Lavender mint plants

Lavender mint (Mentha sp) is a vigorous growing, edible variety of mint.  I really wanted to try 'lavender mint' ever since I heard about it.

This variety of mint, like all mints, is perennial and likes water.  It is not too bothered by frosts which is always a bonus in my climate.

Growing mint is simple, they need water and are not too picky other than that.  

Growing lavender is meant to be easy, they prefer drier soil.  For some inexplicable reason I never have a great deal of success growing lavender. 

This variety is one of the most vigorous varieties of mint that I have seen.  For that reason I would never plant it in the garden, I would only ever grow it in a pot.  Even when grown in a pot it will try to escape through the drainage holes, so care must be taken to prevent it from taking over your entire garden, and your yard, and the neighbour's yard.  It really is a strong growing herb.

I had heard so much about this lavender mint variety, but nowhere sells them, then I obtained one through a plant swap.  I had low hopes, many mints do not really live up to their names, but I was intrigued.  I am happy to say that this variety of mint does smell a lot like lavender, and not very much at all like mint. 

Lavender mint

Lavender mint plants have a lovely strong floral scent of lavender.  I can't rally smell mint, which is good. Often the smell of mint overpowers everything.

I am sure you could use lavender mint in all kind of baking and with many sweet dishes.  It probably does ok with the right kind of savory meals as well.  I haven't tried it in any of those ways.  So far I have only made herbal tea from my lavender mint.

The first time I was not sure what to expect.  In hind sight, I really should have known, it is like drinking a warm floral cup of lavender.  I really like it.  

Making herbal tea was easy.  Hot water, a spoon full of honey mixed through, add a sprig of lavender mint.  When the tea was cool enough to drink remove the mint and drink the liquid.  Doesn't get much simpler than that.

Hot Water + Mint + Honey = delicious herbal tea

So far my favourite of all the edible mints is "banana mint", that one is slow growing but smells incredible.  It also makes an intriguing banana flavoured herbal tea that I really like.  I find propagating banana mint to be slow, I am tempted to plant this in my garden and just let it run so I can have more plants.

My second favourite mint is either this lavendar mint or native peppermint, I am not sure which I prefer, they are both great in different ways.  They are both much more vigorous in their growth and faster to propagate than banana mint.  Native peppermint is not invasive, lavender mint on the other hand is so vigorous that it would be very invasive if not contained.

Lavender mint plant

I don't have a great deal to say about this plant.  It smells great, it grows strong, it is highly productive, and I really like it.  

One day I will likely have extra plants and can offer them on my for sale page. along with the other edible herbs and perennial vegetables that I have for sale.

Baby Maidenhair Ferns Survived Winter

I really like maidenhair ferns.  They are one of the few ornamental plants that I will happily grow.  They don't have any use other than looking nice.  I think maidenhair ferns are a graceful and beautiful plant.

At the start of winter I had a bunch of tiny maidenhair ferns, I wrote a blog post on them.  I wasn't sure if any would survive winter so I put them all in one pot of soil and decided to divide out the survivors once the weather warmed in spring.  

I planted them in one pot in January, and they got a little scorched as it was hot and windy that day.  I didn't really look after these as well as I could and I really expected some to die.  I grew them outside, Protected from the sun, mostly protected from frosts but occasionally there would be ice on them which would do a little damage.  I figured only the strongest would survive.

As luck would have it, all of my baby maidenhair ferns survived winter.  I didn't lose a single one.  Some grew reasonably large over winter, while others remained really tiny.

These baby ferns survived Winter

As the weather is warming I have divided them.  I thought that there were only five or six plants, but I had nine little maidenhair ferns of various sizes in that one pot.  

I assume the smaller ones will grow larger now that they have space, but kind of wish that they would stay tiny.  I love my huge maidenhair ferns, but the tiny ones are super cute.

Maidenhair ferns after being divided

Some of the baby maidenhair ferns are still tiny

I have a feeling that I will want to keep some of these ferns.  I currently have 4 large maidenhair ferns in my house (one of which is variegated).  I have had one of those larger ferns for over five years and it is getting really huge.  So I am not sure how much more space in the house I can allocate to any more ferns. 

