Wednesday, November 11, 2009
WAKE UP TIME - Stratification
Most sleepy sleepy seeds who spend all winter in a warm cozy paper bag need a little tap on the shoulder or a fresh cold shower to wake them up to get ready to grow. Colin and I spent a couple hours in May sorting seeds, giving them a bath and placing them in containers with cool water where they will sit and chill in the fridge for several weeks until germination time.
This is called stratification and it mimics the natural conditions a plant expects from its native environment. Seeds that are shed in the late autumn expect a cool moist environment like the frosts and snows that cover our northern lands. Those who drop in the early fall or spring need a warm moist treatment to induce germination. Since we collected most of our seeds in the late fall, we give them a cool winter in their plastic containers in Colin's fridge. They sit next to the maple syrup from the market which surely gives them warm fuzzy thoughts about late winter and spring in Ontario.
Seeds are usually stratified for 4-6 weeks, but since we need them a bit sooner than that we'll give them a nice short winter season- only a few weeks in the cold. Hopefully it's enough to rouse them!
This is called stratification and it mimics the natural conditions a plant expects from its native environment. Seeds that are shed in the late autumn expect a cool moist environment like the frosts and snows that cover our northern lands. Those who drop in the early fall or spring need a warm moist treatment to induce germination. Since we collected most of our seeds in the late fall, we give them a cool winter in their plastic containers in Colin's fridge. They sit next to the maple syrup from the market which surely gives them warm fuzzy thoughts about late winter and spring in Ontario.
Seeds are usually stratified for 4-6 weeks, but since we need them a bit sooner than that we'll give them a nice short winter season- only a few weeks in the cold. Hopefully it's enough to rouse them!
Friday, June 5, 2009
spOtlight festival!
The spOtlight festival has begun! It's not too late to register in any of the sessions.
Our first paper-making day went well -- pictures to be posted soon.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Welcome!
Welcome, welcome to our blog! The spOtlight weekend is less than two weeks away!
We hope you will join us for our Sewing Seeds event to be held at Studio 490.
We have been busy building paper-making frames, designing embroidery patterns, preparing the seeds for germination and gathering up the supplies needed to host this event.
We have been busy building paper-making frames, designing embroidery patterns, preparing the seeds for germination and gathering up the supplies needed to host this event.
Here is the schedule for the weekend.
Make Paper!
Fri, June 5 from 7 - 8:30 pm
Sat, June 6 from 10 - 11:30am
Embroider!
Sat, June 6 from 2 - 3:30pm
Sun, June 7 from 10 - 11:30am & 2 - 3:30pm
Planting demonstration!
Sunday afternoon (time tba)
(Registration is recommended, so that we have a sense of numbers.)
Please email us at sewingseedscollective@gmail.com or call 519-829-3576.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Bag of Seeds
This is Christina's bag of collected native plant seeds. (bag design by Janet Morton 2008)Contents:
Flower Seeds
Blue Vervain - verbena hastata
Thimbleweed - anemone virginiana
Swamp Aster - aster puniceus
Foxglove Beardtongue - penstemon digitalis
New England Aster - aster novae-angliae
Dense Blazing Star - liatris spicata
Grass seeds
Switch Grass - panicha virgatum
Virginia Wild Rye - elymus virginiana
Indian Grass - sorghastrum nutans
Little Bluestem - schizachirium scoparia
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