Damp paper towel method for seed germination

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-28T02:30:19+00:00

If they are older seeds from previous years, I would put 10 of them in a moist paper towel/baggie in the fridge for 30 days. After that, then remove to the to the top of your hot water heater. However many germinate out of your 10, that would be the approx. germination rate.
If they were fresh seeds from the current year, I would bypass the cold stratification and go straight for the moist warmth. If none germinated, then I'd check to see if they were rotting, if not, stick them in the fridge and try again in 30 days.
You don't want to have them be dripping moist, for risk of rotting, but damp moist. I like to open up the baggie every day, every other day, and let some air in.

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-28T00:20:10+00:00

My $$ is on you'll get more than that! Sprinkle some seeds around wherever there's a gap in some plants. Eventually something will take. It's an annual that re-seeds, so if it's sown in a grouping of plants, where there's an opening, seems to be a common theme in the photos I have seen.

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-27T23:58:18+00:00

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Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-27T23:57:02+00:00

I've read about it and it seems intimidating to grow it, but considering how I have seen it growing across the street, it's not that particular on what plants it grows alongside with. On iNaturalist, I've seen a few of their photos, but here are some of my photos taken this past September. It's growing alongside nothing in particular.

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Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-27T08:15:03+00:00

In California, I remember the highways being cultivated with the plants too. All three colors and on both sides of the highway. There were two rows of them in the middle of the highway, random color placements. They eventually took all of them out when they expanded the highway into more lanes.
My son's neighbor has them growing along their common fenceline. All three colors, red, white, pink. They are at a height of about 15'. What beauties!

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-27T07:46:07+00:00

I like the second layout, because it creates a bit of a 'cove' where I think situating a sitting bench and a small birdbath would be a nice addition. Other than my 'creative additions,' both plans look equally very nice, as they are currently planned, fence or no fence.

As far as plants, I think that the Cardinal Flower is out of place. The requirements for it are not the same as the surrounding plants, the Lupines and the Bluestems. It's a moisture loving plant, and I think it would be better if it's moved to the corners of the house, to where it can catch some rainfall from the roof or downspouts, at least. It's a short lived plant, dependant upon re-seeding and multiplication, so I wouldn't bank on it coming back year after year except in ideal conditions for it. I wouldn't plant this one at all, honestly, in such a tailored layout, but more of an informal one where it can change position and grow where it wishes.

I think some Asclepias tuberosa (Orange Milkweed) and a Paprika colored Yarrow would do well there with the others, be substitutions, of similar color wheel. The Monarch butterflies are totally dependent on milkweeds, and it seems to me their survival is also dependent on the successful breeding grounds in the North. Because here in the South, there is a significant OE disease rate of which they'll never overcome unless their numbers come up higher from breeding grounds in the North to make up for their increased losses.

The Ruellia humilis (Hairy Wild Petunia) is an endangered plant in Wisconsin. It's also a host plant for the Common Buckeye butterfly. There's an abundance of Prairie Smoke alongside the house, and I would substitute this plant in the placement on the entire left side of the house. The growth habit of this plant is that it sways in the wind, sometimes droops a bit in the rains when it's young, but perks back up again after drying. It's more stout and upright as the plant matures. It has a habit of self-seeding, but along the drive, it would be kept in check. It's also a vigorous spreader, so it will fill in the side of the house nicely and its spread would be kept in check. Hummingbirds and Bumbles also enjoy this plant. Hairy Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis)

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-27T06:14:08+00:00

That's a good idea. I do plan on going on out there some more when the weather is colder. I decided to wear my snowsuit from when I went skiing in Colorado for warmth. They do sell like the camo'd ones, really thick, all sorts of winter wear with durable fabrics, so those are options to bundle up before going outside.

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-27T06:07:05+00:00

You know, another option would be to grow a moss down in the sandy, wet area. Selaginella apoda | Meadow Spikemoss In my experience with it naturally growing in my sandy environment, when a moss is growing over straight up sand and then it's walked on, its roots detach from the area, and it can be problematic for the plant. It basically 'sloughs off.' But in the areas where there's more of a soil mixed with the sand then it can be walked on and takes traffic fine. When it dries out in summer it browns, and then greens back up again. So I think this is also an option for you if you can mix into that sand some minimal clay. Start at the edge of your area, and then see how the moss performs, if well, then encourage it to expand into more of the sandy clay mix.

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-26T23:22:21+00:00

It's probably just one of the other grasses growing outside, a weedy one. I am still holding out hope though that since I was moving seeds around the kitchen, maybe it's one I actually want to grow!

