvest I plant out all of my remaining seeds.  This way the seeds are always fresh.  I really should keep some aside and see how long it takes for germination rates to decline.

Hot & Spicy oregano

I have grown oregano on an off for years. They are a common and readily available herb, so every time I move hose I leave it behind and get another. Most of the time I grow unnamed varieties, some claim to be ‘Greek’, others claim to be ‘Italian’, while some have been far better than others, none are ever bad.

No oregano I had grown has ever really impressed me, their leaves are too small, the plants are not compact enough, the taste is not strong enough, some don't cope with winter, and so on. So I started to consider breeding an improved oregano. I enjoy breeding improved things, and my success rate in breeding improved varieties of vegetables is reasonably high, so I gave it a go. I got a few oregano varieties, planted them very close together, allowed insects to open pollinate them, and planted lots of seed.

Right from cotyledon stage the seedlings displayed a wide array of diversity. I really liked some and wanted to see how they performed, most were grown out for a while before being culled, while others were culled really early. I knew what I wanted, I had heaps of seedlings, so I culled hard.

One seedling was rather unique and I think it had a lot of potential. Instead of growing leaves in pairs along the stem it grows leaves in sets of three. This looked interesting, and provided more leaf than the others. It got larger than the others pretty quickly. I was really excited to see what this plant would become.

Then last summer all of my oregano seedlings died.

Not long after I started my quest for improved oregano I heard of a variety called 'hot and spicy oregano'. This variety was said to have a much larger leaf than regular oregano, it was meant to grow more leaves and be more vigorous than other varieties, and it was meant to have a bolder and more impressive taste that almost borders on mild heat.

I started looking for "hot and spicy" oregano, several places stocked but they were either out of stock or they were on the other side of the country, and none would post.

I eventually found a hot and spicy oregano plant and bought it. While the plant was only tiny it had a lot of rather large leaves. I tasted a leaf and was underwhelmed, it was neither hot nor spicy. I wasn’t even sure I could taste oregano at all. I crushed a leaf and the smell was only noticeable if I used my imagination. I assumed the plant had been pampered too much or was stressed and it may taste better after I had grown it for a while, but I didn’t like my chances. I planted it in the garden and watered it well.

Hot and Spicy Oregano

This plant grew fast, it continued to grow reasonably large leaves, and due to its short internodes there were plenty of leaves per stem. If nothing else these traits could be useful in breeding something better. Then I crushed and smelled a leaf, the scent was bold and imposing, this was rather impressive. I tasted a tiny leaf, and it was so spicy that it almost felt like mild heat.

Hot and Spicy oregano is what oregano should taste like.

I have started to use hot and spicy oregano in meals, it is certainly a keeper. If you prefer bold taste then this is for you, if you prefer mild you simply use less.

I may not bother to keep trying to breed improved oregano as this one is great. If I do continue to breed an improved oregano I would like to use this as one of the parents as it has a lot of desirable traits. The leaves of hot & spicy oregano are pretty large for oregano, it produces a lot of leaves, and the plant is pretty compact, so the only improvement I can think of is if the leaves were even larger or if it produced more stems.

My plant has grown a lot since the photo above, it has since flowered, and died back a bit over winter, and started to grow larger again. The flowers attracted honey bees and a host of other beneficial insects.  I collected some seed and am attempting to grow it out.  Over winter it dies back somewhat as oregano does in my climate, but kept a surprising amount of leaves.I really need to take another photo, but I keep forgetting and the weather is not going to allow such things today.

I will likely sell hot and spicy oregano plants when I have enough to spare.  When I do they will be listed on my for sale page along with perennial vegetables, heirloom vegetable seeds, edible herbs etc.

Dwarf Iris (Iris reticulata) 'Harmony'

Dwarf iris (Iris reticulata) are lovely little spring flowering bulbs.  It is late winter here, but winter has been so mild this year that some plants are flowering out of season and other plants never went dormant at all.  I have never seen a winter like this before.  My dwarf iris are just starting to flower.

The pictures below are of Iris reticulata 'Harmony'.  Harmony is meant to be the best blue dwarf iris.  It is nice, but is it more purple than blue?

I enjoy plant breeding and growing things from seed.  Dwarf iris are simple to grow from seed, they just take a while until they are large enough to flower.  Regardless of its parentage, every seed will grow into a unique plant.

I am hoping to save some seed from the flowers below and grow out some interesting new dwarf iris.  None of the seeds will produce 'harmony', some may look very similar, others may look different, but each should be nice.  Next year I wouldn't mind getting a few different colours and crossing them like crazy in the hope of increasing my chances of growing a really nice new variety.

Only time will tell if I can grow anything worth keeping.

Iris reticulata 'Harmony'

 

Bee feeder - inverted jar feeder

I have had a few people ask me about feeding my honey bees.  I thought I would write a post showing how I do it.

Before I go on, let me clear up a few things before I confuse anyone.

You should not feed in an attempt to 'save the bees', you would be far better growing flowers if that was your intention.  Honey bees are not native to Australia, they won't die out here any time soon.  You don't need to save them, if you want to help honey bees then grow a garden organically.

