Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2010 | Page 98

gardening Island Life - August/September 2010 Tina trained as a professional gardener after leaving school and spent a summer working in Tuscany as an English Gardener. She has a National Diploma in Horticulture. Be your own seed bank Tina Hughes If you have a question for Tina need some advice or even a suggestion for an article then please email: [email protected] Despite my efforts to hold on to summer, Verbena bonariensis, winter flowering autumn is on it's way and I am turning my hellebores and a gorgeous perennial poppy, thoughts to the future. Once an essential Papavier orientalis 'Patty's Plum' that I have habit, and still a valuable practice for grown for the first time this year. enterprising gardeners today is to save seeds. Another good reason to collect seeds is so There used to be no alternative, especially that you can exchange them with friends. for vegetables, which is how the glorious If you have specialised interests such as diversity of heritage varieties developed. heritage vegetables, sharing your seeds There is a lot to be said for the reliability, with members of groups or societies is an and disease resistance of modern F1 hybrids, excellent way to acquire interesting and but saving seeds from crops that have been unusual seeds from varieties not available successful in our own gardens offers an from the shops. extra benefit because over time they become uniquely suited to our individual tastes, and prevailing local conditions. This is also a way to ensure we maintain a good range of genetic diversity in our garden plants and crops. Saving seed from annual and perennial ornamental plants is a form of insurance. It is also an interesting venture into plant breeding as you cannot precisely predict the outcome. I save seeds from annual poppies and Aquelegias which seem to produce a wide range of variations, I choose seed from the plants with the shapes and colours that I like best. This year I am also making a point of saving seed from the lovely perennial 98 Visit our new website - www.visitislandlife.com