Frasera in Re-runs

The seed pots below may not look particularly exciting, but to us, this birthing moment is one worth celebrating. Just over a year ago, we flowered our first plant of the North American native (New York south to Louisiana), Frasera caroliniensis. Like an agave, frasera takes up to two decades to flower, after which it dies, so the event is one of both excitement and sadness. The long double-dormancy required for the seed it leaves behind, to sprout, is why you rarely see these fascinating plants offered for sale. After our plant flowered, we sowed the seed in early December 2024, at which time, they immediately went into cold confinement, stored just above freezing. After a 90 day chill, they were moved into a greenhouse with a minimum night temperature of 60 degrees, where they remained until early July, at which time they were returned for another 90 day solitary sentence in the cooler. They were paroled back into the warmth in mid-October, and the seed germinated a few weeks later, almost one year after they were sown. Now that we know our experiment worked, we’ll sow more, and hopefully one day have enough to share.