A relentless rain of seeds

[Toddy]

I'm having a grumble, a grouch, a kind of moment.

My garden runs alongside a nature walk that was an old mineral railway line. The hedges that ran along side the line, and the burn the other side of it, have grown up into mature trees. It's a lovely mixed woodland these days, but living under it means that we live under a relentless rain of seeds.
Sounds lovely living next to the woodland, and in general it is, but the incessant clearing up of seeds infiltrating into every nook and cranny becomes frustrating. It's a lovely day, my washing is out, and already it's covered in willow seeds and the wych elm's fluttering papery samaras. (they're edible, but it's not much of a munch)
Soon it'll be the tiny wee sharp birch ones and the sycamore keys. Oak, ash, catkins....and if even one in a thousand sprout, then yet again I'm weeding out tree seedlings from the edges of every paving slab, from the gravel, the planters, and the flower beds, and the house. Open a window and in they come. We seem to trail the seeds everywhere.

Grouch over. For the moment

If anyone want's to try growing wych elm though, let me know and I'll gather a handful and put them into an envelope.

 

[Broch]

If anyone want's to try growing wych elm though, let me know and I'll gather a handful and put them into an envelope.

LOL, that's exactly what I've just done - I'm getting a load of young trees going as I expect to lose quite a lot of Ash over the next few years and Wych Elm is one of them.

If anyone is keen, the seeds need planting straight away as there is no 'dormant' period.

 

[henchy3rd]

Not long got back after 2 weeks in South Wales hike/camping the coastal path.
left a couple of windows open on my boat, wow.. every wind blown seed must of headed straight for the gaps.. every nook & cranny were festooned with white fluffy seed heads.
The corner of my bed seemed to resemble some kind of rampant mutant mould.
So, thoroughly hoovered up & opened the doors to let the air flow through.. pointless, because I forgot to sweep the front deck.
I’d rather live with nature than to be surrounded by concrete though.

 

[Stew]

I have some borders of our land at work that some ijit neighbour has just cleared. Some wych elm would be good to add in!

 

[Toddy]

@Stew
You are most welcome to some of these samaras. I will happily gather and post an envelope to you with some in it.
We've had high winds for the last few days and they've brought down thousands of them, but there are a fair number of clusters still on the trees so I'll aim for fresh as I can. The trees are just outside our fence.
We had drought years ago, and all the wych elms and the hornbeams died off ....they're growing on poor ground, it was the railway side that had been built up using the clinker from the old Victorian gas works....and it doesn't hold moisture well. I thought they'd gone and then these three seedlings grew up among the hazels. Kind of pleased to see them, just that the garden is carpeted with the seeds again and we're trailing them everywhere.

 

[Stew]

Well it would be good to have some growing down here if it’s viable to post them.

Yesterday I actually just saved a squirrel planted hazel and walnut out of a few pots in the garden. They’re in their own ones now!

 

[Stew]

 

[bobnewboy]

Some progress with the samaras:

https://flic.kr/p/2nzKL9e

So far these are all that I have managed to germinate, and these are in the greenhouse. They will remain there until I pot them on separately and they’ve become well established. I have planted some more in our ‘wild’ garden section, and the remainder along our hedge line. Perhaps those outdoor planted seeds will surprise me next spring….. ?

Thanks Mary