My Bit of Heaven - by Kristl Walek

[Kristl Walek]

Some of the early native seed and spore has already been collected and cleaned and the pace of this will significantly increase from now on.

Hepatica americana/acutiloba
Dicentra canadensis & D. cucullaria
Claytonia caroliniana & C. virginica
Panax trifolius
Saxifraga virginiensis
Mitella diphylla
Erythronium americanum
Antennaria neglecta
Viola adunca, pubescens, canadensis, nephrophylla
Ulmus americana, rubra, thomasii
Dirca palustris
Asarum canadense
Sanguinaria canadensis
Lonicera canadensis
Cystopteris fragilis

Today the absolutely delicious berries of the small Amelanchier spicata were collected, along with "Soapberry" Shepherdia canadensis (also edible). The Sambucus pubens berries are quickly ripening, and I must watch them before the birds beat me to the seed. The pods of Stylophorum diphyllum are wonderful and must be watched as well, as they simply crack open and spill their beans.

Two early batches of berries of Actaea rubra have ripened --- the species and it's white form Actaea rubra var. leucocarpa.

This is the fascinating seed pod of Jeffersonia diphylla. The top third of the pod is actually "hinged" and opens along a ridge, lifting up the "hood" at the top and exposing the seed.

[Kristl Walek]

I've been collecting and cleaning Asarum canadense for about one week.

In the past, I used to open each pod by hand. This was a very labour and time intensive job.

I now lay the seed out on large trays after harvest until they open on their own (usually overnight).

Then they are put into a large deep square sieve (intended for compost sifting) and gently rubbed until the seed falls through into another tray below.

Then they are washed with detergent under running water in the sink and any residual chaff is removed.

Finally they are moist-packed in large zip-lock bags in barely-moist vermiculite.

Thus stored, they can be kept at room temperature and remain viable for many months.

[Lesley Cox]

Beautiful pictures of all these wonderful seeds. I love them all.

[Lvandelft]

Super pictures and super informative Kristl!

[Maggi Young]

Super pictures and super informative Kristl!

I agree, Luit!
Kristl, this is most interesting and, I suspect, a complete surprise to some folks about how much effort can go into providing us with plant seed.....

[ChrisB]

And, Maggi, the love of this 'job' she has shines through all the time....

[Paul T]

You're not wrong there Chris.  It's very obvious!!    Well done Kristl!!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Respect !   
Wonderfully interesting Kristl !

[Kristl Walek]

The predominant tree on my property is Acer saccharum, Sugar Maple. It is also perhaps the most important hardwood of eastern North America.

I used to have many more maples here, but the catastrophic ice storm of January, 1998, wiped out about 50 trees. It is on the hillside where most of the maples were lost that I built my woodland gardens. Despite the heavy root and moisture competition, the gardens are fine.

Theories about natural disasters would say that it is old-diseased-weak trees that get wiped out. In my case, it was the healthy youngsters that went. The oldest, largest trees were mostly untouched in the storm, except for losing branches. Some of them are easily 30m+ tall. To say I love and respect these magnificent trees is an understatement.

My children grew up with this "guardian." They talked with him and gave him their wishes to fulfill. He is fantastic in the fall and I can see his face in winter through the window of my seed office building.

And did you know there are over 700,000 fungi worldwide?
Here are just a few of mine.
The puffballs are edible---and come up all over the property. Some are 90cm across.

[Katherine J]

Acers generally make a great show in autumn, but this one is really fantastic!!!

[arisaema]

Just stunning, and to have a whole forest of them!

[Kristl Walek]

I am fairly certain that Gardens North was the first international seedhouse to use moist-packing as a "standard" method of storage for ephemeral seeds. Over the years, I have begun to see a few other businesses adopt my methods, but widespread acceptance is still sorely lacking as a general practice in the trade. There are many reasons for this. Lack of understanding of the nature of the particular seeds involved is one. But ultimately, I believe the practice is simply not considered practical and economical for most seedhouses. This is a shame.

Moist-packing works, no doubt. And it is a wonderful and worry-free way to be able to deal with short-lived seeds that will not be sown immediately.

Some of the obvious ephemerals native to my area are woodland species:
Hepatica, Claytonia, Dicentra, Erythronium, Caltha, Asarum, Sanguinaria, Stylophorum, Panax, woodland Viola, Hydrophyllum, Trillium, Triosteum, Uvularia, etc.

These I collect, clean and pack immediately in zip-lock bags containing barely-moist vermiculite (the best packing material for a number of reasons). I then either ship the seeds immediately OR am able to keep them "in a suspended state" for an indefinite period of time. To be able to do this, one needs to know the usual germination pattern of a seed, so as to keep it thus stored at the "non-germinable" temperature. In the case of the species noted above, all require cold to sprout; therefore they are kept at warm, so they will not sprout while in storage.

And this is the most fascinating part for me in my present research: I wanted to find out how long one can keep the ephemeral seed in suspension and still viable. The first phase of this work is now almost complete; and I am thrilled to have results on a number of species which indicate that almost a year of moist-packing will still keep the ephemeral seed viable.

In case I have lost you--in early March of 2008, all ephemeral seed that had been moist-packed after collection in 2007 and stored at room temperature was subjected to 3 months of cold in the fridge.

In the case of the ephemeral Claytonia virginica moist-packing after harvest happened on June 1, 2007. The seed was kept at warm until March 5, 2008, when it went into the fridge for testing. That seed was recently brought back into the warm, and the results are shown. Thus far I have similar results for Panax trifolius/quiquefolius, Dicentra cucullaria/canadensis, Caltha palustris, Erythronium americanum, Stylophorum diphyllum, Viola sp., Hydrophyllum canadense.

This holds some exciting possibilities not only for commercial seed houses, but for individual seed collectors.

[Kristl Walek]

The tiny and exquisite Gaywings, Polygala paucifolia produces showy, insect-pollinated (chasmogamous) flowers, as well as closed, self-pollinated (cleistogamous) flowers at its base.

These cleistogamous flowers are automatically self-pollinated and produce an assured seed crop even when conditions are unfavorable for the pollination of the open flowers.

The seeds produced by the open (chasmogamous) flowers are often of higher quality.... but the self-produced seeds are a sure thing (the insurance policy).

It is an easy, warm germinator.

 

 

[Kristl Walek]

I have missed photographing many plants recently, but today I managed:

Asclepias exaltata, a elegant woodland species, just recently discovered in our area.

Cystopteris bulbifera is a wide-spread species, with soft, yellow-green foliage. This plant has serious insurance policies for survival: spore as well as bulblets that appear on the stem on the underside of the fronds. No other fern has bulbils.

And the very adaptive and wonderful Mitchella repens began blooming today. It is one of my favorite groundcovers, having entirely taken to my non-acid conditions. The small, furry flowers are followed by red berries late in the season, which often stay on the plant until the following year. Thus one can collect seed twice the same season, as with Gaultheria procumbens.

[Paul T]

Kristl,

The Polygala is fascinating.  Is it an herbaceous perennial?  Sort of looks like it might be that by the picture, almost a groundcover?  never come across anything other than shrubs in teh Polygala before, so I'm quite intrigued.  Very cute flowers. 

And I love the flowers on the Asclepias and the Michella (not heard of this last one before).  Cool!