The January Garden Ramble

It’s mid-January and the Hampton Gardener is in semi-hibernation. It’s catch-up time, and when not watching the birds at the stump feeder I’m catching up on my horticultural reading and planning for the upcoming gardening season. I’ll be up at the mountain house until things warm up a bit, and the quiet up here is just delicious.

As you can imagine, winter up here is a bit different than in the Hamptons. We get almost nightly drops of snow as streamers from the Great Lakes bring down the flakes that lightly glide from the gray sky. It can snow all day and most of the night, but the results are only an inch or two. And it’s cold. About 10 to 20 degrees cooler than the Hamptons and the ground is now frozen solid and will probably stay that way until April.

As much as I just want to crawl back into bed and snooze, the garden sirens’ call. The voices tell me to place my seed and plant orders, or I won’t get what I want. In fact, I went to order several items from Bluestone and Plant Delights in the first week of January only to get those dreaded “SOLD OUT” notifications. Ever wonder how they can be sold out just a day or so after you get the notice that the online catalog is “live”?

January is also the time when I get all my bags, pouches and boxes of seed out of the refrigerator and make decisions about what goes to the compost pile, what gets set aside for later sowing and what needs to be germination tested. If they won’t germinate, now is the time to replace the seed.

Last year I bought seed for a hybrid yellow summer squash Butterfingers F1 (organic) from Johnny’s. According to the packet, the seed was tested in November 2023 with a 98% germination rate. I started the seed indoors in peat pots in late spring and weeks later planted three pots in some open spaces in my Echinacea bed — a spot with full sun, great drainage (sloped) and near the house. I caged each planting with chicken wire to deter visitors. It turned out to be a great yellow summer squash on short vines (Patty Pan type) that was a big hit in the kitchen. No insect issues and no disease issues.

Ah, but I bought a packet of 100 seeds and there were plenty left over. The seed packet went into a freezer bag then into the fridge. The fridge, not the freezer. Never, ever store seed in the freezer. But had I made a mistake in putting this seemingly tender plant into a 36-degree fridge for the next 10 or so months? Time to do my own germination test.

Eight seeds were placed into a germination mix in a 2-inch-deep black plastic frozen food container. The soil was moistened with warm water, seeds set about a half inch deep then the tray placed atop our gas stove. It’s an old stove that has pilot lights so the top of the stove is always warm and hopefully perfect for germination. Four days later three of the seeds had germinated, and in 7 days, seven of the eight seeds had germinated. A good test, and the seeds are now in their packet, in a plastic bag and taped to the refrigerator door — not inside it.

After the germination test I remembered that pumpkin seeds from pumpkins left to spend the winter outdoors will often germinate the following year and become productive plants. Nonetheless, if you’re not certain your stored seeds can take the cold just store them in the original packets in plastic bags in a cool, dry and dark spot. Some seed catalogs actually tell you how to store extra seed, and with a little research you can find out how long most ornamental and vegetable seed will remain viable. Most will store for two seasons, but beyond that it gets iffy.

But some seed, the most challenging ones, need a process called vernalization. This is often periods of alternating cold and warm temperatures, which result in the seed coat being broken or a chemical reaction that enables the seed to germinate. Most of the seeds you grow won’t need vernalization, but some will, like Peony seed. Another is Trollius seed. I’m a big Trollius fan.

When I did my refrigerator seed inventory I found three types of Trollius seed that I’d collected at the end of last summer. Since these seeds are from the species and not hybrids I know they had the ability to germinate, but I also know from years of seed work that they would need vernalization.

I sowed the seed in my favorite wooden flats that are about a foot square and 2.5 inches deep. Germination soil was mixed with warm water, and the moist soil was added to the flats, all the way up to the top of each flat. Each flat was seeded by hand with the seed carefully scattered over the soil. Next, I used a piece of lumber about 4 inches long and wide, using the wood to press the seed down into the soil so there was contact. A fine layer of germination mix went on top, just a fine layer. Then using a quart hand-sprayer, the flat was watered to moisten the top of the soil.

