Lunaria – Money Plant – Honesty – Silver Dollar Plant
The silver dollar plant is grown for pleasure and not for profit.
Lunaria is a biennial plant – leaves in the first year and blooms in the second. This old fashioned plant is grown for its colourful blooms in late spring and also for the decorative and unique seed pods.
Lunaria is easily grown from seeds and the seedling will start to appear after about 10 to 14 days. You can direct sow around around the time when the last frost will appear. You can also sow them after blooming just like Mother Nature does when the seeds drop from the plant.
The first year plant produces many leaves. The plant prefers part to full sun and likes the soil to be moist. Here are the leaves in the first year. For continual flowering you ned to plant the seeds for 2 consecutive years.
Look at the root on a first year plant that had to be moved. You will get several volunteer plants if you leave the seed pods on the plant. If you are going to transplant them be sure to dig deep enough to get the tap root. I usually move mine before the end of the gardening season so the root gets a chance to establish itself before winter sets in.
After flowering the plant develops the ‘money’ – a flat seedpod that starts out green and turns a brown colour. Let the ‘money’ dry on the plant till they are a darker brown.
You can cut the stems off and store them in a paper bag till they dry out totally. I always leave a few seed pods on the plant for self sowing.
Each pod consists of 3 layers. The outside layers can be carefully removed to reveal the lighter, transparent middle layer.
The seeds will fall away with the outside layers. Each layer has between 2 and 4 seeds. The seeds easily pop off.
You can plant the seeds the following year when all danger of frost has past. They will germinate in 10 to 14 days.
The stem and middle layers can then be used in dried arrangements. The seed pods also resemble the moon, hence the name lunaria.
These plants are deer and rabbit resistant. Below is a printable seed label.
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