Spring is apparently here, at least the calendar says so.
The seeds for lavender cotton, which, by the way, is neither lavender nor
cotton, have gone into the refrigerator for a two-week cold treatment. Nature
has created a variety of locks to put on seeds so that they will germinate only
when conditions are right for success.
The two weeks in the frig opens the first lock. After that the seeds go on a special heating
pad at 70 degrees to open the second lock.
Two to four weeks later the first leaves, seed leaves, will emerge from
the seed starter mixture. Now the
seedlings will go under the special grow lights that provide the spectrum of
light rays plants need for 10 hours each day.
I feel like a surrogate Mother Nature.
By the time the hundreds of seeds have been started, there will be three
tiers of lights, and I will probably get an email from Consumers Energy
alerting me that they have noticed an unusual increase in energy use.
Lavender cotton is Santolina
tomentosa. Historically, Culpepper*
wrote it ‘resists poison, putrefaction, and heals the biting of venomous
beasts.’ Since venomous beasts have been pretty well eliminated in our herb
gardens, it is now used as an accent plant with aromatic properties. Rated only down to zone 6 it will probably
not survive in our zone 5 garden, and it would certainly not have survived this
past brutal winter. That means it will
be treated like an annual that needs to be replanted if it is judged to be a
good addition to the garden. Verdict to
come in the fall.
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*Culpeper's Complete Herbal: A Book of Natural Remedies for
Ancient Ills; by Nicholas Culpeper
Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654) studied at Cambridge and
became an apothecary, physician and astrologer in London. While only the most
imprudent individual would follow his dictates today without question, the
Herbal remains a fascinating historical treatise regarding botanical and
medical science.