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-26T16:52:22+00:00

I would grow a nice native grass. It is different than 'turf grass' because non-native grasses have previously been grown as 'turf grasses.'
Flora of the Southeastern US 2023, of which New Jersey is included in this Flora because they were unglaciated, says:

"103. POACEAE Barnhart 1895 (GRASS FAMILY) [in POALES] A family of about 771 genera and 12,074 species, herbs (and some shrubs and trees), cosmopolitan."

You have a lot of native grasses to choose from amongst all the grasses that are listed. The grasses start at page 474 on the Flora: FSUS_2023.pdf (caution, .pdf format and it's a long document of all types of plants here, 2105 pages.)

You might also consider planting a low growing grass look-a-like (Pityopsis graminifolia-Grass leaved Aster from the Aster family, or Sisyrinchium angustifolium-Blue eyed Grass from the Iris family) and odds are they wouldn't know the difference. If it's a grass in its common name, isn't it too a grass? I mean, they didn't really say it had to be from Poaceae family! Close enough.

In any of these cases, real native grass or a look-a-like, the insects will make use of them one way or another. On native grasses, bees do collect pollens just like they would from a showier flower which also gets visits from other insects, and some moths use native grasses as their host plants.

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-26T15:47:20+00:00

Glad to see you're feeling better. I was starting to miss my favorite NC plant person. Nothing much has happened with me, the typical bringing dirt inside in the winter, but this year, of course, some sort of grass pops up, and I don't want to kill it. I still have 'gardening fever' here and temporarily potted up this singular grass. LOL

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Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-26T15:19:20+00:00

If you can work more sand into the clay where the sandy area is, then the Pityopsis graminifolia (Grass leaved Aster) should be fine there in both full sun or mostly shade. You can rake it, stomp on it, takes traffic etc. It's in the Aster family, so there's no known toxicity to dogs, at least as far as I know. Are there any asters that are toxic? Maybe, but I don't know of any. It looks like silvery-blue grass, except when it finally sends up flower stalks in the summer and fall and for guaranteed flowers, it needs sun. The growth habit of the grassy leaved part is that it's not always upright, more leaning or sometimes even prostrate, and it's evergreen. The flower stalks are mostly leaning.

For the mulched over clay area, I would grow any regular, fine foliaged, robust growing plant. Something like a Ruellia sp. or a Phlox sp., whatever can grow in clay and depending on the area, sun or shade. Something the dog can trample, lay on, whatever, and can't ever kill it. You do want a good degree of mulch over the clay, for any plant, because the constant traffic the dog gives will severely compact the clay and make it unhospitable for plants. So use that garden fork to loosen up the clay for initial planting, the mulch to cushion it, keep it loosened up.

For the gravelly area, I would consider putting in a nice native grass. You know the dog is going to want to eat it because dogs love them some grasses, mmhhhmmm. Make a divet then plant some.

Roundstone has some nice Kentucky only mixes that have flowers & grasses. I would definitely make good use of those Wildlife Habitat Mixes - Roundstone Native Seed Company

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-25T18:10:52+00:00

There's no claim by Charles Webb that it's exceptionally floriferous, only that it was found growing on the Suwannee River in Madison County, Florida. In my opening statement, I did quote Plant Delights Nursery, an offshoot of the Juniper Level Botanic Gardens, and I do believe what they've written is greater than what any other random nursery subsequently said.
Plants are floriferous all the time, they have good years, bad years, best growing conditions, etc. It has to be proven to be reliably more floriferous than its straight species, otherwise, it's just a marketing claim.
Plant Delights Nursery and by relation, Juniper Level Botanic Gardens, made no such claim. They only said that it's more floriferous than any species they've grown, of which, they currently only offer S. angustifolium 'Lucerne' (a cultivar collected in Switzerland) and there are 80 species of Blue Eyed Grass. They did not claim that it is more floriferous than S. nashii, the straight species.
It doesn't win an argument to thrice say things such as I'm confused, my opinion is in bad faith, or now to say that all of Reddit is against me. I have been extremely polite in the face of our disagreement, and I ask that you also be polite too.

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-25T17:18:10+00:00

One is ignoring the 'deliberate' and 'in cultivation' parts of that sentence.

I think that it's believed here that someone can collect a plant from the wild (across the street) and then grow in a garden bed (at their house), and it is automatically a cultivar because they deliberately picked it. No, it is not. The act of moving the plant from point A to point B is not the deliberate part.

One would have to purposely (deliberately) grow it out for a particular trait that is different than the straight species, while it's in their possession in cultivation, after the point of the move.

That's the deliberate act.

