Time flies so fast and despite the fact that winter is still on the calendar, we are all already starting preparations for the next gardening season.
I have big plans! I have already ordered some new plants for my garden, but they will not arrive until March. Now, while it's frosty and rather cold outside, I'm doing the seeds.
This year I decided to try seed stratification. I've never done this before. But because of the war, I was not able to sow two-year-old and some perennial flowers on time. So I decided to trick them a little 😉
After all, what is stratification if not a little innocent deception when you make plants believe that they have already wintered and now is the time to bloom.
In horticulture, stratification is a process of treating seeds to simulate natural conditions that the seeds must experience before germination can occur. Many seed species have an embryonic dormancy phase, and generally will not sprout until this dormancy is broken.
The term stratification can be traced back to at least 1664 in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber, where seeds were layered (stratified) between layers of moist soil and exposing these strata to winter conditions. Thus, stratification became the process by which seeds were artificially exposed to conditions to encourage subsequent germination.
So, stratification can help if for some reason you haven't planted your seeds on time and don't want to wait an extra year for your perennials to bloom. But this is not its only advantage.
Compared with sowing seeds in the ground in the fall, as is often done with perennial or biennial flowers, stratification has some advantages.
Your seeds won't freeze if something goes wrong. They will not be washed out of the soil by autumn showers. Finally, you don't accidentally pull them up with the weeds in the spring.
So, I chose seeds for my experiment: delphinium, mallow and daisies.
I filled the trays with potting soil and placed the seeds on top, then I carefully covered them with soil and sprayed with water from a spray bottle. I put a dark fabric on top. So they will stand in the room for three to four days, so that the seeds swell a little.
They will spend the next three weeks in a cool place. I live in a country house and it's easy for me to arrange this. But if you live in an apartment, you can just put the tray of seeds in the frige.
Then they return to the room again and I will patiently wait for the seedlings. I will definitely tell you what I can do.
All this time, Michelle followed me and carefully watched whether I was doing everything right 😉
