My brick red hybrid Watsonia has set seed on two of its spent flower spikes. That's two more than last year, when neither of the hybrid plants I bought at Beeches set any seed at all, and I wondered whether they were sterile. Good old seed raised Watsonia pillansii has once again got bulging seed pods on every flower stalk. I don't really need any more W. pillansii, though I could give some seed to a friend who admired it, and on learning that it was a Watsonia and not a super large Crocosmia confessed that he'd germinated seed once, but not succeeded in growing it on. Given some free seed he might like to try again. I shall try myself with the seed from the bricky red one, if only to see what I get. Who knows, it might be an interesting colour.
My one surviving Belamcanda chinensis has got lovely big fat seed pods on it, still green and unripe. I grew several plants from a bought packet of seed and planted them into the gravel in the turning circle, hoping that the growing conditions which seemed to suit the Watsonia and Agapanthus so well would also suit the Belamcanda. It is a beautiful thing, with spotted orange flowers like small open mouthed lilies held individually on branching stems, and strap shaped leaves like a diminutive bearded iris. Indeed, I see the botanists have been at it since I bought the seed and it is now called Iris domestica. It is supposed to like full sun and to be drought tolerant, whereas winter wet can be fatal, which is why I thought it might like life in the turning circle, but only one of my group of plants came up again the following year. It has the reputation of sometimes being short lived, but not re-emerging at all in the second year is pushing the definition of short lived to the limit.
The seed pods when they ripen should split open to reveal a blackberry like cluster of seeds, giving the plant its common name of Blackberry Lily. That's in addition to its other common name of Leopard Lily, from the spots. You can see why in the end it's safer to stick to botanical Latin names. The excellent Missouri Botanical Garden website has a page on it, if you want to know more.
In the greenhouse the Clivia miniata still has its big green seed pods. Since I only have the one Clivia that demonstrates that it must be self fertile. As indeed must be the Belamcanda, since only the one plant flowered. The Clivia seed pods don't seem to be doing much, certainly not showing any signs of turning brown or dry, and I have just read on the Pacific Horticulture Society website that they take at least a year to ripen, and then about five years to reach flowering size. Still, as the Chiltern Seeds catalogue reminds us, five years is not so very long. It sounds daunting, but as they say, just think if you had sown seeds at the time of the last election (or whatever national event took place around five years ago)...
Apparently the seeds and young plants are vulnerable to rotting off if too wet, but so are many seedlings. I managed to destroy a pot of promising young apricot coloured Primula florindae this spring through over watering, even though the adult plants will grow in running water and liquid mud. The mature Clivia wants to be kept dry during winter, which is worth knowing as the days cool down. I have enjoyed my one plant so much that I'd definitely buy another if I saw one with yellow or apricot flowers for sale.
It must be terribly dispiriting in gardens that open to the public to be tracking seed heads as they ripen, waiting for that moment of perfection, only to find that a visitor has beaten you to it.
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