Cardinal Flower Propagation by Brett Auttenberry

A guest post from Brett Auttenberry, hotriculturalist butterfly gardener extraordinaire.

T'is Autumn. That means t'is time to start gathering fruit and seeds for this year's stratification season.

Last season I had great success propagating Lobelia cardinalis, Cardinal Flower: 147 seedlings from one seed pod! The following is my method...

Collect the seed pods (pic 2) when they are fully ripened on the plant. They will be brown and dry. Carefully remove them either with a pinch or a good sharp pare of snips. Lay the pod on a white piece of paper and splitit open. Many tiny spherical seed will spill out. Allow them to sit out and air dry for a time to make sure no moisture is present.

Place the seeds in a small sealed container into the refrigerator for 6-8 weeks. This is called "cold stratification" and is required for many species including Cardinal Flower.

When the stratification time is done take a shallow container (pic 3), about an inch deep, with perforations made in the bottom. This will be your germination tray. Typically perforations are meant to allow for drainage. In this case they allow water to seep up into the container. Fill the container with a good seeding medium and sprinkle the seeds evenly as possible over the medium. The seeds are so small they will almost disappear. At this point DO NOT WATER. Watering will displace and clump the seeds very close together.

Take a second container (pics below) big enough to hold the germination tray and puncture the sides about 3/8"-1/2" up the side. This will be your catch basin. The holes up the side allow the basin to keep a consistent water depth without flooding the germination tray.

Place the seeded germination tray into the catch basin and pour water into the catch basin, allowing the water to hydrate the medium in the germination tray from below.

Once the seeds germinate allow them to grow in the medium until they have 3-5 leaves. Gently remove about a square inch of the medium with the seedlings out of the tray at a time and separate each seedling. You can bare root them if needed in order to separate them. Place each seedling into its own seed cell in 6-pack flats.

Place flats in a large shallow storage container with punctures about 1" up the sides (pic below). Again, this will keep a consistent water depth to keep the soil moist/wet. Until plants are established it's still a good idea to not water directly over the plants but directly into the storage container and allow the water to seep upwards into the cells.

Once the plants have well established roots repot them into 4" pots and place in the same storage container set up. You will, of course, need to have twice as many now that they're in the larger pots.

I hope you have fun!!

Questions can be sent to canpsbr@gmail.com to be forwarded directly to Brett.

Propagation Team Strikes Again!

This ones coming in a little late. My apologies for that. I'm currently working on a manuscript and it has consumed a lot of my free time.

The propagation team continues to do good work. This time we started some seeds in cold moist stratification in addition to upsizing our backlog of donations. We had a major contribution from master plantsman Brett Auttenberry this time around.

Lots of lead plant, redbud, cardinal flower and frostweed, thanks to Brett Auttenberry.

Folks that attended:
Pat Villemavette
Dale Bryan
Leif Remo
Alan Pringle
Ken Bosso
Brett Auttenberry
Dick Erlicher
Matthew Herron
Lauren Hull

I've updated the webpage to include links to our propagation plant tracking list. Check out the updated webpage: http://canps.weebly.com/propagation-program.html



Plants we worked on:

Amorpha	fruiticosa	Leadplant	10
Asclepias	tuberosa	Butterfly Milkweed	7
Asclepias	viridis	Antelope Milkweed	4
Chamaechrista	sp.	Patrige Pea	30+
Decumaria	barbara	Woodvamp	6
Liatris	pycnostachya	Prairie Blazing Star	50+
Lobelia	cardinalis	Cardinal Flower	55
Opuntia	sp.	Prickly Pear	7+
Penstemon	digitalis	Foxglove Beardtongue	100+
Pinus	glabra	Spruce Pine	2
Serenoa	repens	Saw Palmetto	1
Stokesia	laevis	Stokes Aster	100+
Verbesina	caroiniana	Frostweed, Crown Beard	19

Allan Pringle heading up the seed stratification operations with his daughter and Lauren Hull.

Loading up the goods!

We are quickling filling up this hoop house. We will have to make arrangements as we get more plants. We are also noticing some major effects of the heat and lack of rain on the plants. Overhead irrigation has not really been able to keep up with the plants as they have changed containers. Volunteers are still needed to check on the plants. I've tried to go at least once a week, but that is not enough. Any help is appreciated.

