Small Flowered Willow Herb

For a few years I have been growing willowherb (Epilobium parviflorum).  Some of its common names include 'small flowered willow herb', 'hoary willowherb' and 'small flowered hairy willow herb'.   

There are a bunch of different plants that have the common name of willow herb, so it is important to pay attention to the binomial name.  

I believe this is named willowherb because its leaves grow long and slender, like willow.  It also likes to live in damp places, much like willow.  This plant is not remotely related to willow, and (while I am not certain of this) from what I have read it does not produce any aspirin/salicylic acid.  

Small flowered willowherb

Willowherb is edible, it doesn't really have much of a taste on its own, it isn't bitter or unpleasant in any way.  The leaves can be added to a salad and eaten raw, dried and used in herbal teas, and it can be eaten cooked.  Every part is said to be edible, but I have only tried the leaves. 

The texture of the leaves is not remarkable in any way.  They are not unpleasant, or hairy, or slimy.  Certainly not bad in any way, it's also not overly memorable or impressive.  If using raw in  salad I would probably tear or cut the leaves somewhat.  

This herb has been used as medicine to treat prostate and kidney issues, there are a few studies indicating it could be effective in treating these ailments.  

This plant handles frosts well.  It grows tall and flowers over summer, and goes back to a short plant in winter.  Over winter here it does not go completely dormant, but it does die back considerably.  

The heat of summer doesn't seem to be an issue as long as it is well watered. 

Willow herb has small pink flowers

I grow willow herb in a few different ways, it always does well, it does particularly well if given a lot of water and fertile soil.  

I grow some in a pot of soil, and it does fine.  I grow some in a pot with no drainage holes that always has wet boggy soil, it does very well.  I have some in my goldfish barrelponics, and it thrives there.  

Full sun and part shade both work well.  It doesn't like to dry out, and seems to prefer lots of moisture.  That being said, it copes drying out better than I had expected.  For a week my barrelponics pump didn't work and my pot of plants dried out completely.  The Vietnamese coriander and other plants died off quiet badly, while the willowherb looked fine.  

Willowherb in barrelponics 

Growing small flowered willowherb from stem cuttings is simple.  It puts up a tall stem for flowering, cut it into sections, plant each section vertically in moist soil or put the base of each cutting in water and they produce roots quickly.  

Sometimes I plant the cuttings directly into moist soil and I get similar results.  

Small flowered willowherb also divides itself.  Plants slowly produce several growing points.  If I snap one off and plant it in damp soil they usually produce a new plant.  These growing points usually have a few roots if I snap them low enough.  While this is very reliable, it is also a very slow way to propagate them.  I find it a lot faster to take cuttings once they send up a flower stalk.

Goldfish barrelponics - willowherb and Vietnamese corainder

Growing willowherb from seed is surprisingly simple for a perennial herb with such tiny seeds.

The plants send up tall stems in summer, these grow small pink flowers on long stems.  The flowers are at the end of long pods.   

Small pink flowers on tall stems

After the flowers die the seed pods grow longer.  When the stem dries, it splits open and releases dozens of tiny seeds.  Once the pod begins to split, all the seeds are ripe.  

These seeds look like dandelion seeds, except tiny.  Each has a little parachute, and is gladly carried off by the wind. 

To sow seeds I open a dry pod, tip the seeds onto moist soil, water it in, and in a few days every seed germinates.  It is that simple.  

I don't remove their parachute, I don't bury the seeds, I just put them on soil and water them.  

Fresh seed seems to yield close to 100% germination.  They produce tremendous numbers of seeds, so you probably wouldn't need to even plant an entire pod's worth of seed to be more than enough.  I have no idea how long willowherb seed remains viable.  So far I have not had any volunteer seedlings pop up anywhere other than in pots.  

Seed pod opening

Tiny seeds with parachutes

Each pod makes a lot of seed

The seedlings are tiny, and very slow growing.  It seems to take may months before they grow true leaves.  This may be because the soil I am growing them in is low in nutrients or they are not getting enough sunlight, perhaps they would grow a lot faster under better conditions.

So far I have not had issues with slugs or snails, but I think that's just luck.  I am guessing snails would eat out the tiny seedlings before they get established.  Once established they don't seem to have any pest issues.

If you had a damp area in the garden I think these would do very well.  They produce nice looking flowers on tall stalks, the leaves can be long and slender.  Other than making sure they are not too dry, and cutting off flower stalks once per year after they are sent, they take no work to look after.  You would then be able to harvest handfulls of leaves most of the year from a nice looking perennial herb. 

If you are interested in growing willowherb, I sell some plants from time to time and may sell fresh seed next time I collect it.  I can post plants bare rooted throughout much of Australia.  Willowherb will look a but sad after being posted, but it tends to pick up very quickly after being planted and watered. 

Woolly micro tomato update

It is time for an update on my micro woolly tomato breeding project.  

