Both this year and last year there was a lot of interest in the Amaranth I plant in my ‘mostly’ vegetable garden for yard birds. This year I offered seeds to those readers who might want to give them a try.
Just prior to my back surgery I collected a bunch of seeds, dried them out and attempted to separate them from the flower chafe and today I plan on mailing them to those who requested them. If anyone’s interested I have enough seeds to fill about a half-dozen more requests.
I don’t get a lot of bird species variety in my yard and most that I do get are common but in late summer they love to feast on the Amaranth seeds. Besides providing food for birds I enjoy having around, the plants are attractive (at least in my garden) and functional in providing intermittent shade for some of my vegetables that can burn up in our summer heat.
The seeds are tiny but there’s lots of them and birds love to crack them open to get at the tender embryos inside so there’s usually gobs of flower debris stuck to their bills as evidence of their enthusiasm for eating them.
As I see it, these are the advantages and disadvantages of growing this variety of Amaranth (a variety I’m unsure of) as a yard plant for bird lovers.
Advantages:
- Seed production is immense from very tall plants (mine average 9-10′) so not many plants are required.
- Some birds love’m and some don’t. In my yard the ones that don’t include European Starlings and House Sparrows, which suits me just fine. Mostly I get House Finches, American Goldfinches and Lesser Goldfinches feeding on the seeds but if you have more variety you should get more species.
- Hummingbirds are attracted to the Amaranth for cover, for shady resting places and for feeding on the tiny insects they provide.
- A variety of species, including California Quail, like to dust bathe in the shaded soil beneath the Amaranth, and others collect the seeds that fall to the ground.
- By midsummer the very tall plants are great for providing backyard privacy.
Potential disadvantages:
- In my garden the seeds that fell to the ground in the fall ‘volunteer’ every spring so in early summer I have to keep them under control by tilling/weeding. However, they don’t grow in what’s left of my lawn and they’re fairly easy to control, even in my garden.
- This variety may be too tall for some/many uses but it’s just about perfect for me.
- Preferences of the plant include being sown outside (or volunteered outside) rather than started indoors which makes them spindly (it won’t start growing until it’s warm enough so late frost generally isn’t a problem), when very small their soil must be kept moist but after that they’re fairly tolerant of dry soil, they do best with lots of sun.
- If you live in a windy area they may, or may not, need to be staked.
This is what my Amaranth looks when the flower plumes are just beginning to dominate the plants. I told you they were tall.
And this is what they look like a few weeks later when the plants become flower heavy and often loaded with birds.
So, if you’re interested in seeds, I have enough left to send out about a half-dozen samples (maybe more) of several hundred tiny seeds to regular blog followers. Here’s the procedure: Use the Contact Me link at the top of my blog to let me know you’re interested. I’ll email you and provide my mailing address so you can send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope. I’ll use those envelopes to send seeds to those who request them until I run out. Your order on the list will be determined by the order I receive the stamped, self-addressed envelopes. Please, no requests from out of country – too many potential problems with mailing seeds out of the USA.
I know, this is a long and verbose blog post for the very few readers who may have much interest in it. But after two very rough days of surgery recovery I feel well enough this morning to write and publish a post and I didn’t want the seeds to go to waste unnecessarily.
Besides, I can’t yet run a marathon or bust broncs so what else do I have to do?
Ron
Update:
As you can see, demand for my limited number of seeds has been much higher than expected (I got a bunch from Facebook followers too.). I’m sure I’ve already sent my snail mail address to more viewers than I have seeds to fill their requests.so please, no more requests. I’ll send fewer seeds in each order than I intended to and fill as many requests as I can. I apologize if that means you already sent me a SASE and won’t get any seeds.
I must have missed the first call for amaranth seeds. Anyway, the SASE is in the mail. If I’m tool late, no problem. I’ve still got some packets that I ordered last year but haven’t planted, although they won’t have the same cachet as “Ron Dudley’s Personally Harvested Special Collection”. Thanks for the pros and cons; very impressive. I’m guessing Lesser Goldfinch in the first photo, if I recall someone’s ID. Life is hard. Bird ID is even harder.