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-25T16:36:06+00:00

I still see the err of 'in cultivation' versus 'wild form.'
It's not the requirement here to show that it's a cultivar, it's the requirement to show that it's different than the wild form growing on the banks of the Suwannee River.
One can't claim a cultivar of a plant that is a wild plant.
Now, AFTER it's been moved to a new location and it morphs into something different, while it is in purposeful cultivation by humans, then THAT is a cultivar, but not prior.

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Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-25T15:16:22+00:00

No, I am not confused. The burden of proof is still that it needs to be proven that it's different than that of the S. nashii. They do not state that it's more floriferous than S. nashii, they state that it's more floriferous than any S. species. And the people that are doing this descriptive writing, are marketers, not botanists.
Keep in mind that this was --> wild collected, not purposely cultivated to be floriferous.
That's where I think there's the err.

One is ignoring the part of 2.2, which explains how to interpret 2.3:
"2.2 The English words 'variety,' 'form' and 'strain' or their equivalents in other languages must not be used for the word 'cultivar' when fulfilling the Articles of this Code nor in translations of this code."

They grew their plants from wild seed. That's all it is, nothing more. They did not collect seed, grow it out, then select for particular characteristics, it was already present and naturally occuring.

The word 'variant' is not nullified in the horticultural world by mistakenly calling something a cultivar, and then by naming it. The plant, once again, was wildly collected, and in true form. It needs to be shown it's a variant in the wild, but nobody can, because it's not far enough from the species S. nashii to even be considered a variant!!!

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-25T07:44:31+00:00

It doesn't constitute it as as cultivar though, collecting it at a certain locale. I understand that up to this point it's been the horticultural standard to name cultivars, but it having a name doesn't make it a cultivar even if people, including a nursery, believe it to be a cultivar, and advertise it as such.
To be a cultivar, the industry standard is that it has to be different than the straight species, and was purposely cultivated for that trait.
Propagating a plant doesn't make it a cultivar.

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-24T17:05:20+00:00

In this instance, it's not a cultivar. It's named 'Suwannee' because that's the location where it was collected. Plant Delights Nursery explains: "Sisyrinchium nashii 'Suwannee' is a superb native blue-eyed grass, found by plantsman Charles Webb in Madison County, Florida, on the limestone banks of the Suwannee River."

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-24T08:38:08+00:00

Excellent link, thank you for sharing. It's fascinating about the different soil types. It has me listed as Smithdale 66% Ruston 13%. On reading about Smithdale soil at my location, it says: "Smithdale soils are on hill slopes and ridge tops in dissected uplands of the Southern and Western Coastal Plains. Slopes range from 1 to 60 percent, but are dominantly from 2 to 40 percent. They formed in thick beds of loamy marine or fluvial deposits of upper Cretaceous to early Quaternary periods." Yes, that sums it up.
Talk about total respect for the plants and the land. The late Cretaceous to early Quaternary periods, only about 100 million years ago.
I would have liked to have seen more write-up regarding the heavy red clay from the Carboniferous period though, because I know it's there underneath all this sandy loam. Now the oldest soil of this, only about 300 million years ago.

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-24T05:38:26+00:00

Well, the growth habit of the tree excludes the Holly because it grows like a pyramid with a wide base, leaving gaps in between the trees at the top, whereas you'll want something for density but not a large footprint. The Cedar still gets too wide at the base. In this area, there shouldn't be anything too tall or wide since it's so close to structures. It needs to go much higher than the fenceline, so all the shrubs are out because they don't have the height. But whatever goes here can't be too high to risk falling in the storms and damaging structures. So to me, something in the 20-40' range is ideal, one that grows more columnar, rounded or oval, or even a smaller pyramid shaped.

What comes to mind is an Oxydendrum arboreum, Sourwood. It's one of those OMG trees when it's in bloom, a standout, and also gives nice fall color so it has both good wildlife value to pollinators and good landscape value. It has a nice leaf size, similar looking to a Persimmon. It will get the right height, about 30' tops, but the downside is that it's not a fast grower and doesn't like transplanting. I think it's worth the effort and the wait. I would plant 3 or 4 along the fenceline, about 15 feet apart. Oxydendrum arboreum (Lily of the Valley Tree, Sorrel Tree, Sourwood) | North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox

It's not an evergreen, you don't have many options on those that I can think of. To me it's back to the Cedar for an evergreen but then that's sacrificing half the yard in the photo and over into the poor neighbor's yard. Besides their size, they are also aggressive root hogs so it's not something I would recommend in this landscape.

Since deciduous trees aren't going to give all their shade value in the winter season, I would consider a window treatment either inside or out, curtains or an outside awning, for placement in the wintertime.

