It’s my rule never to plant annuals. They’re a waste of time because the plants die in their first year. They must be planted again & again, each year, hence the moniker: annual.

But every once in a while there’s one I think worth that extra effort.

Sea Blush tops my list of favorite annuals.

And when I don’t want to spend packets of money buying seed, or can’t find packets of seed to buy, even more work is required.

At first, there was the effort to acquire the wildflowers for our garden.  Happily those transplants survived the move & seeded themselves around a bit.   I celebrated the discovery of a couple more blooms the following year.  These little successes make me happy.    🙂

Once a patch of Sea Blush was establishing, I wanted to be sure I wasn’t doing anything to ruin it.  The seeds germinate during our coastal winter rains, and start showing up with the first wave of weeds early in the new year. l didn’t want to pull any out of the garden by mistake, so I learned to identify a Sea Blush seedling .

Now that additional plants are surviving, I want to speed the spread of them around our mountain (rocky outcropping) even more. As the flowers fade, I’ve kept a keen eye on the patch in order to collect seed.  The plan is to sow the seed in some similar mossy crevices.

I’m surprised that the Sea Blush goes to seed so early – – it’s not even June yet – – a full month before summer begins!

Some of the seed stalks are harvested & scattered on other slopes of our mountain.

Other stalks are left in place – –  just in case the seed isn’t mature enough yet.  These will self sow when they’re good & ready, confidently guaranteeing  some plants for next year.

But, cross my fingers, that every seed is viable. Hopefully all this effort pays off & there’s even more patches of Sea Blush on the mountain next spring.

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