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| Spent marigold bloom, pulled open so the seeds are exposed |
While we were on vacation with N's family, his grandmother and I were discussing what was growing in my garden, and she insisted that when I got home I had to immediately collect some seeds from the marigolds. She promised that if I would collect them from the plants I had growing, I would never need to buy marigold seeds again. I haven't yet checked if these seeds are viable, and I don't know if they'll grow into anything resembling the plants I had this year, but she was certainly right about the quantity of seeds! I picked two spent blooms from my community garden plot and brought them home, where I opened them up and found what must have been several dozen seeds packed inside each. And I have several hundred such flowers in my garden right now!
I was also stunned by how prolific the cilantro plant I let go to seed was. (I sprouted some, just to check if they were viable, and they did pretty darn well.) I will definitely be thinking a little more about seed collecting from now on.
When I was growing up my mother planted a few Marigolds in our front flower beds. She didn't try to save seeds, but every year they came back IN FORCE! After a few years it was all she could do to pull them out as soon as they sprouted to try to keep them from choking out all the other plants. Good Luck!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a delightful problem to have!
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