GARDENS:THERE'S A FRUITY red poppy that we have in our garden. It's a scrumptious cherry colour, or maybe it's more like a refreshing blackberry sorbet. In any case, it looks good enough to eat. I'm particularly keen on it for two reasons: the first because I bred it myself, sort of. And second, because it allows me to use the verb "to rogue" in explaining how I sort of bred it.
There had been a cheap-lipstick-pink strain of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) in this garden for years. These annuals love poor, dry soil such as ours, and it effortlessly replicated itself by seed. About eight years ago, I noticed that a couple of the plants had richer, darker blooms than the others, so I ruthlessly pulled up every plant with the original bargain-basement toned flowers, and let only the new posher individuals set seed. The following year we had more of the improved, sumptuously-coloured poppies, but there were still plenty of the old guard. Every morning as soon as the flowers opened, I ripped up anything where the flower colour was paler than a ruby. In other words, I rogued them out. “Roguing out”, or just “roguing” is where one removes any plant that does not bear the desired characteristics. It is a essential practice among those who save their own seed.
Most of our poppies are now satisfyingly opulent, but if I don’t go a-roguing regularly, the old undesirables pop up again, eager to contribute their dime-store genes to the next generation. If you fancy a spot of genetic engineering, then opium poppies are a satisfying crop to play with. You’ll see results in a year (a short time in the plant calendar), and the seeds are beautifully packaged by nature in baroque-looking shakers. If you want to spread the seed around the garden, cut the stems as soon as the pods are ripe, and walk around dispersing them, like a priest solemnly sprinkling holy water out of an aspergillum.
Okay, that’s all frivolous stuff on the surface, but in fact, selecting plants for certain traits, and keeping (or improving upon) those traits, is important stuff for gardeners. It’s something that was, in times past (and perhaps will be again in the future), crucial for the survival of our species. Developing good strains of food plants, and keeping them stable, was a skill that every food-grower understood and practised, before large seed companies encouraged us to forget about all that.
But is there any need to select and save our own seed any more, now that it is expertly done for us by businesses that specialise in this sort of thing? Well yes, there is. For a start, it’s fun and rewarding to produce our own specially-designed strain of a plant, be it ornamental or practical. After that, there are dozens of reasons for selecting and saving home-grown seed – although we have room for only a handful here.
It’s cheaper, of course, to save our own. And, if we have an unusual plant, we can pass its seed on to other gardeners (and help ensure its survival should it fail in our garden).
We can also select for attributes that suit our needs, desires or growing conditions. For example, we could select for flower colour (as I did), or for a plant that is taller, or more compact, or bushier, or that has a longer blooming period, or a particular leaf shape. Equally, we might choose plants that are more drought-proof, or more resistant to mildew, or less prone to insect attack (darker-leaves, in my experience, are often less palatable to suckers and munchers). The qualities that are considered by those who raise seed strains are myriad. Just think of all the different sizes, shapes, colours and growth habits of lettuce or tomatoes, for example, and then consider that each one of these varieties was carefully selected over many years.
The greater the number of different strains in existence of any one crop, the better it is for the general welfare of the crop – and the people that depend on them. A poignant, and close-to-home example of this is the Great Famine. The main variety of potato grown in Ireland at that time was the Lumper. It was high-yielding, but woefully prone to blight. Things may have been different if there was a greater diversity of potatoes under cultivation, each variety with different properties.
Not all plants produce seeds that are suitable for saving. F1 hybrids (the first generation of crosses made by seed companies), may either be sterile, or produce offspring that do not resemble the parents. And some plants are more promiscuous than others, and will cross with similar varieties, with the result that the progeny may have a jumble of characteristics, and not necessarily the right ones. They may, on the other hand, create a new and exciting strain – so a curious eye is just as useful as a critical one.
Seed saving is a huge subject, and I’ll return again to it next week, when I get get to work among the vegetables. jpowers@irishtimes.com
The Irish Seed Saver Association in Scariff,
Co Clare works to save and disperse rare and endangered varieties of food crops. Its next course on seed saving is on August 18th (www.irishseedsavers.ie)
This week's work
Established beech, hornbeam and other deciduous hedges should be trimmed now, before this year’s growth hardens.
When you are clipping remember that the base should be slightly wider than the top. This allows light to get to the lower parts, and prevents them from becoming bald.
If you are using an electric hedge trimmer, wear goggles and gloves, don’t balance on anything unstable, don’t overreach, and be mindful of the cable. Take short breaks from clipping and trimming when your muscles become tired to avoid repetitive strain injury.
If you have planted a new hedge, or put in some trees and shrubs this year, make sure that they have enough moisture during dry spells. If you need to water, make it a thorough drenching, rather than a light trickle.
The latter encourages roots to form near the surface, and makes the plant more vulnerable to drought. After watering, apply a mulch: grass clippings are cheap and handy – but keep them a few centimetres clear of the stem.