A couple of weeks ago, my younger sister and I were messaging back and forth about how pitiful we were, checking on our little pots of dirt, hoping every time to see some tiny shoots coming up. She confessed that she had even gone so far as to use a magnifying glass to check on hers! I told her I don't have a magnifying glass, but I would have used it if I did!
And even though it's winter, and things aren't supposed to be growing yet, I still can't help but go in every day, at least once in the morning and once in the evening, carefully scanning all of the little pots of dirt with my wildflower and tree seeds, looking for the first tiny shoots to start coming up. I just can't help myself!
BUT, day before yesterday when I made my evening trip to check on the pots, I was excited and delighted to see two tiny green shoots coming up in one of the containers. They were Carolina Buckthorn (Frangula caroliniana), which I had planted at the end of October!
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| One of two Carolina Buckthorn seedlings that has sprouted. |
What makes this especially exciting is that I had started one of those trees from seed about five years ago. Twice it was eaten back by deer or rabbits, but after I caged it and gave it time to grow, it had turned into a beautiful little tree that was an absolute insect magnet when it was in bloom. But me being the dummy I am thought that because it was a native tree, it would be able to survive the hot dry weather we had in the summer of 2020. I never watered it until RAF mentioned to me one evening that my little tree wasn't looking so good. By then it was too late. It lost all of its leaves by the end of the summer, then put out a few weak shoots in the spring of 2021. But it wasn't long before the little tree gave up and was gone. It made me very sad to cut it down.
So ever since then I've wanted to start another one, and this past summer I bagged a few berries on the trees down in The Barber field. I went back in October and collected the bags, and immediately planted the berries when I got back home. And now I have two tiny trees and if I can manage to keep them alive, they will probably go out into the yard in the spring of 2024!
The next day, I had yet another surprise. I had collected some seeds from a plant which I hope was Joe Pye weed which was growing down by the creek. I say "which I hope was" because I'm really not positive what the plant was. The leaves had already turned brown and shriveled, and I didn't even know what Joe Pye weed seeds looked like. But I thought I remembered seeing a Joe Pye weed growing in that general area in the past, so figured I'd give those seeds a try.
It turned out the seeds did look like Joe Pye seeds, so I have my fingers crossed that that's actually what they are!
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| Seedling of what I hope is Joe Pye weed. |
But if it turns out to be something else, that's Ok too. It will go into my wildflower bed no matter what it is. I will be inspecting that pot in the coming days to see if any more come up.
And one final happy note...I had planted some of the small pecans that came from the old tree in the yard. Those pecans are only about 1/2" long, but the birds really seem to like them. I had hoped to get a few started and plant them around at the edges of The Carey woods and in The Barber field, but I had never had any luck at all getting one to spout.
I had noticed something sticking up in the pot where I had planted those pecans, but it never did make any leaves, so I thought if it was a pecan, it must have died. But when I looked closely at it today, I can see the tiny leaves starting to open, so I guess it was just growing at its own pace.
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| Pecan seedling, with its little leaves starting to open. |
It will be interesting to see if any of the other seeds in those three containers come up, or if I start to see other seeds sprouting now. The pots have been in a room that's been quite cool for a couple of months (even below freezing back around Christmas), and then the weather warmed up some, and although the grow light is LED, it does give off some heat. That may have satisfied their cold-moist stratification requirement and now they're ready to go!