Événement

Propagating Colorado Native Plants from Seeds

Interested in utilizing more natives in your 2020 garden? Here is a great opportunity!

Using native plants in our Colorado landscapes is beneficial in so many ways, however, a good variety of natives can be hard to source. Growing your own from seed can create endless options--but you have to know how. In this presentation, Jan Midgley walks us through the process from beginning to end. Using pictures of blooming plants, fruits and seeds, Jan will give detailed instructions on how to germinate, grow and transplant native plants.

Seed propagation begins with when and how to collect, clean and store seeds. Jan will walk us through these steps and then demonstrate special treatments (stratification, scarification, soaks, etc.) required to initiate germination for certain species. These techniques will be presented with materials and examples.

The final phase is sowing the seeds which requires understanding the various species and their preferred conditions (timing, media, temperature, light and irrigation at various growth phases). Jan provides resources to learn about species' natural habitats in order to customize your seed's sowing process including timing, media, temperature and light requirements.

A handout will be provided which includes an extensive list of books, websites, apps, and sources for media, pots, trays, and fertilizers as well as a slide list.

6:10 pm Doors open
6:30 pm Opening remarks
6:40 pm Speaker Introduction
6:45 pm Presentation
8:10 pm Q&A
8:30 pm Wrap Up/Final Comments

BIOGRAPHY: For thirty four years, Jan Midgley was the owner of Wildflower, a nursery selling native plants. She is the author of Nursery Sources of Native Plants of the Southeastern United States published in 1993, Southeastern Wildflowers published in 1999 (also available in 7 state versions) and Native Plant Propagation, 4th ed. She is a Past Director of the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference held annually in Cullowhee, North Carolina. She lectures and writes about the cultivation and propagation of native plants.

Jan has been gardening with native plants for forty years, challenged by soils and weather in Missouri, Michigan, Maryland, Alabama and for the last two years, Colorado.