Oh well, guess I'll try it!

Hi Bean,

I was hoping somebody else around here might have an answer for you, but I guess you came up with the perfect "Stump RMG" question!

I don't know anything at all about it, but the Tom Clothier germination site says this:

Cercocarpus ledifolius , Desert Mahogany ,zone= 6 , GA-3 soak (or try 5% hydrogen peroxide for 15 min.), sow 9m @ 39ºF, move to 70ºF for germ.

I don't know if that's the exact same species you have, but it sounds like it probably needs to be stratified, which, if you're planting it outside now, it will be over winter--and then, hopefully, germinate when it warms up in spring.

Good luck,
Skybird

Here is a link that might be useful: Cercocarpus ledifolius - Wikipedia

I'm planning my first attempt at winter sowing this year. I'm going to try the mountain mahogany, liatris, and goldenrod I collected from my backyard. I figure if these things survive out there on their own, I should try to grow more of them! I got some Rocky Mtn Penstemon seeds from the neighbor's plants and my husband collected a bunch of daylily seeds near his work, so I'm going to try those too. My backyard is pretty barren, so I'm just trying to get a little more life going back there.

As you can see, I have a lot of work to do!
There is a little distortion in the photo, since it's several photos stitched together to a panoramic, and all were taken through the upstairs window, screen and all (never intended it for sharing, but things change)

At least the front yard looks better. I have some plans for that too though...

Uh, yeah! IÂd call that pretty barren! If thatÂs a pasted together picture, itÂs a pretty darn good job! And I wouldnÂt have even noticed it if you hadnÂt mentioned it, but now I see the screen! Call it a "grid" for planning your yard! ;-)

I donÂt see anything in your backyard that looks like goldenrod, so, question! Is what you collected seed from something you planted, or just something that grew there all by itself? IÂm asking because IÂm getting ready to post the seeds I have on the Seed Exchange thread, and decided to see if my goldenrod seed would germinate before I posted it. It didnÂt! But I have a hybrid, ÂGolden BabyÂ. If yours is a straight species, it should work just fine.

Your Penstemon strictus should definitely germinate, and probably your Liatris too. Both should benefit from stratification, so winter sowing will be great for them. According to the Tom Clothier site, the Hemerocallis might be a little bit iffy. IÂll link the site belowÂitÂs a GREAT place to look up germination info. And if any of your daylily seed does germinate, it wonÂt come true, so you wonÂt know what you have till they grow up and bloom. But it doesnÂt sound like youÂre looking for a particular color at this point!

Check out the Seed Exchange thread and see if thereÂs anything there you might be interested in. ItÂs down a ways on the forum right now, but IÂm getting my list together, so IÂll be bumping it up in the next few daysÂif somebody else doesnÂt do it first!

Good luck with your seeds! ItÂs a fun way to play over winterÂeven if some of them donÂt come up!

Skybird

Here is a link that might be useful: Tom Clothier Germination Site

Skybird,

It's a pasted picture, but I didn't do it manually...my camera came with a program that stitches together photos. They don't even have to be terribly well aligned...that one wasn't. It finds the common points, and you just crop out the parts that stick out of the photo...super easy.

When I look up my neighborhood on google maps aerial view, I don't even have to zoom in close to find my house. It's the one with the giant empty brown strips. Our neighbors have yards that are more like native prairie. I have bare, hard (I mean HARD!!) ground. For now...this is our first year here.

Some of those green specks out there by the fence on the left are goldenrod. They just weren't blooming yet when I took the piture. They were just growing out there (wild I'm guessing). Same with the liatris.

I'll check out the site for the daylillies. I actually don't even know what color the originals were. My DH kept talking about these lillies outside his work. I can't just pop by his work since it's a secure area, so I never saw them. He kept telling me I should get whatever those daylillies are, and I discovered that you can grow them from seed. So, I sent him an email, and when he came home, he had a whole pile of seeds. Guess he went around the base and "harvested" some of the landscaping! When I asked him what color they are, he says, uh...I don't know - some orange, some yellow, different colors... I'm going to use them in the back, so you're right, I don't care what color they are.

