Maybe a better title would be “Seed Hoarding.”

January is the time to sort seeds. We start sowing in February here in North Carolina.

I must say that sorting would be easier if Flower had done a better job of storing them. Note the envelopes with 2015 on them. (Sigh)

It seems as though any old bag will do.

Accurate labels are not important either.

Thankfully I took an Economic Botany class in college.

Our final was identifying hundreds of seeds by sight.

I do throw in a few pods with  the seeds.

If I did not, I am afraid that Columbine seeds could be mistaken for a bag of mouse poop.

I found these unidentified seeds in a tiny bucket. (Anybody recognize them?)

Seeds do have their own character.

Here are some Hibiscus seeds that were husked today.

Jack-o-Lantern has never grown here. I’ll try again.

I seem to have sown a seed in my coffee.

FLOWER

I have a bad habit of sticking seeds and plant pieces in the pots of other plants.

I tell myself I will remember this.  I will know what it is when it grows up.

I have done this too many times to keep track of what was stuck where.

So along with the designated plants in the pots, there are mystery plants.

I find a pieces of a plant broken off.   Which plant?  What color?

No matter.  Stick it here in this empty spot.

I have a habit of purloining seeds.

I spent a whole day with this piece of picked-off-the-tree citrus fruit in my bra.

I did not remember it until that night while changing into my pajamas.

I did manage to label those particular seeds.

Not that I wouldn’t recognize the mean little seedlings with their lethal thorns.

I have moved a “mystery tree” around the yard for years. I knew I must have had  a reason for planting it in the kids’ sandbox.

It finally bloomed this year.

It is a peach.  I now realize it was the pit of a long-ago snack eaten by one of my now-grown children.  Mystery solved.

While clearing out a box this morning, I found this.

Could it be a seed from a Tuscan pear?  We shall see.

FLOWER