Then again, I do have that lovely new greenhouse, surely I could grow a few maidenhair ferns in my greenhouse...

A month after repotting - all looking good

Once these are a bit more established I will likely offer some for sale through my for sale page.  I prefer pick up for things like ferns, but could certainly post them if needed.  I dare say I won't be selling them too soon as I would like them to be a little more established before trying to sell them.

Venus Flytrap - Big Vigorous

Last year I bought a "Big Vigorous" Venus flytrap.

The few pictures I had seen on the internet made this look like a great plant, from its name I assumed it would grow large, and I hoped it would be vigorous and divide a lot for me.  I had high hopes for this carnivorous plant. 

'Big Vigorous' Venus Flytrap

I paid more for this plant than I should have, and it arrived in the post bare rooted and tiny.  Venus flytraps tend to cope really well with postage, and it was winter at that time, so I had no doubt it would grow well for me.

The Big Vigorous Venus flytrap did grow well for me.  Over winter it had a rosette of low leaves and small traps, which is healthy for flytraps.  Once the weather warmed the traps did get large, and it had tall upright growth.  I think that it was an impressive looking plant.

'Big Vigorous' winter leaves

Early in spring it attempted to flower, I cut off the flower stalk and tried to use it as a cutting to get more plants.  Unfortunately the flower stalk cutting did not work that time.  

Cutting off the flower stalk can allow the plant to put more energy into leaf growth, and that is what I wanted from this plant.

'Big vigorous' vft emerging from dormancy and sending up flower stalk

Big Vigorous venus fly trap sure lived up to the 'Big' part of its name.  It grew rather large traps on tall upright leaves.  Every part of this plant was large.

The 'vigorous' part I am not so sure about.  It grew fast, it has a lot of leaves, and nothing seemed to bother it, but it hasn't divided a whole lot for me.  That may just be because it was very small when I got it, or it may not divide a lot, but it is too early to say.

I found a few descriptions on the internet:

Description from Flytrapstore.com:

Big Vigorous is a great Venus Flytrap for a beginner or for an experienced grower's collection. It grows quickly into a robust plant that produces long leaves, a large rosette and big traps as well as plenty of baby Big Vigorous Venus Flytraps by vegetative division.

 

Description from Carnivorous Plant Resource:

Dionaea Big Vigorous is a clumpy Venus flytrap with deep red, almost purple traps. One might even call it a purple pest eater. It grows easily outdoors in temperate climates, or in greenhouses. 

After reading those descriptions I am not sure if the 'Big Vigorous' flytrap we have is the same as the 'Big Vigorous' flytraps overseas.  Mine did not have deep red/purple traps, and did not divide very much.  All that aside, it was a robust plant, it did have tall growth and very large traps, and it was very hardy, so I am happy with it.

Wally on left, Big Vigorous VFT on right

Wally vft on left, Big Vigorous vft on right

I sell a few carnivorous plants including a couple of named varieties of venus flytrap through my for sale page and often have some Venus Flytraps for sale.  I am not expecting any Big Vigorous Venus Flytraps for sale this year but may have some next spring.  I can post these bare rooted and they tend to cope really well with postage, if you live close enough to pick up that may also be an option. 

Purple cauliflower

Last year we bought a purple cauliflower from the markets.  I am not a huge fan of cauliflower, but I liked that one.  It was a bit sweeter than normal cauliflower.

I have a general dislike of any of the cabbages, they are ok in small amounts, but in medium amounts I find them difficult to eat.  I didn't struggle eating the purple cauliflower as much as I struggle eating the white ones.

I decided to buy some cauliflower seeds and grow a few myself.  Strangely enough, it was really difficult to find seeds of purple cauliflower.  After a surprising amount of looking around I bought some cauliflower seeds.  I planted them in summer just before Christmas, and harvested them early spring.

One thing that surprised me was that they started out white, and gained purple colour once they matured.  The later we harvested them the more intense the purple colour.

Purple cauliflower

The leaves of the purple cauliflower plants were huge.  Some of the leaves had deep purple veins, others did not, there was a bit of genetic variation.  After harvesting the cauliflower I fed the large leaves to the chickens.  

