Whoever said that money doesn’t grow on trees was right. It grows on a small, bushy plant.
Just one type of currency, though: silver dollars (Lunaria annua).
You have a couple of options for planning your investment. For quickest returns, sow seed indoors in a seedling flat filled with moist potting soil. Kept at about 70 degrees, the seeds germinate within two to three weeks.
Plant the seedlings outdoors at the same time you plant out tomatoes, then harvest your first dollars later this summer. If you plant very soon, you may still be able to get a return on your investment this year.
Despite the “annua” in the botanical name, however, silver dollar plant often behaves more like a biennial than an annual, growing only leaves the first year, then expiring the next year after making flowers and dollars.
The second, more relaxed way to grow silver dollar plant is as a biennial. Sow the seeds outdoors sometime in early summer — timing is not critical — to rake in your dollars early next summer.
Whichever method you choose, give silver dollars a site with well-drained soil in sun or partial shade. Avoid a rich soil, though, or plants put their energy into making leaves at the expense of flowers and dollars.
The flowers that foreshadow the silver dollars are pretty, but not enough to warrant giving the plant a prominent spot in your flower bed. A better location is in a separate cutting garden, a wild area, or nestled — and somewhat lost — among other kinds of flowers.
The money plant’s flowers have four petals in the shape of a cross, putting it in the mustard family, along with broccoli, radish and alyssum. Usually, the flowers are pink or purple, except for one variety with white flowers. For a little more pizazz, there is a variety, variegata, with white margins on its leaves.
Silver dollar plant, along with other members of the mustard family, ripens its seeds within a dry fruit called a silique. As the silique ripens, the two outside halves dry, then fall away to leave the ripened seeds still on the plant and suspended within a translucent and silvery round septum, about the size of a silver dollar.
For dried flower arrangements, cut stems just as the outsides of the pods are beginning to yellow, then hang them upside down in an airy location. Once the outsides dry, rub them off with your fingers without damaging the delicate membrane between them.
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