Frenchtown Field and Propagation Day

 It was a fine day, if hot and humid, to get out and hike the trails at Frenchtown Conservation Area (FCA). The FCA is Baton Rouge's largest conservation property, coming in at 496 acres with Sandy Creek just behind at 386 acres and Waddill Outdoor Education Center next at 237 acres. Owned and operated by BREC Conservation Department, this property is full of surprises. Summer months do not typically boast a wide variety of woodland flowers but along edges and openings and into open woodlands, savannahs and prairies, the procession of blossoms that began in the spring continues. Open swamps are also a great place to look for summer blooms.

On drive in down Frenchtown Road, for example, I pointed out a patch of Bear's Foot or Hairy Leafcup (Smallanthus uvedalius) that I had only discovered a few days before while visiting to do trail work for BREC. It was in full bloom. Unfortunately, I couldn't grab a photo from my position in the backseat so I offer you this one down for you from the internet.

I like S. uvedalius. It's leaves remind me of Oakleaf Hydrangea. The fat, round rays stand in great contrast to the foliage. When I see it I think of its mesophytic relative Polymnia canadensis and the rich deciduous forest in which the leafcups tend to grow. 

Upon arrival, we took a nice group shot. We visited two separate, unique botanical areas. One follows an escarpment from loess terrace into backwater sloughs of the Comite River. There, steep slopes between 10-20 ft can be found where a number of plants uncommon to our area can be found. Wild Comfrey (Cynoglossum virginianum), Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa), Woodvamp (Decumaria barbara) were some of the main targets. The area is also quite rich in fern species. On our way out to this point, one of our members stumbled upon a large Xystodesmid Millipede, a diverse family of colorful millipedes many of which excrete hydrogen cyanide compound reminiscent of wedding cake.

Here I'm passing it around to let everyone get a good wiff. Cyanide compounds are also found in many plants in the Rosaceae family, including plums, apricots, apples, cherries and almonds. The crushed leaves of our native Cherry Laurel and Black Cherry give that distinct aroma as well. It is actually an evolutionary adaptation meant to deter insects, much as the millipede intends it to be used.

With a thick canopy cover most of the plants I wanted to show people were hard to find, but I think people enjoyed learning about an area where such topography can be found. I found another S. uvedalia specimen, another great addition to list in this area. There are numerous ridges in the area that still need to be combed through for cool plants. Getting out in March and April next year will be important to future botanical surveys. On our way out to next area we found several Virginia Snakeroot (Aristolochia serpentaria) plants and some blooming Anglepod (Matelea gonocarpos).

Next we visited the second botanical area: the azalea patch.

In the above picture I am taking some cuttings of Rhododendron canescens. There are likely more patches in East Baton Rouge, but I have not seen any others on public land. We took several cuttings and a slough filled with Golden Club (Orontium aquaticum), a parish record that has not been been recorded in the annals of science. Again, they're not in bloom right now, so I offer this picture from the internet instead.

Hard to believe that in all the years of botanical exploration in this area, this plant was never documented. I will be returning when they are flowering to gather specimens to be entered into the LSU Herbarium.

On our way out, we found an interesting plant in a ditch. I had not seen this one in Baton Rouge yet: Coastal Rose-gentian (Sabatia calycina). I'd never seen this plant period and only seen one kind of Sabatia down on coasts behind dunes and in marshes. There are however a few inland species. These specimes were not in optimal habitat and appeared to be hanging by a thread. I'd love to get seed and see if we could get a health population going somewhere.

Plant List from the Frenchtown hike:

Gulf Sebastian's Bush (Ditrysinia fruticosa)

Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa)

Virginia Snake Root (Aristolochia serpentaria)

Bear's Foot (Smallanthus uvedalia)

American Strawberry Bush (Euonymous americana)

Wild Comfrey (Cynoglossum virginiana)

Green Dragon (Arisaema dracontium)

Silverbell (Halesia diptera)

Piedmont Azalea (Rhododendron canescens)

Witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

...more to be added as I remember them. Send an email to canpsbr at gmail for others you remember seeing.