Please never feed honey to bees unless it is feeding honey back to the hive that you harvested it from.  Feeding honey spreads some really devastating diseases and does all kinds of damage.  Feeding honey back to the hive it was taken from is ok as they already have whatever disease that may be present in it.  Feeding honey anywhere else is not ok.

Please don't just put out bee feeders to feed whatever bees are around or to encourage bees into your yard.  I don't want my bees making 'honey' using sugar syrup that they have collected from some well meaning person's yard.

Again let me stress that if you want to feed random bees or encourage bees into your yard it is far better to grow some flowers.  Many herbs are adored by honey bees.  Fruit trees and fruiting vegetables are also great for bees.  There are also a lot of ornamental flowers and trees that honey bees like, so you have a lot of options if you wish to 'save the bees'.

When I speak of feeding bees I am only talking about feeding my honey bees from my hives at specific times for a specific purpose.

inverted jar feeder with sugar syrup

Some people never feed their bees.  That is fine and I am not telling you that you should ever feed your bees. 

Some people take all the honey in autumn and feed the bees sugar syrup so they don't starve over winter.  I don't like that because nectar and the honey they make from it is far better for bees in many ways than sugar syrup.

As far as possible I like to leave enough honey that they will be ok over winter.  Sometimes things go awry and the bees don't have enough stores to get through winter, this is when I prefer to feed them sugar syrup.  I prefer to have them eat low quality sugar syrup and survive than to have them die over winter.

I feed my bees if I think they need it, I am probably a little over cautious, but I try not to feed very much.  I never feed if I have a super on as I don't want sugar syrup in with my honey.  Honey made with sugar syrup is a poor substitute for real honey made from nectar.

The bees did not return from foraging during the weeks of thick smoke and dust storms

I didn't harvest any honey at all this past summer, I left it all for my bees, but it wasn't enough.  Last summer was extremely harsh.

This last year we have had the worst drought in recorded history for this region and the hottest summer ever recorded in this region.  There were water restrictions so home gardens didn't have many flowers and my water tank was almost empty so my garden suffered badly.  Local farmers did not grow the crops of lucerne or canola that they usually have.  The drought and the excessive heat meant there was very little forage for the bees to collect.

We also experienced many weeks of thick choking smoke.  This prevented the bees from leaving the hive to forage.  When they did leave to forage they rarely returned to the hive as the smoke would blow in and disorient them.  There were days that were clear and half an hour later I could not see my fence through the smoke, the foraging bees didn't have a chance.

Over summer we also had several large dust storms on otherwise clear days.  Many bees left the hive to forage, then the dust came in fast and they never returned home.

inverted jar feeder - the bees glue it down with propolis

My bees also swarmed in spring when I was away, this was my fault.  The swarm took a lot of workers and all of the stored honey.  It meant that my bees had few workers, no stores, and a nightmare summer with very little resources around to try and replenish them. 

All of the above meant that leading into winter my bees had very little honey stored even though I did not harvest any.

Due to their lack of stored food I decided to feed them this winter to keep them alive. 

There are a lot of different types of bee feeders that you can buy, and a few that you can make.  I am fond of inverted jar feeders.

I just use an old jar.  I clean it out, use a thumb tack to push a few holes in the lid, I invert the jar and place it over the hole in my inner cover.  Unless the sun shines on it the thing doesn't drip, the bees drink the liquid, and all works well.  I have an empty box on top of the inner cover, this keeps the feeder out of the sun and prevents it from dripping on the brood.

Inverted jar over the hole in the inner cover

You will notice the box I used is an ideal super.  It was used previously for that hive.  I also insulate the box above the inner cover.

This roof insulation helps the bees regulate the hive temperature over winter.  More importantly it prevents water dripping from the inner cover on the brood.

The hive roof is insulated so water does not condense on it, the hive walls are not insulated so water condenses on them.  The bees can drink some of this water or it just trickles down the walls and runs out the bottom of the hive.  The important part is there is no dripping on the brood or cluster.

It doesn't really matter how cold it gets as long as there is no dripping.

I have insulated the top box above the inner cover, if the jar is not in there I plug the hole

More insulation over the top, a single piece would be better but this works well enough

The roof goes over the top of the insulation and the jar feeder

I strap the roof down, the wind gets strong here

With an inverted jar feeder no bees ever drown, being inside the roof above the top cover means I am only ever feeding my bees, I am not encouraging robbing, there is no increase spread of disease, and the bees can use the feeder in cold or wet weather when they usually couldn't leave the hive.  Every day or every few days I can replace the jar with a full one, I don't need to use a smoker, I don't need to open the hive, and I don't need to wear any protective gear.  It is very simple.

Other types of feeder are good, but for backyard hobbyists like who don't want to spend money these inverted jars are free to make and simple to use.  I can use whatever size jar I want, and I can put in as much or as little sugar syrup as I want.  I also don't have to replace it when it is empty unless I want to.  It is very versatile and leaves me with a lot of options.