For a bit of background, I crossed a micro tomato which only grows to about 10cm tall, with a woolly leaf tomato which reaches about 6 feet tall.  I used a micro tomato as the seed parent so it was simple to see if the cross worked really early. 

I grew the F1 in the year 2021, the F1 plant reached about 5 feet tall, was very productive, and the fruit looked intermediate between both parents.  

Micro woolly tomato breeding

I culled the F2, only keeping the smaller woolly leaf plants.  Then culled subsequent generations based largely on plant size, and to a lesser extent based on fruit colour and taste.  Last year I had a mishap and lost many of my seeds from this project, sadly things like that sometimes happen in breeding projects. 

This summer (2023-2024) I culled and was left with four candidates, I put the four candidates in one pot for ease of handling.  

While it is far better to have them in separate pots, or even in the soil, that was not an option this year.  

Woolly foliage tomatoes

The four remaining plants are between 5cm tall and 15cm tall, they all set flowers at their terminal bud, all are woolly, and all appear to be expressing anthocyanin in their leaves and stems.  

At this stage I don't know what base colour the fruit will be, or how they will taste. 

Unripe woolly tomato 

While several of the plants are larger than Micro Tom (pictured below), up to 15cm tall, or about 6 inches, is still probably considered to be a micro dwarf tomato.  These were partly shaded in the greenhouse and are likely taller than they would have been if grown under direct light.  There are a few generations until they will be stabilised, so even if they are not micro dwarf tomatoes that is ok at this stage.  

The smallest candidate is producing flower buds, and is only around 5cm, or about 2 inches, tall.  This may be a genetically tiny plant, or it may be stunted by growing so close to the pother plants.  I won't know until I grow out its seeds.  

Micro tomato plants are tiny

One of the things I like about micro tomatoes is they are so quick to mature that they can produce several generations each year.  My winters can be a bit long, so I sometimes lose a generation to frosts, but in a mild year I can grow a few generations and make some decent progress.

I was growing these plants in my greenhouse as I didn't start them until late in the season and they needed protection from the heat.  I have recently moved the pot outside into full sun.  Hopefully there is enough heat left in the season for them to set fruit and for me to collect seed.  

Woolly foliage, high anthocyanin 

Even if all goes well, this project is still a few generations away from completion.  Hopefully one or several of these four are what I am hoping for, then I can work on stabilising the lines.  

Fingers crossed in another few years I have a few stable lines of new micro tomatoes that taste good.  If not, I can do a little back crossing to lock in the traits I want, or I could start again.  

Variegated string of pearls tiny cutting

I have been growing string of pearls succulents (Curio rowleyanus also called Senecio rowleyanus) since late 2016 or early 2017.  They are a lovely looking trailing plant with spherical leaves with little windows. 

I wrote an earlier blog post on seeds of fake string of pearls, sadly they don't come in blue or red or purple or with multicolours.  I mentioned in that post how string of pearls com in green, green with larger pearls, or variegated.  

Late in 2023 I got a lovely variegated string of pearls plant.  It was small, and I took a few cuttings.  As well as this, a tiny part broke off.  It had one variegated leaf and a tiny part of stem.  

I planted this to see if it would grow.  Even though it only had one leaf and a tiny section of stem it did start to grow.  

Variegated string of pearls cutting

The single pearl and tiny piece of stem grew some leaves.  At the start none of them had any chlorophyll.  They were all white.  

There was a high chance that the tissue that gave rise to the baby plant was derived of all white, and may not have had any green.  If this was the case it would survive off the mother leaf for a time, and die when the leaf got too old.  They need some green to be able to produce food.  

After growing a number of leaves, it then produced a variegated leaf!  

This variegated leaf has some green, which means it is able to photosynthesize and feed the plant.  As it has produced one variegated leaf, there is a high chance that it will produce more.  If this is the case, in time this tiny plant should be able to grow into a large trailing variegated plant.  

Variegated mother plant

Sometimes variegated plants revert to all green.  Once they are all green, they don't become variegated again.  

If you grow a variegated string of pears succulent and notice a strand that is entirely green, remove it.  Being all green will be more vigorous than the variegated parts.  Plant the green strand in a different pot as a cutting and let it develop into a green plant - don't leave it attached to the mother plant or it will eventually take over and you will no longer have a variegated string of pearls plant.  

If you notice a strand that is all white, feel free to just leave it.  It will eventually die, until then it will look pretty.  Unless the mother plant is very weak it should be able to have a white strand without ill effects.  

Each leaf has some white and some green

I find string of pearls succulents to be surprisingly easy to grow.  They don't love full sun, and can't survive in heavy shade.  The variegated form is less vigorous than the green form, but they are both lovely.  

Even though they are a succulent, they tend to perform better when given decent amounts of water.  I keep hearing about people planting them in special succulent mixes, while this is probably best for them I find they perform well in equal amounts of potting mix and garden soil.

I sell string of pearls plants and cuttings through my for sale page.  At this stage I only have green ones for sale, I hope to have a few variegated ones large enough to sell in Spring.  If you are interested, you should have a look.