Complete Your Gardening Cycle: Growing Seeds

(Page 7 of 7)

August/September 1993
By Andy Van Hevelingen 
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Propagation and Parentage

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As a commercial wholesale herb grower, I still regard growing herbs from seed with mixed emotions. There is no easier way to propagate annual herbs and most biennials. However, continued seed propagation of cultivars or hybrids, if not done selectively, can result in the eventual loss of important genetic qualities of the original parents. I recall reading in old herb books about a dwarf purple basil that I believe is now lost, and I know of a commercial grower whose Purple Ruffles basil mostly came up with green spots this year. The popular lavender cultivar Munstead has been propagated by seed for years and is probably far different from the original strain.

To maintain the characteristics of the parents, cultivars of perennial herbs should be vegetatively propagated. Those grown commercially from seed must be selected for varietal characteristics; seedlings that don’t measure up should be discarded. Many annuals can be propagated from cuttings, and some growers use this as a means of maintaining a variety.

I feel that we, as gardeners, have a responsibility to try to preserve “old-fashioned” plants, and I applaud seed foundations that are establishing ­genetic seed banks for heirloom plants in an attempt to perpetuate certain varieties so that we won’t be left with an odd lot of hybrid seedlings.

Andy Van Hevelingen is a writer and wholesale herb grower in Newberg, Oregon.

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