A Fistful of Dollars
Money Plant - Silver Dollar Plant - Lunaria- also known as honesty - grown for pleasure and not for profit.
The lunaria finished blooming in the late spring and the seedpods have been developing on the plant.
It is time to go out and pick my fistful of dollars for Green Thumb Sunday!!
The money plant is biennial - leaves in the first year and flowers in the second year. For continual flowering plants you need to plant the seeds for 2 consecutive years. I already have a couple of small new plants that have been growing. These will produce flowers for next spring.
Carefully cut and remove stems from the plant. Each pod consists of 3 layers. The outside layers can be carefully removed to reveal the lighter, transparent middle layer.
I gently rub each piece of "money" between my thumb and fore finger and the two outer pieces fall off. The seeds will fall away with the outside layers. The picture to the right shows the outside layers, with seeds, that have separated from the middle layer.
What you are left with is the inner transparent layer which can be used in dried arrangements.
You will get an abundance of seeds each year. I always sprinkle some seeds around the main plant so that Nature can do its thing and grow new plants for the following year.
The seeds can be left to drop in the garden and will germinate quite easily the following spring. Seeds may also be started inside by sprinkling them on top of the dirt. They will germinate in 10 to 14 days.
Seeds can also be stored in a cool, dry place for swapping or trading with other gardeners.
Print a seed label for trading/giving away lunaria seeds.
It's Green Thumb Sunday.
Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday.
Visit As the Garden Grows for more information.
8 friendly comments:
I used to love these when I was little - don't see them very often anymore - they obviously went out of fashion :(
I haven't seen these in years. They have a pretty flowers.
We see them growing wild around here quite a lot. I don't think I've ever seen the flowers though! They're really pretty.
Thanks for the info :)
I played too :)
I didn't know it had such an attractive bloom.
Another plant to add to my list for next season.
Marnie
I am growing these for the first time this year because of reading about the seed pods awhile back. I had no idea what the pods actually looked like until now! Thank you for sharing them. I look forward to next year when they bloom.
Back as far as I can remember, which would be during the late 50's early 60's, my Mom and Gramma used to always refer to your "money plant" as the "silver dollar" plant. We always made a point in the late fall of picking them for indoor arrangements. So if anyone is curious about other names for your money plants you can always say "silver-dollars"!
By the way, LOVE YOUR SITE!
cowsreallyrock - I call them silver dollar plants too, that is why I used the title, "fistful of dollars" Guess I just forgot to mention that name in my post. I'll go and add it now. Thanks for jogging my memory.
Also thanks for your kind words about my site.
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