I was just reading the seed exchange thread. There are some there I'd like to try. I need to read the list (and look up the pictures). I'm also hoping to come to the spring swap this year. Hopefully some of my seeds will sprout, and I'll even have something to offer. When I first told my DH about my general plan for the front (you'll see more on that later, I'll have a few questions pretty soon!) he was quite concerned with just how much that might cost. Now we've gathered some seeds, and I have permission to divide some of my neighbor's plants, he's starting to see that it's possible to have more than just grass without spending an arm and a leg - especially since I'm not working right now- it just takes patience and creativity!

Hi GB,

I donÂt know how often you tend to come up to the Denver area, but consider coming to the Fall Swap too. There are often more perennials at the fall one (some perennials, but more veggies and some annual seedlings at the Spring Swap), and Karen/Catladysgarden has been bringing LOTS of dayliliesÂshe grows them! As a matter of fact, before she left this year, she said she might have the Fall Swap at her house next year. There were a bunch left over at this yearÂs Fall Swap. Too bad I didnÂt know you could use some. I just gave the last of them away to a gardening friend who lives out in Nederland. I could have saved some for you if I had known. And when youÂre ready to start planting stuff, when youÂre gonna be in the Denver area, let me know and I can give you starts for a bunch of different ground cover sedums and hen & chicks, and probably some iceplants too. They come complete with instructions for how to root them! Anybody can do it! And theyÂre incredibly easy to growÂeven in bad soil!

Have you started a compost pile yet? If not, do! Your soil is probably clay like the rest of us, and especially if itÂs that hard, youÂre going to need lots of organic matter to add to it. A compost pile doesnÂt need to be complicated! Just start throwing any and all plant and vegetable matter on a pile in a corner somewhere, and wet it down every now and then over winterÂsince things dry out so easily out here. And if itÂs piled directly on the ground, worms will also migrate up into it and multiply. Worms are a gardenerÂs friend! If any of your neighbors are still putting bags of leaves out for trash pickup, go get Âem! A great way to start a compost pile!

If youÂre willing to take your time, you can get some really nice perennial beds by starting seeds and swapping without really spending that much money. And itÂs easy to start a lot of the annuals from seed to help fill in the bare places while the perennials are filling in!

Skybird

I just read on another thread that you're already scavenging for leaves! You go, girl!

Oh, I'm scavenging... I do have a compost pile going. I'm also hoping for a little "extra" from the veggie garden expansion. Where I'm going to put the raspberry patch I'll be taking out some of the OM I have stacked up where the pathway will be. I've got sources for manure of several types and spoiled hay. I thought I had a place to get straw pretty cheap, but they're not returning emails now, so we'll see. Soon I'll post pics of the new veggie beds (soon as I go take some).

I seem to have both sand and clay and gravel in the yard (uhm, isn't that concrete??). More of it I think is sand, but I dug down in one area and found globs of clay. I think it's such a mess back there from construction, even though the house is more than 10 years old. We have a walkout basement, which they excavated to create I'm told. The previous owners didn't ever do anything with most of the back. There's no topsoil to speak of on most of it.

I almost came to the fall swap this year, but I ended up going to Montana that weekend I think. I have a cousin who lives a bit north of Denver, so I go that way once in a while.

My neighbor has some yellow iceplant (I'm pretty sure that's what it is), and I have permission to take some starts from there, but other kinds would be great too. When is the best time to root those? I've had hens & chicks before, so I know sedum can be very easy to start. She (the neighbor) has been great about offering advice and information to me about plants here. I can collect seeds, take cuttings, and divide her plants as well. She gave me a russian sage last week that was encroaching too much on her sidewalk, so it is now in a new bed in my yard!

From the plantsofthesouthwest.com site:

S1362 Cercocarpus montanus
Mountain Mahogany
Small, wedge-shaped, dark green leaves grow in a dense branching pattern on this 6-20 ft. shrub or small tree. Deciduous. Leaves are russet colored and plumed tails emerge from the seed heads in fall. Hardy. Sow seed in fall or soak seed 8 hours in hydrogen peroxide, stratify for 2-3 months & sow in spring.
Full SunLow Water 3

Packet of small seeds(100) / $2.50

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