Saturday, July 11, 2020

Honesty harvesting

After the large rainstorms and wind yesterday I went out to see how everything fared. Mostly fine, the tomatoes blown around, and I propped them up for now with a bench. 

I noticed the honesty is mature enough to collect. Usually I cut the stems then remove the seed husks and collect the seeds. But I had a great, lazy, idea.




 Just husk them in place, drop the seeds back into the pot, where I would have planted them anyway. Then cut.


I noticed that the Japanese maple, prized by me among other things,for its dye, has dyed a nearby seedpod.


And here's this year's addition to the honesty collection.


Now in place with all the previous years, in the downstairs bathroom, the Little Gallery.

13 comments:

  1. There was one honesty plant here last year, after a long hiatus. Years ago there were a couple. They were just "here" and I assumed the seed source predated my arrival. Haven't seen any this year, but I'm keeping my eyes open. I never know what will appear. Just yesterday a stunning lily revealed itself when I was serving fresh nectar to the hummingbirds!

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    1. Honesty is a favorite snack of chipmunks. They reach as high as they can and bite through the stems. I had a stand of them destroyed overnight by one of these little fellers. That's why I plant it in a pot where they can't reach up. They could climb, but it's awkward and they leave it alone.

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  2. I've never heard of this plant before and I love the last picture of it. I will need to look it up to learn some more.

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    1. It's a beautiful plant at every stage. Might not survive your climate. You'd be looking up lunaria, or moon plant, money plant, as well as honesty, all names for the same plant.

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  3. When I saw the picture I thought, "that looks like a money plant." Had to look it up and indeed it is the same thing! I've never thought of this as a plant I could grow myself. I want one now! It appears it might do well in my region. Very cool. I love it as an inside decoration.

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    1. Let us know if you plant it. It thrives on neglect, so if you get it started you can pretty much count on it year to year, no special care, chipmunks permitting, that is.

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  4. Here we call it a silver dollar plant
    The kids love to collect the seeds, rub the coverings good.
    The seeds are in the third generation passing them on to other loves ones.

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    1. Once again my plant is the result of a bit of larceny from a large unweeded bed of them outside a local fence at this time of year a few years ago. Just a few seeds and I was all set.

      It's one of the most fun plants to get seeds from.

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  5. It's called silver dollar plant here too - at least in my family it is.

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  6. I am totally jealous of your lunaria, moonwort, honesty plant. Mine finally went toes up in the heat without ever a bloom or seed pod. Our heat and humidity were just too much for it - boo hoo!

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    1. Yeah, you need a period of less intense heat for them to set seed. Ours usually manage it before the fierceness of July gets far underway.

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