I planted more Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) seeds I think in the late winter. You can see them coming up. Pawpaws are fairly slow. They send out a taproot first before popping up. (Click on all photos to enlarge)
From seed you don't know what quality of fruit you will get. It could be bad, it could be awesome. I bought two cultivars from the nursery:
One is a 'Davis'; the smaller one is 'Sunflower'. I haven't tried Pawpaw yet. I've read different takes on it. It seems you either love it or hate it. Here's two seedlings I have that were started last year:
There is one other that has been chewed down by slugs I don't know how many times and it just keeps coming back up from its taproot. The slugs aren't as profuse now as in spring, since its hot; in fact, it seems they are nowhere to be seen this time of year. But also on the 'sunflower' cultivar, which I bought before the 'Davis' when its leaves had not started coming out yet, the slugs devoured every leaf that came out in spring. I tried something that may seem somewhat gross: I took my facial shavings (I usually let a short beard grow and then shave it clean and repeat the process) and put them around the standard of the tree. The slugs won't go over stuff like that. If it's itchy to us, it's sort of like glass shards to them.
Two other seedlings I had I gave away to someone who gave me this medlar tree (Mespilus):
It was only recently grafted, and on top of that was the transplanting, so though it started to put out what looks like the beginnings of flower buds, it just didn't have enough in it for this year. I'm sure the tree is going to do very well. Medlars are tough.
Here's the Monkey Puzzles (Araucaria araucana):
You may remember them from this post.
And here is one I grew from a seed I found in Redwood Park:
There are two soaring Monkey Puzzles close to one another that the Brown brothers grew. The trees are near to the place where their tree house was. I had been wondering for a while if they were male and female (which is required for seed production, and even then, only when they are around the 40 year mark) as I would never find any seeds at their bases. But of course the squirrels take the seeds. They are very edible and part of the staple diet of the native people of Chile whence the tree hails. I found three seeds. Just one made it. I think the animals can sense if the seed inside has started some beginning germination process. Though of course the seeds would never take hold here naturally on the forest floor like firs or pines.
Or maybe they would. We haven't really had the time to see yet. The Monkey Puzzle trees are more hardy (cold-wise) than people give them credit for.
Hardier than these:
Italian Stone Pine (Pinus pinea). I have three left, from these.
Here's the one Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) I have left, a lone survivor, which I germinated from seed scrounged in Redwood Park:
Previous pics of the Giant Redwood can be found here.
Here's another lone survivor:
He is likewise from Redwood Park, as you can see from this post and this post.
These Chinese Dogwood (Cornus Kousa) seedlings need to be put into individual pots:
After flowering, these trees have edible fruits.
Two Holly seedlings (Ilex aquifolium) I found growing under the spruce and hawthorn behind the compost bins:
Cool cat keeping cool:
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