I came across a nice colony while scouting out my old blueberry patch this summer. I suspect it is quite common. I think it is very attractive. Looks like someone crossed a fern with a cedar! Unfortunately, it appears to be a runner and hard to start from seed. So....am wondering if it is worth the trouble to trek back to the site and collect seed?

While I am asking questions....how about Hudsonia tomentosa? Have never come across this but then I don't spend as much time as I should scouting around on sandy acid sites. Can I assume this is native to Minnesota?

Jan

Out Back Nursery has some excellent specimens in one of their gardens.

The leaves when crushed have a heavenly scent!

Still, I have a friend in Iowa who grow it with little problem. In the wild it grows in quite sterile soils, devoid of nutrients. My friend's bed is certainly not so, and I wonder if that has a role in its ambivalence to wandering lust.

Seed germination is difficult, should be scarified, and GA3 applied according to Dirr. But young shoots are easily rooted, and root cuttings taken in late winter/early spring are also succesful.

My friend gets a lot of oohhs and aahhs from visitors as few have ever seen sweet fern before. But at least up in the Arrowhead, I have found it to be quite common, and I'm not sure you'd get the same reaction.

And about Hudsonia tomentosa, it is a plant I have kept my eyes open for. It should make a good addition and companion for my cactus troughs. T. Morley in his Spring Flora of Minnesota notes it as native to Anoka, Sherburne, Meeker, Morrison, Crow Wing, Polk and southern St. Louis counties.

Rick

Think I am going to go ahead and try the Comptonia. Have a good sandy-gravel site on our upper driveway which should suit it well. Nothing else wants to grow there. Might not be acid enough but....will see.

Going to pass on starting it from seed. Instead, will take some stem cuttings in the spring and try my luck with rooting and starting it that way.

I am sure I will not get 'oohhs and aahhs' but that has never affected my choice of plants. In fact, I tend to get "Isn't that the weed that grows in the ditches?" (Eupatorium, etc.) This summer the Big Blue Stem in my seed beds received some very strange looks...one person finally asked me if there was a reason I didn't weed out that grass! LOL. (Rick- incidentally that BBS is starting to scare me....now topping out at 72 inches and still growing!)

Noticed that GN has seed for Hudsonia tomentosa.....collected in Ontario. Wish it was a central Saskatchewan collection.
Jan

At least it does NOT run underground. I swear I didn't exposed those seeds to any x-rays or extra gamma rays. LOL, is it walking too?

Rick

The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation
Includes same array of plant materials. 200 plus pages.

Nettie - don't know that it would make a whole lot of difference in the seed source of the Hudsonia. But, generally I prefer, when possible, to get seed from a colder zone. 'Seed from Ontario' doesn't tell me much. Southern Ontario is zone 5. Most of Saskatchewan is zone 2 or colder with the southern part being a nice warm zone 3!

We live in one of those cold spots in northern Minnesota. Makes International Falls look like the 'Hotbox of the Nation'. A couple of mornings ago....only Churchill, Manitoba (of Polar Bear fame on the shores of Hudson Bay) had a temp as cold as we were.
Jan