One piece of advice when using a tamper of any type to ensure that your seed is in good contact with the soil: Always clean the tamper after each use. Some seed may stick to the tamper and end up in the next flat, causing all kinds of problems months or years into the future as the wrong plant flowers in the right spot. And you generally never know it’s the wrong plant until it’s flowering.

A quarter-inch screen mesh was placed over the flat with the ends bent over the wood. I then used a staple gun to keep the screen securely flat and eliminate any spaces around the perimeter that rodents might squeeze through.

A tag with all the vital information is attached to the box, and on a mild day the flats were set outdoors atop a gravel bed. I don’t want rain hitting the boxes as a hard rain can wash them out so the boxes are left outside my office door where there’s a roof overhang. The flats are gently watered as needed, and when there’s snow available I’ll gather a bucket of snow and spread it over the flats. This keeps them cold, but when the temperature rises the melting snow also adds the melting moisture to the soil.

If the seed is viable they will begin to germinate in May and later be moved to cells and by late summer planted in the garden. It’s an interesting process and a very inexpensive way to add these plants to the garden. Otherwise I’d have to spend $15 to $30 dollars at a garden center buying plants that someone else had grown from seed. This is not a method that those needing instant gratification will enjoy.

I have four or five varieties of Trollius in the garden and all grown from seed. Colors range from yellow to orange and alabaster. How many varieties do the garden centers have?

I’m doing the same type of procedure with seed I collected from a Lupine perennis plant, the true perennial lupine. I found it harder and harder to locate this true native species, so I confirmed that one of the plants in the same Echinacea bed was indeed the perennial species and collected the seed.

You’ll read that the seed needs to be nicked with a file or emery board, and good luck with that. Alternately you can sow two seeds an inch deep in a 1-pint black plastic pot. Use a regular germination soil and moisten it. Then on a day when it’s not terribly cold, place the pots in a flat, cover it with quarter-inch hardware cloth to keep the rodents out and set the flat or pots in a spot where you can water it when dry and keep an eye on it. The seed will germinate sporadically beginning in May and through the summer.

Let the plants develop in the pots, then in mid-August gently remove the plant with as little soil disturbance as possible and plant in the garden where the plants will have great drainage (a slope works best) and don’t feed them at all. Next year they can get a dose or two of fish emulsion, but that’s all they need. Collect seed and repeat as necessary or wanted.

If you can develop a colony of these plants they will drop seed every year and become somewhat perennial. Don’t give them too much love. This is a native that requires little care, and too much care will do them in quickly.

This is also a great time to get outside on a mild day and do some pruning. Do not prune spring-flowering plants like forsythia, magnolias, weigelia and flowering quince unless you want to sacrifice this year’s blooms. However, most fruit trees do need dormant pruning to keep their size workable and to encourage fruiting. A good reference book on pruning is invaluable so hit a bookstore or library and see what moves you. If it’s a great book on trees and shrubs that you need then the best current reference is “Dirr’s Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs,” which is close to 1,000 great pages, has great pictures and is available for under $40. Keep growing.

Garden Notes

I’m often asked if I’ll write a column on greenhouses. I resist only because of the cost of such a structure. And while some of you may be able to handle the price I think most of you can’t. Here’s a quick example. An 8-foot-wide by 12-foot-long greenhouse with stone veneer or concrete sidewalls will cost about $35,000 just for the footings, sidewalls, glazing and above-ground structure (aluminum). That is for materials only and doesn’t include benches or equipment. And if you want to maintain a nighttime temperature of 60 degrees with your greenhouse “skin” made from single-pane glass, your annual heating cost will be around $4,300 using electricity or propane as a heat source. Substitute double-wall 8mm polycarbonate for the “skin” and the heating cost is halved.

Now, having had greenhouses I can tell you they are wonderful beyond your wildest dreams. But they require daily attention, and in a power failure you’ll need a secondary source of power. On the plus side, imagine a winter night when it’s 15 degrees outside while you’re in your greenhouse, oranges in bloom, looking up at the twinkling stars above in your tropical paradise.

These are very rough numbers just to give you an ideal of the cash and time commitment. I’d love one, but I’m reminded of all the abandoned estate greenhouses I see on Long Island and in Westchester. As wonderful as they are, even a small one can be as demanding as an infant. Maybe a cold frame instead?