We could have used the leaves like cabbage and eaten them ourselves, but our chickens loved eating the leaves so I think that was a better use of them.  There were a small number of snails and things on the leaves, which the chickens also ate.

Picked this one too early - they colour up as they mature

 

I grow everything organically, I don't even use the 'organic' poisons that are allowed on organic farms.  The first cauliflower looked nice, but when cut into pieces we found it was full of slugs and earwigs.  While they hadn't done any damage to the cauliflowers, they were hiding in them and it was really gross.

After that when I harvested a cauliflower I put the head in water for an hour.  That way anything that was living in it would flee in fear of drowning.  I am not sure how long was needed, all I know is an hour worked enough.

Something that all cabbages do is repel water.  When under water the few cauliflower leaves that I had not removed were covered in a thin film of air.  They shimmered and looked like silver.  My photos do not do them justice.

Even though there is that thin film of air this did not mean that any earwigs of slugs remained.  There was not enough air, so they all abandoned the cauliflower, meaning that the cauliflower was completely free of slugs etc.

Cauliflower leaves underwater look incredibly silvery in real life

I am not the best at growing any of the cabbage family.  I did ok with cauliflower, and will likely grow them again, but they will never be a main vegetable that I grow.  

Most of them grew massive, and others were tiny, I don't know if that was from growing conditions or genetics. 

Seeds of purple cauliflower are difficult to find at times.  If I save seed I will list any spare seed on my for sale page.

Breeding micro woolly tomatoes

I grow some varieties of micro tomatoes, the plants themselves reach about 10cm (4 inch) tall.  I also grow another variety of tomato with woolly leaf and black fruit.  So I decided to try and cross them and aim for a micro tomato plant with woolly foliage and blue/black fruit.

For a few years I keep meaning to cross the two, and things keep preventing this or I am not successful in making this cross or all my seedlings die.  Last year I attempted to make this cross again.

One of these seedlings is clearly different than the others

I am not great at cross pollinating tomatoes, my hands are less steady and my eyesight is not as keen as it once was, plus I sometimes emasculate flowers that are a little too old and have already shed some pollen.  

I decided to use Micro Tom as the seed parent.  Any self-pollinated seedlings would be micro dwarf, any F1 plants will be regular sized and have non-woolly foliage.  It should be easy to see within days of the seeds germinating if my cross had worked.

The three seedlings below were collected from Micro Tom.  Two are micro dwarf, and one is clearly larger.  This one is a result of my cross.

Micro Tom x Woolly Blue tomato F1

Once they grew a little larger this cross, between a dwarf and a micro-dwarf, is one of my largest tomato seedlings.  Hybrid vigour means the F1 grows well.

F1 hybrid vigour

The F1 plants will all be large plants, none will be micro dwarf.  I need to save a lot of seed from this F1 plant and grow as many seedlings as I can as the F2 is where I will start to see segregation.

The F2 plants will be a mix of large plants and micro dwarf, each of them will have a mix of regular leaf and woolly leaf, each of them will have a mix of different coloured fruit.  

Given the genes the parent stock had, there is a 1 in 256 chance of getting the plant I want from the F2.

Growing 256 plants does not guarantee what I am after, so I need to plant many hundreds of seeds.  I will be able to cull anything that is not micro dwarf at cotyledon stage.  I should then be able to cull anything that is not woolly at the first true leaf stage.  This will leave me with a more manageable number of plants to grow out to see if there are any high anthocyanin.  

To be honest, I am keen to grow out and stabilise any micro woolly lines even if they are not high anthocyanin as I think that micro woolly tomatoes sound like fun.  There may be some interesting things to come out of this cross.

The seed parent was Micro Tom, the smallest tomato plant in the world.

Micro Tom tomato under 4cm tall

Micro Tom tomatoes

The pollen parent has woolly foliage and high anthocyanin fruit.  It also has a few other interesting genes at play, so there is a lot of potential for interesting woolly foliage micro tomatoes.

