By Shawndra Miller / communications manager, Central Indiana Land Trust
As the days shorten and temperatures dip, urban gardeners might get a little restless, dreading the long winter months ahead. But there’s an easy and fun way to ward off seasonal blahs.
It starts with seed collecting. This time of year, you can collect the seeds of fall-blooming plants like asters and goldenrods, among other native plants. If you’ve ever admired the fluff of a milkweed pod, you’re already halfway to saving seeds.
And once you try it, you just might find yourself getting hooked.
Seed-saving has many benefits, according to native plant expert Ellen Jacquart. She spent her career managing natural areas in Indiana before retiring in 2016. Now she’s on the leadership team of the Indiana Native Plant Society and serves on the board of the Central Indiana Land Trust.
Ellen noted that one reason to collect seeds is to be able to save money when growing native plants. It’s a unique pleasure to be able to swap seeds with other gardeners. “But the main reason that many of us collect seeds,” she said, “is so that in the dead of winter, we can plant them. Watching them come up makes the winter seem less long.”
“It’s loads of fun to collect the seeds,” she said, noting that you should only collect from properties where you have permission, never from conservation land or public parks.
She herself has seeds from about a hundred different native species she’s collected this year, alphabetically arranged in a shoebox.
For a more modest start, she recommends collecting seeds from plants like butterfly weed, a native milkweed that is beautiful and tidy in the home garden. Its bright orange blooms will draw hummingbirds and butterflies, including Monarchs, to a yard.
When the fluffy pods pop open and the seeds are light brown, it’s time to collect them. Strip the seeds from the fluff and place them in a dry envelope or paper bag. Never put seeds in a plastic bag, because they can get moldy.
Then comes the really fun part: Long before things green up outdoors, you can get your hands in the dirt to plant your seeds.
“Most of our native plants need a few months in cold, wet soil to break their dormancy,” Ellen said. That makes January or February the ideal time to plant.
Many gardeners use the milk jug method – cutting plastic milk jugs in half to make planters. Simply fill the bottoms with seed starting mix, sprinkle your seeds in, and retape the jug shut.
Leave the cap off for ventilation, and set the milk jug outdoors. Your mini-greenhouse will have just the right exposure to cold temperatures for the seeds to germinate. You can look forward to the green sprouts popping up in late winter or early spring.
A full set of instructions on starting natives from seed is posted at indiananativeplants.org. The Indiana Native Plant Society’s Facebook group is a great place to go with plant ID questions, to make sure that you’re collecting from plants you really want. Another resource is the Indiana Native Seed Community’s Facebook group.
Want a hands-on experience with seed collecting? Join Central Indiana Land Trust’s volunteer work day on Dec. 4 at Betley Woods at Glacier’s End. The stewardship team will lead the group in saving seeds for conservation work. Find details and sign up at conservingindiana.org. The Central Indiana Land Trust is headquartered in The Old Northside.
