Hepatica japonica ‘Shigyoku’

This spring I invested in two small and ridiculously beautiful double flowered Japanese Hepaticas from Thimble Farms in Canada.

Hepatica japonica ‘Wakakusa’

They are the result of years of breeding in Japan.  But even the less specialized Hepaticas are delightful to look at for their short flowering season in the spring.

Hepatica nobilis v. pyrenaica

And they are also sufficient reason to look into propagating them from seed.  It turns out that Hepatica seed is best sown very soon after harvesting so that now is the time to be seeking it from whatever source you use.  Or, alternatively, harvest your own Hepatica seed and pot it up now.  I found some very good references online for harvesting Hepatica seed but I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for.  I had never actually observed them to fall in the garden.  But this week I noticed the seed heads hanging over the neighboring pots were dropping little seeds on the gravel.  As I fished them out with my knife, I knocked some more seeds loose and pretty soon I had a handful.

Hepatica seeds falling off

Hepatica Seeds

For the outside plants I ordered some paper tea bags with drawstrings that I could put around the seed heads and thereby catch them if I wasn’t there when they came loose.

Tea bags for seed collection

Tea bag on Hepatica seed head

While I was going through this process around the yard with some other interesting plants like the Adonis, I noticed a little seedling in the pathway.

Tree Peony seedling

In the over thirty years that those Tree Peonies have been in place this is the first time I’ve seen a seedling.  Peonies are slow to develop from seed so this little guy is precious indeed.