Black fruited tomato

I don't have much else to say about these just yet as it is just a seedling.  Hopefully it flowers and fruits in season and I can save seeds.  

Stabilising micro dwarf tomatoes is a bit faster than normal tomatoes because I can usually get 2 or sometimes 3 generations per year out of them, while I can often only get one generation per year of larger tomatoes.

Praying mantis babies

The other day I was sitting outside talking with my daughter.  I saw something move, and it was a tiny baby praying mantis.  

My daughter put out her hand and the praying mantis baby jumped onto her hand.  Praying mantis are quite jumpy when they are so tiny.

Baby praying mantis

I figured it looked like it was first instar, so I looked around and found an egg case that was hatching!  These guys are really cool and I enjoyed being able to watch some emerge from the egg case.  I love praying mantis.  

We moved some away from spider webs and put them in the lemon tree, there are plenty of places to hide and should be lots of small insects in the lemon tree for them to eat.  

When I say we moved them, I mean they jumped onto my hand, I walked over to the lemon tree, and they either walked or jumped onto a leaf.  They are very delicate, you can't grab them or you would crush them!

Baby praying mantis hatching while we watched

I don't have much else to say about praying mantis.  I grow everything organically so really appreciate having these around eating insects for me.  Hopefully some of them survive and eventually find their way to my vegetable garden.

Miner's lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata)

Miner's lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) is a delightful short-lived annual leaf vegetable that only grows in cooler weather.  It is not a type of lettuce, or even closely related to lettuce, but is used in much the same way hence its common name.

Miner's lettuce is a vegetable that I tend to eat raw, but it also goes well briefly cooked.  I am told it can be used in soups, but I don't intend to try that as I really like to eat it fresh.  It is incredibly nutritious, tastes great, and is nicely crunchy.  This plant is pretty high in Vitamin C, iron, and various other nutrients that have been sorely lacking over winter.  I think that eating miner's lettuce fresh is best because cooking would destroy some of the vitamin c.

There is something about this plant that I can't get enough of.  I find myself in the garden pulling and eating hand-fulls of the stuff.  I can't walk past without eating at least a few leaves.  I wish it grew during warmer weather because it is excellent in a salad, or in a sandwich, or...it is great with pretty much with anything.  Miner's lettuce is my favourite salad vegetable, too bad it is only grows during such a short period each year.

Miner's lettuce self seeds in my garden once the weather warms.  Once the weather cools, it starts to germinate, and seems to cover impressive amounts of soil while it grows.  It usually grows rather dense from self dropped seeds, covers the soil, and blocks sunlight from hitting the soil which in turn reduces weed growth.  I really need to spread a lot more seed around the garden so I can eat more of this next year!

Miner's lettuce (and some mache) covering the soil

I either pull out handfulls of miner's lettuce, or I snip of sections using scissors, meaning that harvest is quick and simple.  My kids seem to also like miner's lettuce.  They often come to me and ask if I can pick them a bowl full to eat.  

There aren't a lot of leaf vegetables that my kids actually want to eat.  My daughter sometimes asks if she can pick a bowl full to share with me.  Some miner's lettuce, a little salt, and afternoon tea is sorted.

My daughter picked miner's lettuce to share with me

Miner's lettuce grows little leaves on long stalks.  The whole thing is edible and tastes good.  Once the plant matures the flowers are born inside a leaf, and look rather pretty.  Flowering does not change the taste, and miner's lettuce is never bitter.  

Not long after they flower they die and drop seed.  The seeds tend to sit in the soil and wait for cool weather, then as long as the soil moisture is high enough they germinate.

Miner's lettuce seems to display a lot of variation in size, but I don't think this is genetic.  I think this is environmental as the ones on poor soil tend to be tiny, and the ones on good soil are larger.  Below are six leaves, the three on the left are regular leaves from different plants.  The three on the right are all flowering size.  

If grown in poor soil this plant will stay tiny and still flower and set seed, meaning it is really good at setting up a permanent self-seeding patch.  I can't imagine it becoming too much of a weed as its life is so short, plus my kids would graze it out if I let them.

