Plant progress
21 June 2025 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI sowed some more coriander (I did manage to use some, although of course most of it has just run to seed) and some more rocket a couple of days ago. To my astonishment, in this current heatwave the rocket has germinated already!
Encouraged by this, I have also sowed some of the seed I have been attempting to collect from the 'pink Linaria', which I didn't actually plant at all this year since the original flowers had continued all through the winter and on into the next spring. (The Gypsophila elegans and Gypsophila vaccaria that I did sow are now both in full bloom, and indeed setting their first seed!) The old Linaria is finally starting to go over, so I investigated the bottom of the envelope in which I had been accumulating dried seed-heads, and there did seem to be some little black dust-like specks collected there that clung to my sweaty palm when I tipped out the debris, so I have tried sowing some.
The sweet peas, successful as they are, are the one flower that I have actually been dead-heading; I seem to remember that the saved seed tends to revert to a boring grey unscented variety. Or maybe that was Nicotiana... Anyway, I shall probably let a few pods set at the end of the season, and/or a few will slip through in any case, but for the moment I am taking them off in the hopes of more flowers, rather than, as normal, encouraging the plant to set seed in order to have a fresh generation next year!
I have one more flower on the eating peas, but to be honest they have been a bit disappointing in terms of crop/yield, and I would probably have done better to have grown them all for peashoots. The few pods that I did get were undoubtedly very tasty, but, as has been my past experience with peas, it always seems like a lot of plant and a lot of effort for a very small annual crop.
Encouraged by this, I have also sowed some of the seed I have been attempting to collect from the 'pink Linaria', which I didn't actually plant at all this year since the original flowers had continued all through the winter and on into the next spring. (The Gypsophila elegans and Gypsophila vaccaria that I did sow are now both in full bloom, and indeed setting their first seed!) The old Linaria is finally starting to go over, so I investigated the bottom of the envelope in which I had been accumulating dried seed-heads, and there did seem to be some little black dust-like specks collected there that clung to my sweaty palm when I tipped out the debris, so I have tried sowing some.
The sweet peas, successful as they are, are the one flower that I have actually been dead-heading; I seem to remember that the saved seed tends to revert to a boring grey unscented variety. Or maybe that was Nicotiana... Anyway, I shall probably let a few pods set at the end of the season, and/or a few will slip through in any case, but for the moment I am taking them off in the hopes of more flowers, rather than, as normal, encouraging the plant to set seed in order to have a fresh generation next year!
I have one more flower on the eating peas, but to be honest they have been a bit disappointing in terms of crop/yield, and I would probably have done better to have grown them all for peashoots. The few pods that I did get were undoubtedly very tasty, but, as has been my past experience with peas, it always seems like a lot of plant and a lot of effort for a very small annual crop.