By Sharon Parker
Last year about this time I was just getting into making and swapping artist trading cards (ATCs, see note 1 below) and wanting to do something on a botanical theme and wanting it to relate to St. Patrick’s day. This quite naturally led to a little research on what is the true shamrock--is it the oxalis plants that are commonly sold as shamrocks at florists’ shops this time of year, or could it be the humble clover that grows in our lawns?

I was amused and pleased to discover that Irish naturalist Nathaniel Colgan set out to answer this very question back in 1893, or, as he put it “to take in hand the inquiry into the species of our national badge.” He asked both subscribers to the journal Irish Naturalist and the Catholic priests in all the Irish-speaking districts of the country to send him specimens of the plant they considered to be the true Irish shamrock. The winner of this contest was Trifolium repens, or the plant we know as Dutch white clover. (see www.from-ireland.net/history/nathist/shamrock.htm)

This inquiry led me to want to grow some clover indoors. For the last few years we have grown grass in the kids’ Easter baskets, an easy and quick undertaking--it takes about three weeks for a scattering of ordinary grass seed to become a lush little mini lawn, especially if you have a sunny window where you can keep it. But last year I thought it would be a nice change to grow clover for Easter. Having no idea how long it took to get green and leafy, I started the seeds on March 13, only two weeks before Easter (March 27 last year), and saw only the beginnings of the seedlings emerge by Easter time.

So I just kept notes to monitor its progress and found that it took about five to six weeks to reach a nice leafy stage. Easter falls on April 16 this year, six weeks from now. If you want to try it yourself, here’s what you do:

• Get clover seed where you would buy lawn grass seed, at garden centers and hardware stores. It’s not always easy to find this early, so you might check one of the larger garden centers if your neighborhood one doesn’t have it yet. (I have some clover seed that I bought last year; see note 2 about this below.)

• Scatter it thinly on the surface of some soilless seed-starting mix that you thoroughly moistened already, cover loosely with plastic to keep the moisture and warmth in, and place the pot or basket in a sunny window or under artificial lights. A little heat from underneath may help speed germination, so if you have radiators, set it on them until the seedlings emerge. Of course, if you’re starting the seeds directly in a basket, you’ll want to line it with plastic first. And, as this will not have drainage, you’ll need to be careful not to overwater it.

• If droplets of water collect on the plastic covering, loosen it or remove it for an hour or so to let some of the water evaporate. Too much wetness will encourage mold to grow and may rot the seeds before they can germinate. But you don’t want it to dry out too much either, so it’s kind of a balancing act at this stage. Mostly you want to keep the seeds covered and the soil moist until the true leaves come, which will be the second set of leaves to open. Once those are out, you can let the soil surface dry a bit between waterings.

One of the difficulties I had last year was that I scattered too many seeds on the soil surface and found that they were much too crowded as they sprouted. Too avoid this, mix some seeds with an equal amount of the soilless mix before spreading them on the surface. Don’t bury the seeds, though, they need light to germinate.

And that’s about it. One of the advantages of growing clover rather than grass is that it’s less appealing to cats, but the Easter Bunny is sure to appreciate it. When Easter is over, toss the clover in your compost or just in the garden somewhere. Clover is a legume and will add a little nitrogen to the soil.

Here are the two notes I mentioned above:

1. For more on ATCs, including how to participate in an ongoing Observer ATC swap, read the article that Carrie Mercer wrote for us here: http://www.mplsobserver.com/node/501

2. If you send for the Observer Envelope of Handy and Useful Stuff, just $10 postpaid, and tell me you’d like some clover seed too, I’ll include a packet of seeds until I run out. I don’t have a great deal of seed, and I can’t guarantee its viability, so only do this if you want the useful stuff anyway.