The three on the left are regular leaves, three on the right are flowering leaves

I have never seen any pest of disease affect miner's lettuce in my garden.  Sometimes slugs get in among the stalks, but they seem to be hiding there rather than eating anything.  A quick rinse takes care of these.  Occasionally I see a few small holes in the leaves, I have no idea what causes that, but they don't appear to do much damage so I don't mind sharing.

We had a hail storm yesterday, so my plants are all bruised and damaged.  The plants are tender but somehow far more resilient than they appear.  Even with the hail damage they probably have a few more weeks of harvest as they are flowering, so will drop seed and die down soon. 

Miner's lettuce is good in beds that are occupied by perennial summer vegetables during warmer weather.  I have grown it in potato beds and under yacon, where it works well.  I have a feeling that it would do well in the asparagus bed if I didn't already have strawberries covering the soil there.  I often wonder how it would perform in aquaponics.

Miner's lettuce on the left (mache on the right) - I can't eat enough of it!

To the best of my knowledge no breeding effort has ever been put into miner's lettuce, and there are no named varieties.  This plant is pretty much a wild edible.  Usually wild edibles are rather fibrous and bitter, but this one is neither.

While I often try to breed improved varieties of pretty much everything, I am not sure if I will try to improve miner's lettuce.  Partly because I have no access to genetically diverse germplasm, and partly because miner's lettuce is pretty great just as they are.  I just wish they tolerated warmer weather a bit better!

My plants are growing and flowering now.  If I collect seed I will likely list it on my for sale page.  If I don't save seed, or I am sold out, there are a few places that sell seeds of miner's lettuce so you should be able to find it somewhere.

Mache, corn salad, lamb lettuce

Mache (Valerianella locusta), also called lamb lettuce, or corn salad, is a small annual leaf vegetable.  It is used raw much like lettuce, but only grows in cooler weather.

Mache self seeds in my garden, but not as readily as I would like.  I would prefer if this self seeded a whole lot more because I really like to eat it.  It also grows with no help from me at all, mostly because it grows over the cooler months when it tends to rain a bit here.

Mache is a rather obscure salad vegetable that is only eaten by those who grow it themselves or people who forage for it if it grows wild near them.  Archaelogical evidence shows that it was eaten in the Stone Age lake dwellings throughout Switzerland.  It used to be very popular in Europe because it survives cold weather.  

Mache practically disappeared once large scale farming became the norm.  It does not cope with storage or transport, and it has to be harvested by hand, so if you want to eat it you really must grow it yourself.  Given how simple it is to grow, how tasty it is, and how nutritious it is, I think everyone should have a little self-seeding patch of corn salad in their yard. 

Mache corn salad leaves

 

Mache is tremendously more nutritious than lettuce, and in my opinion tastes far better than any lettuce.  Its downfalls are that it won't grow during the warmer months, and it is dreadfully low yielding.

I often forget all about this little plant until it germinates, then I impatiently wait for it to grow large enough to eat.  I think most people pluck entire plants to eat but I pick individual leaves so each plant can eventually flower and drop seed.  After mache flowers it drops seed and dies, then I forget about it until the seeds start to germinate the following winter.  I don't tend to collect seeds, I just let them fall and remain in the soil to germinate where they want to.

Much like everything that you grow from seed, each generation you are applying selective pressure and creating at least some genetic drift.   In my garden the smaller and slower growing plants are eaten and not allowed to flower.  The larger growing plants are allowed to flower and drop seed, this ensures the next generation carry strong genetics and are capable of producing larger healthy plants.

I started with seed for 'Dutch' mache.  I was told that they would produce  the largest plants.  The plants were tiny, but delicious, so well worth growing.  After a few generations I now have plants that have slightly larger leaves.  

This is still a small plant and always will be, you would need to grow a lot to feed your family, but I enjoy the time of year when it is growing in my garden.

Miner's lettuce on left and mache on the right

 

This is one of the leaf vegetables that I wish grew during the heat of summer.  Unfortunately I doubt that it will ever be able to grow over summer.

I really should track down a few varieties and let them mass cross and try to select for larger plants.  For now I am enjoying eating the plants, after they drop seed I will likely forget about them until it is cool enough for them to germinate again.