After lunch at McAlister's Deli, we headed over to Burden to clean up the cuttings. We had a great turn out: Kitty Bull, Janella Rachal, Brenda Baumgardner, Ken Basson, Mary Ann Atkinson, James Henson, J Edgar Hough, WIll McManus, Leif Remo, Helen Peebles, Brian Early, Dick Ehlricher. Several new faces, which was great to see. The Rhododendrons were only a small portion of the workday, however. We had a number of plants that were donated that needed to be separated and repotted. Just in the nick of time, too! Summer heat and overgrown root systems do not go well together and many plants desperately need room grown larger and healthier.

We finished with quite a shipment of plants. Some of the plants we divided:

American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)

Redbud (Cercis candensis)

Wooly Huckleberry (Gaylussacia mosieri)

Alabama Azalea (Rhododendron alabamensis)

Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)

Florida Anise (Illicium floridanum)

American Strawberry Bush (Euonymous americanum)

Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia)

Coralbean (Erythrina herbacea)

Winter Huckleberry (Vaccinium arboreum)

Foxglove Penstemon (Penstemon digitalis

Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens)

As you can see, this makes us very happy.

Our plants are currently protected under shade cloths and overhead irrigation. They still need to be monitored however and everyone in the propagation team is encouraged to swing by Burden to check on them. 

Afterwards, we went to the milkweed patch I mentioned in our previous propagation post.  CANPS member Brian Early donated some Aquatic Milkweed he had propagated himself from wild plants around the state. We planted some 15 seedlings into the patch. Those transplanted from Cleggs stock into the same area have been thriving so it seemed that this would be a good place to improve genetics. Hopefully this patch will thrive and produce a genetically healthy patch capable of re-seeding.

All in all, a great day. Can't wait for July. Summer party pot luck and movie screening.

Propagation Program - Orientation Day with Notes on the Wild Plants of Burden

It was a lovely day at Burden to dig into the nitty gritty of the propagation program. There are still many details to be worked out but so far, so good. Those who attended: Kitty Bull, Britton Hailor, Paul Orr, Cyndi Levi, Julie Morgan, Tricia Hunt, Helen Peebles, Dick Erlicher, Joe Delotte, Julia Hawkins, James Henson, Allan Pringle, Dianna Moritz and Matthew Herron (that's me!).

The outline as it was discussed in the meeting is featured on our new Propagation Webpage (click here). We potted roughtly 20 flowering dogwoods, 10 mockernut hickories, 10 redbuds, and 7 black-eyed susans. While we intended to start our own work area on the research side of Burden, the Master Gardeners have been generous enough to allow us to use their work benches and tools, as long as we keep things clean and organized. Next work day will be June 21st from 4-6pm.

 

In other news, I've been continuing to explore and think about the Burden site and its potential for ecological restoration and native plant diversity. Some interesting specimens have been found out there and we'll have to continue exploring to understand what plant populations can be conserved, enhanced or, in some cases, restored.

This aquatic milkweed (Asclepias perennis) was purchased from Cleggs and planted in a low wet area in the restoration portion of woods at Burden. More of an experiment than anything else, my hopes are that we can get enough genetic diversity in this area to build a happy, reproducing population of native milkweed from which we might collect seeds. Hopefully they will also disperse naturally into the landscape and find its own niche in other parts of Baton Rouge. The closest known wild population is at Bluebonnet Swamp.

Burden also has some nice populations of wildflowers due to some areas that are being managed with low- or no-mow areas. Here you can see a profusion of Clasping Coneflower. We'll hopefully be collecting a few seeds from around the area when they are ready. This species is fairly agressive and easy to grow so would be good for a variety of settings and skill levels for native gardeners. 

Dianna found an interesting legume which we debated over some. After reviewing some of the options in our area, I believe it Bigpod Sesbania (Sesbania herbacea). It loves wet areas and germinates readily on moist bare mineral soil, as can be found on swamp edges as the summer heat dries up shallow waters.

Later that day after on a hike, I found some obedient plant growing in a low-mow zone. A wild plant, for all I can tell. There is a known population at Bluebonnet also. Driving East towards Livingston Parish, they become more abundant on the roadsides, but it is not clear whether that is purely due to changing soils or due to change in management of roadsides. Baton Rouge may just be using more herbicides to manage roadsides than out in the country.

Well that is all folks! Stay tuned for more propagation reports and our next field trip we are planning for June.

Matthew