Tag: stratification

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Cold stratification

Various wildflowers. They’d get cold stratification outside too, but they could also get eaten. I have mostly scattered some out then saved some too, to maximize my chances of getting things established.
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More from today

After their 30 days of cold stratification in the fridge, three butterfly milkweed are sprouting.
Female Sachem skipper on ironweed.
Briar is bored by garden examination. She likes the buffalograss to lay on though.
Bigger view of ironweed.
Briar was warm after the midday walk so I gave her an ice cube.
I pulled some Euphorbia from driveway and have put it in potato bag dirt over cardboard. See if it could work as a ground cover since it seems to be native.
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Good, bad, and !!! news

Bad news: something ate the two baby Rudbeckia fulgida I put out yesterday.

Good news: all the fluttermill evening primrose, same size as Rudbeckia, are fine. This includes the three just a few yards away.

!!! News… A yucca may be sprouting???

See the tiny green point in the middle? Definitely not a usual weed! This is in one of the containers I left out all winter.
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Native seed stratification success

Several seeds I pulled out of the fridge recently are sprouting in their humid containers so we planted them today!

Liatris mucronata from Mom!  Yay!
The yucca has a really long root! Mom, is this Arkansas yucca?  It’s the one from your house.
The green milkweed (Asclepias viridis) had tons of seeds sprouting and a very brushy or fluffy root for each seedling.  We put them root down, I just wanted to show the fluffy root here. Dad got these seeds for me!
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Removing seeds from cold stratification

I checked on seeds in the fridge this evening.  Two species have started sprouting so I planted them in sprouting trays and also some directly in the ground. The others species I think I’ll keep out and see if they sprout as they’ve been in since January I think.

Desert globe mallow with little roots before I tuck them into their new dirt.
Blue flax also before covering the roots.
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Melting almost complete

I don’t think it froze overnight so the streets are mostly dry except for water flowing along edges.  Shady spots and snow piles are less melted.

The front nook, dog for scale.
The front yard beds, distracted dog for scale.
It looks like everything in the rock garden survived!  Also more of the irises by the mailbox survived, so I guess only some leaves got damaged.
Since we’re back to usual late winter temperature I went ahead and brought out the coreopsis seedlings which I had cold stratified in the fridge. They have been waiting as little seedlings on a damp paper towel for probably a week or more. They are under the glass jars. They are to replace two seedlings I planted last fall that didn’t make it. This row is back to five evenly spaced plants now assuming everything survives.
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Insulating blanket of FUN

We woke up to a snowy world! Briar has seen snow before and enjoyed it but was hesitant at first this morning. She got over that soon enough and subsequently went insane with happy bouncing.

Briar examines the herb bed. Only seeds there except a single low growing oregano from Judy under the bucket. You can see the plant window in the background.
Briar passes outdoor stratification native wildflower seeds in little pots. Heck of a cold stratification this time!
The front yard raised beds with Salvia greggii in front.
One of our four rosemaries.
The garlic!
Snow whiskers! You know it’s cold when your breath freezes on your snoot!
Lots of little plants safely under the snow now. I feel a lot better about the impending -9°F etc coming up in the next few days now. Below: safety. Above: bouncies!!