My plants are growing now, and will start to flower in the coming weeks.  If I collect seed I will likely list it on my for sale page.  If I don't save seed, or I am sold out, there are a few places that sell seeds of mache so you should be able to find it somewhere.

Pygmy Drosera gemmae sprouting

Years ago I grew pymgy sundews, I really liked them.  I had a lot of species back then.  Strangely enough, even though they come from Australia very few people sell pygmy drosera here.  It appears that most of the species I grew are no longer offered for sale anywhere.  Maybe they are no longer in cultivation?  Who knows.

I had been looking for pygmy sundews for sale, but I am not willing to pay the prices that people sell them for (postage usually puts them well out of my price range).  Then I found someone who had pygmy sundew gemmae for sale.  He had a few different species and graciously agreed to give me a mix of two species for one price instead of making me pay for two lots.  These species look different from one another from an early age so I was happy to get a mix of gemmae.

Gemmae are like tiny cuttings that the plant made of itself.  They aren't much to look at, but gemmae tend to grow a lot faster than seed, and are exact genetic replicas of the parent plant.  Very few people sell pygmy drosera gemmae, which I find odd as pygmy sundew plants dislike being transplanted and the gemmae are so simple to grow and simple to post. 

This photo shows a mix of Drosera pulchella and Drosera pygmaea the day they arrived in the post.  There were a lot of black gemmae, but there were also a lot of healthy green gemmae.  Can you tell which gemmae are which species?  I can't tell these gemmae apart, so will have to wait until they grow to know which is which. 

Pygmy Drosera Gemmae

After they arrived I planted half of the gemmae in a pot that I kept inside on the kitchen windowsill, the other half in a pot that was kept outside with more sunlight.  I don't plant them, I scatter them on top of damp sphagnum peatmoss mixed with sand.  If you bury the gemmae they tend not to do very well.  It has been a little cold, so they took a little while to sprout.  At this stage I am not sure if only the green ones sprouted or if the black ones were also viable.  I will find out once they grow a little more and I can count them.

The ones inside my house had less sunlight, but more stable temperatures.  The ones outside had much more sunlight, warmer day time temperatures, and cooler night time temperatures.  I grew both in pots sitting in a tray of water, the water level is very high for now to maintain high humidity.  I will lower the water level once they grow a little bit.

The gemmae in the house sprouted first while the ones outside sprouted slightly later.  I am not sure if both species are sprouting or if one has sprouted first, but it doesn't matter.  

The ones in the house are noticeably larger than the ones outside.  I'm not sure if the house are healthy or if they stretching because they are lacking sunlight.  The ones outside are less advanced, but appear healthy.  Time will tell which is the best method of growing them.  

On second thoughts, I may move them all into my greenhouse and hope for the best.

Gemmae arrived 17/08/2021
Gemmae sprouting indoors 02/09/2021 
Gemmae sprouting outdoors 04/09/2021 
D pygmaea sending up flower stalks 19/11/2021 - two and a half months after gemmae sprouting

I should take a photo of the pygmy drosera when they are a little larger as they are super cutie carnivorous plants.  For now the sprouting gemmae are too tiny for me to photograph. 

Pygmy drosera gemmae sprouting outside

Pygmy Drosera gemmae sprouting in the house

 

I think that pygmy sundews are great, when actively growing they are like miniature glistening jewels.  Being so small they won't impress your non-carnivorous plant growing friends, and growing a pot full certainly won't rid your yard of flies and wasps, but I think they are very beautiful. 

Pygmy sundress flowering

Being tiny means you can easily grow pygmy sundews on a window sill where they may catch tiny gnats or small ants and the occasional pantry moth, and they quite happily live in small pots.  They tend to have surprisingly long roots, and dislike being transplanted, so it is best to use deeper pots.  A lot of them can fit in one pot, and each plant tends to grow a lot of gemmae so they can quickly cover an area.  Some species of pygmy sundews are very simple to grow, and are great for kids and beginners.

