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Oklahoma Gardening

Seeds sprouting after 1 year.. patience is a virtue

16 years ago

In December 2006 I collected seed from a roadside possumhaw holly. I think I cleaned some, and just left the "fruit" part on some, because I wasn't sure which would be best.

I planted some in a coffee can, set into the dirt. The toads dug up that container.

Some I just sort of flung along the edge of the woods. Who knows if those are doing anything.

I put a dozen or so into a plastic container about the size of a cookie jar, in potting soil, and just set the container on a shelf in an attached unheated garage. I think I sprayed fungicide on the surface. Today I was out there looking for my pruning shears, and spotted.. (green?...) Sure enough there are little sprouts in there, fourteen months after I planted them!

That's what I like about gardening, surprises all the time.

Gayle

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Comments (2)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7
16 years ago
Gayle,

Isn't it amazing how seeds (especially from native plants) prefer to sprout at their own pace, and not "on demand" as we would wish!

I am glad you got some possumhaw hollies to sprout. I bet your ones that are on the edge of the woods will eventually sprout. We have native possumhaws scattered here and there around the property....three or four big clumps of them in what I consider the more civilized "yard" part of our property. Some years lots of little possumhaws sprout underneath the established ones, and some years none sprout at all. I just mow over the sprouts a couple of times and that pretty much wipes them out.

I just noticed this week that the cedar waxwings are here, sitting in the possumhaws where they will, undoubtedly, feast on the berries until they can't see straight. Eventually they will strip all the berries and then continue on their journey north. I love cedar waxwings but we only see them here in large numbers as they migrate in late winter.

So, now that you have little hollies sprouting, do you have a location in mind where you intend to plant them?

Dawn
barton
Original Author
16 years ago
Dawn,

The location I had in mind (when I planted the seeds) has been filled by two "store-bought" possumhaws. I had gotten discouraged when my seeds didn't sprout right away, and in April I splurged on one nice male and one female plant at Colebrook's. They did very well.

Ironically, when I was in the garage and found the seedlings, I was hunting for my pruning shears to take hardwood cuttings from the female store-bought possumhaw. How's that for timing?

I went ahead and took the cuttings, so if all goes well I may have some possumhaws for trade. Of course, I won't know which seedlings are male and which are female, for several years.

I won't have to decide where to put them till they have grown up for a year. With my red clay and rocks in an old oilfield, my usual tactic is to plant things in as many locations as possible and see what works. I hope that by this time next year I will have more areas with some improved soil.

How did the seeds know it was spring?? No daylight cues in the garage. It must have been the temperature.

Gayle
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