Glad you are having a good day today, after lousy ones. Up and down like a roller coaster, right?
Your amaranth posts make me smile. Our awful soil doesn’t grow much, but in late summer we always get tons of pigweed, which is in the amaranth family. I was very excited to see it the first year – this lovely short silvery ground cover, which very rapidly grew into these enormous 3 foot high bushes. Then the weed book told me what it was, and I noticed it growing in all the “wastelands” of vacant lots around town. Our neighbor is a landscape person, so now I have to be ruthless about keeping it under control. Yours is lovely, though!
What a lovely gesture. And thanks for the reminder. Ever since your first posts on the subject I have been meaning to explore whether they are available here. If they are, they can compete with our tree dahlias which often grow fourteen feet in a season – but feed bees rather than birds.
You are not running marathons yet? Shame on you.
Can’t believe you are already up and running! Well, maybe not running but moving around which is great. At some point down the road give us a short story about this recovery experience: what helped, what didn’t, things you wish you had known in advance, etc. We all learn from each other. And thanks for the offer of some seeds. I sent you my contact info in case you still have some. Take care.
Hi Ron – a generous offer. I googled amaranth Massachusetts to see if I could grow it and fell into a rabbit hole from which I am just emerging. There is such a thing as the Grand Court of Amaranth – related to the Masons. A fraternal organization which does good things. Who knew. I still don’t know if amaranth grows here but if I continue to investigate my boss will say to me, as he often does, “remind me, are we actually paying you to explore every rabbit hole you can find?”
Ron, nice to see the offer of seeds. I would like to try them out, but I have too much shade in the yard. The wind blows to strong in my area. Glad to hear you are feeling some what better.
What a cool thing. 🙂 I’ll get my SASE out to you asap.
Thanks Ron, but my wife – the gardener would not appreciate plants that size in her yard. Great bird attraction though. Hope you are feeling a little better and stronger day by day.
Hope I’m not too late – yes please! Perfect for the mountain house!!! You should have my address but can resend if it’s lost somewhere. 🙂
Hi Ron,
Serendipious – I hope! I’d plan to try some Amaranth after seeing a friend who grew their seeds commercially and seeing the ones in your yard. If you have any left, I’d love some. Thanks, Kent
I also am a huge fan of the amaranth! as you know; 1 plant can reseed to hundreds of plants and pop up anywhere in the Garden. Do you have any tips for drying and extracting the seeds? You’ve inspired me to offer seeds to members in my birding class.
thanks!!
Hi Ron, If you still have some seeds, I would be interested, please.
Thank you,
ed
Ed, I’ve sent you my mailing address.
No room in my yard for these guys. Thanks anyway Ron.
You won’t be the only one, Michael.
Looking forward to trying them! They will be a nice food source in late summer/early fall for the birds. There are some plants in the area I “think” are a type of Amaranth – MUCH smaller – and note they are always in ditches or boggy areas – a clue on moisture………
Judy, my Amaranth tolerates dry soil pretty well but does best if it doesn’t get too dry for too long.
Thanks for spreading the joy ( amaranth for the birds ). What our world
needs now is more amaranth, habitat-appropriate milkweed (for the
Monarchs ), and wild plants and critters of all kinds…..
Kris, I hope to try milkweed next year.
Oh, yes, if i’m in time, i would like some seeds. Thanks!
Nina, I can only determine if you’re in time by when I receive your SASE.
Oh, gosh, well, it’ll leave MO today and we’ll just have to see how fast the Pony Express is these days.
I would love some seeds! My goal next spring is to pull the pokey bushes out from the south west part of the backyard and extend our little garden area there. I love seeing these plants over the fence and would love to have some seeds of our own to plant there. Between the grapes and these Amaranth seeds we could feed plenty of local birds!
Consider it done, Shane. And you and I don’t even need the stamp or the self-addressed envelope. Yet another advantage of us being neighbors.
Obviously, I didn’t read the last few paragraphs the first time around.
Sorry about that Ron.
You’re first in, Rick. At least you will be when I get your stamped, self-addressed envelope
Hi Ron.
If you still have seeds available, I’d love some.
thanks very much Ron.
Rick