I recently went to visit a dear friend who is doing their very best to deal with some difficult life challenges, as I pulled into the driveway I immediately noticed a really sweet little garden and of course as any gardener would do I cheesed a big grin and might have said out loud “So cute, I love it!” It was quaint and had some mature plantings along with unique garden artifacts such as an old cement horse post, really cool!  After our awesome visit and my escort back to the car following numerous hugs and kisses, we proceeded to check out this side garden by the driveway. I was happy to see some very unusual coneflower seed heads that were then gifted to me to take home to my garden; I received them with gratitude and pleasure. To be honest it was more about having a part of my friend in my garden, for when this coneflower blooms it would be a warm and fuzzy reminder of our friendship. I’m quite sentimental about these types of exchanges they mean the world to me!

So once we said our final good byes I drove off but did think more about seed exchange and how it’s an amazing trade, both sentimental and economical. It cost nothing; my price tag was BIG HUGS and KISSES can’t beat that!

Thought it might be fun to share how a seed becomes a seed and to invite us to start collecting when things in our gardens’ start going to seed at the end of the season (always leave enough for our feather friends for winter snacks of course) but let’s harvest some seeds and then do a seed exchange maybe in November when we are in the giving and thankful mode and reflecting on those we are grateful for and our love of gardens when they are being put to sleep for winter. We can plant them indoors starting in February or wait and plant them outside in pots or directly into our gardens after the first frost.

Here’s a picture of my seed heads and then the next picture is one in which the seeds have been separated notice the long brown part is NOT the seed, it’s the prickly portion of the seed head and just protects the seed which is actually the tan portion attached.

See the lone seed separated from the prickly portion. Always store your seed heads or separated seeds in a paper bag or paper envelope and NEVER in plastic. Remember it is a living thing and it needs to breathe in its dormancy until you plant it. Yup that’s right unplanted seeds are in dormancy, so when you are eating trail mix with pumpkin seeds, almonds etc.. you are actually eating dormant seeds 😊. Popcorn kernels, peas, rice and acorns are seeds too! Just in their dormancy stage, all of these can be sprouted! (That’s another story for another time)

So what is a seed? A small part of a flowering plant that grows into a new plant.

A seed has three parts:

1. Seed coat – protects the entire seed
2. Embryo- this is where the baby plant lives
3. Endosperm – food storage of the plant

Note: If you eat whole grains you are eating all three parts. The seed coat is called bran and the embryo is called germ; if you are eating refined grains you are eating just the endosperm which is mainly carbohydrates. That’s why it’s encouraged to eat the whole grain which has more nutrients and more benefits to our bodies.

Back to the fabulous seed, the seed is formed when pollen fuses with the ovules this fusion creates a fertilized seed. The pollen comes from the anther which sits on top of the filament these are the male parts collectively called the stamen. If you have ever touched a flower and a powdery residue gets on you that’s the pollen or sperm to be exact. The female parts are the stigma, style, ovary and ovules (eggs to be exact) this collectively is called the pistil. The pollen from the anther adheres to the sticky stigma then travels down into the ovary and fuses with the ovules and voila’ a fertilized seed is created. See anatomy of a flower below. Oh yeah the flower is the reproductive unit and the petals are the pretty part of the flower which we all enjoy and the sepals are at the base of the flower they are green and protect the bud of the flower.

(Thanks Adobe for the pic)

Common pollinators are honey bees, bats, birds, butterflies and moths.

Seeds need water (moisture), temperature (warmth), sunlight, nutrient rich soil and to be a good quality seed. Once it has all of these conditions in place, roots are the first to form within the soil and then the seed pushes up thru the soil towards sunlight and then loses its seed coat and the baby plant emerges (a sprout) and is equipped with two new leaves, the roots push down deeper and get stronger to prepare to support the new plant.

So are you ready to produce new plants from seeds? If so, get out there and start collecting and lets see what we come up with, it should be a wonderful seedy event!

Till next time, visit a friend, garden with joy and prepare to share the blessings from your garden.