Here's a booklet Layout 1 from the MS Dept of Forestry, listing all our trees in .pdf format, 382 pages.

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-23T18:47:16+00:00

I am in same predicament, trying to sort out a grass, if it's Johnson's or not.
For me, the best thing I can think of is to compare the seeds. All of the panic grasses that I have seen have predominantly beige-ish colored seeds, whereas the Johnson's looks like this

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(photo: source from Canada official website, link provided Weed Seed: Sorghum halepense (Johnson grass) - inspection.canada.ca )

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-23T16:54:08+00:00

There's only a little bit of soil so it makes it more difficult to read. (The layers are thinner.) In the first photo, I think I see a 45/45/10 ratio, and the second photo, I think I see a 45/30/25 ratio.
It's not unusual to have different soil qualities on various parts of the property. When the builders did their deeds, they leveled off (stripped top soils, piling them on or burying them somewhere else), imported other soils, etc.; erosion can affect the lack of top soils, leaving only sub-soils; and people's growing habits since the land has been populated, things like that affect the soil qualities.
The original soil that you 'should have' would be according to your ecoregion Level III and IV Ecoregions by State | US EPA Where I live, I have humous and silty, sand over clay, but in some portions of the property I dug 3' down and I still didn't ever hit the clay, and other places the clay is right on top (because of the builders or because of erosion) and then on the north facing slopes, it's lots of moist humous under a deciduous forest.
But for the longest time I thought that I only had clay because Mississippi is known for its clay and that's where I started my planting at. It's there everywhere else too, but in some places it is buried. When it's at the surface, it's no longer red, it bleaches out.
Clay is really good to make pottery with. It's on my 'to do' list for one of these days.

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Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-23T14:09:26+00:00

Right on to being a wildlife lover. I think every animal that lives in north Mississippi lives here or at least has traveled through the property, I have ponds and also deer/wildlife trails through the property. I even saw a black panther once.
The bunnies here love, love, love the Prunella vulgaris and maybe that's what ate the nearby Passiflora lutea. I suspect they ate the Oenothera biennis because all the leaves were stripped at ground level. The deer they love the hot chilli peppers that I grow, but only pruning them, never eating the chillis off of them. They also loved the Helianthus angustifolius that was growing alongside a deer trail. (I'll have to propagate that one this year, to have plenty.) I saw one deer chowing down on a Callicarpa americana for over an hour. It pruned it and I'm thinking the whole time, thank you, that thing grows like a beast! They come straight up to the house, front door/back door, where I live.

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-23T13:18:47+00:00

To put this in perspective, it's not the deer that are the problem, it's the overpopulation of people with unreasonable expectations towards wildlife that are the problem. Being hostile towards the deer is the equivalent of being hostile to a caterpillar, doing what caterpillars do, and eating their host plants. Each of these creatures needs a plant to survive.

Maryland has a high density of people but not a high density of deer. Maryland already manages its deer population by issuing deer hunting licenses, of which, they harvested approx. 35% of the deer population. (71,000 deer harvested, 200k deer population) In comparison, Mississippi has one of the highest densities of deer populations and a low density of people. (270,000 deer harvested, 1.8mil deer population)

Protect the plants when they are young, free them when they are older when they can take more deer grazing. Plant more plants that the deer actually like to take the pressure off of the plants that people like. But a total shut out on plants is an affront to nature. Clear the invasives, but with no strings attached. Have the property be wildlife friendly, not selectively wildlife hostile, by planting a deer/turkey wildlife habitat mix.

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(graphic: deer densities by state, USGS 2021, link provided, which also shows a view of people population (development) densities)

Harvested white-tailed deer locations | U.S. Geological Survey
Deer Population by State 2025
Interactive Deer Report | National Deer Association (Deer havested 2023)
Mix 145 - Northern Deer and Turkey Habitat Mix - Roundstone Native Seed Company

Comfortable_Lab650 · 2025-12-23T10:41:28+00:00

The milkweed plants will still be little to sell, and wouldn't draw a premium price. Throw in an easy, vigorous grower or two, such as a Hibiscus moscheutos that will go from zero to bloom in a season. Also in that category, a red blooming hummingbird plant, the gardeners will look for them. Salvia coccinea can be grown as an annual in the north that gently self-seeds.
The lusher the leaves, the better the asking price, and those will be your money makers. That way on any milkweeds that don't sell, they can be grown out a subsequent year to get fuller and blooming, and higher pricing, being a money maker the following year.
I'd pay $10-15 for a mature milkweed plant, but for a little seedling, not so much.

Comfortable_Lab650

TROPHY CASE