Breeding Muscari Grape Hyacinth

A couple of years ago I taught myself how to grow grape hyacinth Muscari armeniacum from seed.  Growing grape hyacinth from seed was really easy, and very cost effective, but took far more time than growing from bulbs.  I find that grape hyacinth take about 2 years to flower when grown from seed, which really isn't too long to wait considering how little space they use.

I have grown a few different generations of them since then and am starting to get some lines that are segregating.  Every year I think I should buy some different types, but I never do.  I planted seed from regular blue grape hyacinth and collected seed from those seed grown plants.  It appears that these spring bulbs carry some genetic diversity.

Seed grown grape hyacinth muscari flowers

As you can see above, some plants have light coloured flowers, while others have much darker flowers.  These don't appear to lighten or darken as they age, what you see is what you get.  These plants were the same age and growing side by side, so it is unlikely to be caused by environmental factors.

At this stage none of them appears significantly more or less vigorous than the others.  If I ever get a more vigorous line that produces more flowers per bulb, or larger flowers, or something interesting I will likely grow out that line further.

I really like the smell of grape hyacinths, and am yet to find any plants that have more or less fragrance than any others.  I would be likely to select lines that have a stronger scent if one ever appears in my garden.

My kids like picking spring flowers

 

My kids love to pick these flowers.  Normally if I were saving seed I would discourage picking, but muscari seem to set some seed even after they have been picked and kept in a tiny vase.  

Picking the flowers likely reduces the number of seeds that are produced, but I generally get a few seed pods per flower stalk so this never bothers me too much.  If I ever buy one of the expensive varieties to use for breeding then I may care a little more, but until then my kids can pick and enjoy the flowers.

Muscari grape hyacinth breeding

If you plan to grow grape hyacinths do try and be a little careful.  Under the right conditions they can spread, both by producing numerous bulbs as well as dropping seeds.  I have no idea if they are illegal to grow in any state, all I know is they are ok to grow in NSW.

I like the look of grape hyacinths, and the smell of them, and the bees seem to enjoy them in early spring/late winter, and they take next to no effort or space to grow, so I will keep growing them for now.  As you can see below my kids enjoy picking spring flowers for the table.

Spring flowers

Grape hyacinths and other flowers

While bulbs are often sold, very few places sell grape hyacinth seeds for some reason even though they are simple to grow.  I collect seed each year and sell seed, I also plant any of the seed that doesn't sell.  If you have these growing nearby you could collect the seeds yourself, or you can look on my for sale page if you are interested.

My New Greenhouse

I have grown plants for decades, strangely I have never used a greenhouse.  

I once tried those tiny plastic covered ones, the plastic did not last one season and now I use it as shelving to store pots of growing things.  When I was at university I also got to walk through some enormous commercial greenhouses which had automated vents and sprinklers, they were incredible.  Other than that, I have no greenhouse growing experience.

Recently my wife and kids built me a walk in greenhouse with many useful shelves.  At first I was worried about the price, and was not sure I would use it enough to warrant spending that much money.  

My new amazing greenhouse

Lots of growing space in here

I put a thermometer in my greenhouse that somehow talks to a unit that is in my house, and I have a weather station outside, between them I can compare the temperature of all three from my living room.  It is very convenient.

The first day after the greenhouse had been built the weather was rather warm outside, and rather hot in the greenhouse.  I can replace the plastic walls with shade cloth if it gets too hot, but for now we still have some cold weather so want it to retain some warmth.

The next day it was cold and rained all day, the greenhouse stayed a few degrees warmer in the greenhouse than outside.  

The day after that it was overcast, windy, and really freezing outside, but the greenhouse somehow warmed up considerably.  It was freezing outside, even inside my house was colder than the greenhouse!  This is with no sun, just gloom on a drizzly overcast day.  

I didn't think to take a photo of the weather station until after it warmed up a little outside.  That day the temperature outside reached about 9 degrees at its peak, inside my house got to about 14, and in the greenhouse eventually reached a toasty 17.9

Temperature outside 7.2C, in my house 14.0C, in greenhouse 16.7C

I have planted some seeds in seed flats and put them in the greenhouse, and moved in a few of our carnivorous plants, and put in some some cuttings that have not yet grown roots, as well as some of my suffering tropicals, and will see how each of them cope with the added day time warmth.  

