Showing posts with label nettles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nettles. Show all posts

Friday, November 11, 2011

Gone to Seed



The garden is filled with interesting seeds and seed pods. Here Chinese forget me not seeds have captured milkweed seeds. I'm afraid this is one plant we will wish we had deadheaded. If we brush up against them  the little round seeds are so sticky that Ed and I have to take turns picking them off each others clothes . These seeds are made to stick to any critter that passes by.


New England asters have pretty soft brown seeds.


All of the  poppy seeds are long gone. Some eaten by birds and some planted by the wind. I know when the ground warms next spring my pink poppies will return.


I really can't see that there are any seeds left in this bee balm seed head. It still makes an interesting picture.


These sumac seeds will attract birds to the garden this winter.


Most of the hollyhock seeds are gone. They have been either eaten or planted.


I would not want to have to count the tiny seeds on the stinging nettles. Some might think that allowing stinging nettles to grow here is foolish, but Ed and I both recognize the plant when we see it and it is the food plant for Red Admiral butterflies and others.


The sunflowers have been stripped clean by the birds, but birds are messy eaters and I'm sure the sunflowers will be back too.


For the first time in my memory every black locust tree you see here  has seed pods this year. With all the rain the pods seem to have a black mold on them even as they remain attached to the tree.
 

 Ed has been clearing the beds preparing them for spring planting. No seeds are visible here, but I know they are there waiting for spring and their chance germinate.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Touch- Me- Nots

This plant is jewel weed. I have mentioned it before as an antidote to the burning of stinging nettles. It really works, and the relief is immediate. I have a friend whose husband works in the woods all year. She cans jewel weed to use on the poison ivy that he gets so easily most winters.

Jewel weed has juicy stems and either yellow or orange flowers. This picture shows a yellow flower, some buds, and the best part, a seed pod. This plant was growing on the compost pile. Japanese beetles love the plant so I was lucky to find an undamaged one to photograph.

The seed pods are the reason for the touch- me- not name. When the seeds are ripe the pods get fat. They are spring loaded and explode when touched. It's an ingenious method for spreading seed. Children, and adults who still have that child within, find popping the seed capsules irresistible fun. After years of this behavior from me and my children, I can always count on finding jewel weed somewhere in the garden.

This seed pod is still slender, but I'll be watching, and when it's ready , touch it I will!