Kinky Seeds

Funny.  It’s rare to find an artichoke gone to seed.  Typically gobbled up when cheek-pinching perfect, young and in bud.  Passing one up is like a child passing up a perfectly creamy, chocolate dipped ice-cream cone.  Impossible.

But artichokes left to flower are stunning and better yet, post flower, there are seeds!  And the whacky, wooly pappus of artichoke seeds are nearly as irresistible as the artichokes themselves.  Words like artful or kinky aren’t enough to capture their sprite-like form.

I collected these seeds and others in keeping with my new year’s resolutions:

#1: Grow more flowers.  #2: Collect more seeds.  #3: Grow more plants from seed.  #4:Grow more flowers.

These seeds spell opportunity and a happy future.  It will be my first time growing chokes from seed.  I’ll be using the guidelines as outlined in Grow it Organically.

If it were up to me, artichokes would be key to every gardens patchwork.  Any garden.  From roadside median, perennial border, edible landscape or kitchen garden.  They are “keep fingers clear” delicious (if you didn’t know) and a fantastic focal point, especially when grown in mass (plant at least three).  And with so many varieties to choose from, how could you go wrong?