Oddly enough, the night time temperatures in the greenhouse are colder than outside by a degree or two.  I imagine this is due to evaporation and wind.  I am also guessing that once the outside temperatures drop below freezing that the greenhouse will remain warmer than outside and should keep off the frost.

Sundew seedlings are already catching insects

Sundew already catching a surprising amount of insects

I have a feeling that tropical plants such as kangkong and rice paddy herb will thrive in my greenhouse, and there are a bunch of things I currently don't grow as winters are too cold that I may now be able to try.  There are also some things I grow that perform poorly here that may do fine in my greenhouse.  It is all very new.

I have no idea what will happen over summer, and hope it does not get too hot in there.  The walls can be removed and replaced with shade cloth, as can the roof, so it may take some trial and error to work out a nice routine with it.  

I am excited to see what I can do with this thing!

Yam Daisy (murnong) from seed

There are three species of native perennial root vegetable called Yam Daisy (also called Murnong), the one I am growing is Microseris walteri.  

I am told that of the three, M walteri is the tastiest, and grows the largest fattest roots with the least fiber.  Yam daisy used to be considered as one single species, then one species with several different subspecies, now it is considered to be three separate species (although there may be more lurking out there).

Yam daisy used to be very common around here and was a staple food prior to European settlement, but it is very rare now.  Sadly the yam daisy has all but disappeared from much of its native range.  I know very few people who have ever eaten yam daisy, and even less who have grown it.  

I had been looking for yam daisy plants or seeds for a few years but was never able to get it.  A year or two ago a very generous grower friend of mine asked if I could track down some yam daisy seeds for him.  He has given me plenty of seeds over the years so I put in some decent effort and started to look around online and ask around a bit more seriously.  For some reason everywhere has been sold out.  I found one place selling 10 seeds for $8 (plus postage), but that price is absurd for something that is meant to have low germination rates so I kept looking.

Yam Daisy seedlings germinating

Yam daisy is native to my area, and there are some growing not more than 50m from my house.  Unfortunately they are on crown land, so I can not touch them.  I don't think I am even allowed to collect their seed without a permit.  

I know of a native plant nursery up the road who has yam daisy, unfortunately they are not selling their plants as they are building up stock, plus they could not tell me which species they had.

I found some yam daisy seeds for sale recently, they were Microseris walteri.  I planted half of the seeds and posted the other half of the seeds to my friend.  It took me a few years, bit I finally got him some seeds.

I have heard that yam daisy usually displays a germination rate of about 10%.  I planted a dozen seeds, and hoped that with a bit of luck I should get 2 or 3 of them to grow.  I figured from there I could build up numbers in time.

I surface sowed the seeds in late winter, partially protected them from the heaviest frosts, and had 100% germination.  Every single seed germinated, even the smaller brown seeds that I assumed were not viable have germinated!  

My guess is fresh seeds germinate well and germination drops off quickly in older seed.  That's good to know.

Murnong seedlings - 100% germination from fresh seeds

I don't really know how to grow yam daisy, but they are native to this region so they should survive.  Hopefully these grow well for me and produce seed in season. 

If they grow for me and produce seed I would love to do a little yam daisy breeding to see if I can produce fatter roots, or sweeter roots, or generally improved plants.

I have no idea how much (if any) genetic diversity is in my stock, but I assume they are completely different to the local plants growing near by.  As the native plants are so close, and there are a large number of native pollinators here, it is reasonable to assume there will be some local pollen finding its way into my stock.  That will introduce diversity, and make breeding improved plants a little easier.

Given how absurdly difficult yam daisy is to come by, and the fact that they ought to be more commonly grown through their native home range, if I ever have any spare seed or extra plants I will offer them through my for sale page.  These seedlings are only germinating and getting their first true leaves now, so I can't imagine I will have anything for sale overly soon.

Update 06 November 2021: my plants are about to send up flower stalks.  They are very young, so I had expected this to still be a long time off.

Look closely, the plants on the right are sending up flower stalks