The arrival of seed catalogs in mailboxes ranks as one of the most hopeful times in a gardener’s year, as it provides us with a welcome link to spring. One of the first considerations is deciding what to grow. This can be answered by simply listing the veggies or asking your family to name the … Continue reading Demystifying Seed Catalogs
Seed saving is an art, not to mention fun and empowering. Plus, it’s a valuable contribution on a deeper level: agricultural biodiversity matters, and seed saving in home gardens is mainstream conservation of biodiversity! Here’s why you, the home gardener, should start a seed collection: Seed saving promotes self-reliance, and swapping seeds connects and builds community. It connects us to … Continue reading Share seeds, swap stories…while contributing so much more
There are heirloom seeds from corn grown by Native Americans in Pennsylvania, and seeds from a marigold grown in the Andes for the spice of its leaves, along with some 4,500 other varieties in the collection of William Woys Weaver, Ph.D. Hear William Woys Weaver in person at 1:30 p.m. on January 22. Register for his free lecture here. … Continue reading Sharing the Cultural Legacy Held Within Each Seed
In the past year, more than 181 million people learned about Spike, Alice the Amorphophallus, and Sprout—the Chicago Botanic Garden’s titan arums (Amorphophallus titanum) that entered a bloom cycle—through various media sources. Now even more people may have the chance to learn about the unique corpse flower from seedlings sowed at the Garden that have been shared … Continue reading Titan Arum Seedlings Shared Throughout the U.S.
In the race to save native plants like purple New England aster and fragrant American mountain mint, the Chicago Botanic Garden freezes seeds for future use—but will frozen seeds be able to grow after hundreds of years in storage? Researchers are trying to find out. Environmental threats such as climate change have caused thousands of … Continue reading Can Frozen Seeds Survive for Centuries? We’re Banking on It
