Best shrubs to grow from seed

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A. I’ve grown numerous shrubs and small shrubby plants from seed. The latest batch was last year, when I ordered wall germander, thyme and rosemary seeds from Richters herbs in Ontario — as part of my plan to gradually replace less enduring plants with ones that, once settled in, will tolerate drought and other challenges that my forest-surrounded garden presents. All the seeds germinated brilliantly.

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Another small, superbly drought-tolerant shrub that I’ve grown from seed is a cistus (rock rose) called Pink Silk, from Plant World Seeds. I value the several Pink Silk cistus (rock rose) plants in hot, sunny parts of the garden. They are compact evergreen shrubs with soft, grey-green foliage and pale pink summer flowers.

Other successes have been daphnes, shrubby clematis and peony. The first shrubby clematis I grew was Clematis stans (Japanese clematis), a compact upright shrub with woody stems. The broad, bright green leaves are attractively segmented and toothed.

C. stans is one of the hyacinth-flowered clematis varieties. My plant has proved wonderfully enduring and is well established at a corner of a small plot with dubious growing conditions. These shrubs produce scented, lavender-blue, hyacinth-like flowers in late summer.

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A more recent sowing has produced another hyacinth-flowered clematis — C. heracleifolia (Chinese clematis). They are still young plants, described as growing slightly larger than C. stans.

Growing shrubs from seed sometimes produces interesting variations. A peony I grew as Paeonia veitchii var woodwardii, described as bearing cerise-pink flowers, produced gorgeous coral pink blooms.

I’m glad I grew several daphnes from seed years ago. Many of them, once popular plants, now are unavailable, as plants or seeds.

Currently, Plant World Seeds is the best source I know of for tree, shrub, perennial and other seeds. Their vast selection of hardy geraniums is a wonder. This source has an especially user-friendly website.

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