Seed saving is a technique that stretches to the very beginning of human agriculture.

As the summer growing season winds down, most backyard gardeners are harvesting the last few cherry tomatoes and basil leaves out of their gardens. Seeds, on the other hand, are something few gardeners gather anymore.

Seed saving is a technique that stretches to the very beginning of human agriculture.  Farmers select their best crops, save the seeds and use them for the next growing season.  Today, most backyard gardeners opt for buying seed packets or seedlings at the garden store.  But a handful of Bay Area groups are working to create local seed saving networks, where local gardeners can learn to save seeds and share them. The idea is that, over time, the projects will develop plants that are specially suited for the Bay Area's unique microclimates.

Of course, seed saving isn't quite as simple as it seems.  With plants like bean and tomatoes that largely self-pollinate, the seeds you save will most likely look their their parents. Other plants are a little more promiscuous. If you grow several kinds of squash, for example, or your neighbor is growing a different kind of squash, a few insects can cross-pollinate those plants. Those seed may sprout something surprising next year.

Mat Rogers of the Backyard Seed Vault recommends keeping it simple: start with plants that have easily saved seeds and work your way up. And don't forget that gardening is always an experiment.  Here are a few local resources:

The Backyard Seed Vault's list of seed saving resources.

Richmond Grow Seed Lending Library's list of easy and difficult seeds

The Bay Area Seed Interchange Library in Berkeley

Other local seed libraries

The Seed Savers Exchange, a national network

Listen to the Backyard Seed Banks radio report online.

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Titan Arum, or Corpse Flower

This particular specimen was unfortunately not yet in bloom.  The Corpse Flower also known as the Titan Arum is best known for the smell it emits when in bloom.  It only blooms for 24 to 48 hours and it emits a smell that can range from rotting garbage to a dead corpse.  When I viewed it on Wednesday, the petals known as the spathe were wrapped around a very large hollow stem known as a spadix.  On the outside the spathe were green and you could just see the deep burgundy fray of the interior portion of the spathe.  The corpse flower not only emits a rotting meat fragrance when the spathe finally opens.  The flower's deep red or burgundy color and texture mimic the texture and appearance of rotting meat.  Moreover, during bloom the spadix heats up to the about 98 degrees Farenheit, which helps the perfume permeate the air and further seals the illusion of rotting meat.  All these attributes during bloom will then attract carrion-eating beetles and Flesh Flies that it turn pollinate the Corpse Flower in its native tropical forest clime in Sumatra.

After viewing the almost three foot Corpse flower personally, I have been following the daily blog about its progress on the Friend of the Greenhouse at  www.fotgh.com.  The blog has been updated faithfully by the Greenhouse Manager, Martin Marhoot.  Early last week the flower debunked experts by staying closed on the day they had predicted for it to open.  It is further being perplexing by given not a rancid odor but one quite sweet and familiar – that of chocolate!  This morning, which is Friday, July 3^rd as I write this, It started to emit this odor.  The spadix also increased in girth and it looks now like the spathes will relax and open just in time for fourth of July  What kind of scent will waft through Greenhouse is now up for debate.

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