Green tea «Ivan-Tea» - Organic Fireweed Seeds

Organic Fireweed «Ivan-Tea» (Chamérion angustifólium, (Epilóbium angustifolium))

In twentieth century Britain, this bright flower acquired the nickname “bombweed” because it thrived in bomb craters. Fireweed has become a symbol of the Alaska and the Yukon region, and has a long history of culinary and medicinal use; currently, the slightly spicy petals are used to flavor wildflower honey, candy, ice cream, or jelly.

Fireweed is very attractive to bees and butterflies, and Fireweed honey has become quite sought after. Fireweed seeds do best with a cold/moist treatment for 4 weeks prior to planting, or directly sow the herb seeds outdoors in the fall.
 

How to Grow

 Fireweed forms cottony seeds (like cottonwood seeds only smaller and lighter) in thin seed pods that are spread by the wind. So far I have not seen any plants that have come up from seed however I've been harvesting seeds before too many blow around. Moreover starting seeds has been kind of iffy, it seems to me they need a great deal of care to get going.

I managed to start some plants from seed even during fairly hot weather by filling a pot with dirt, sprinkling the seeds on top and coating with very fine dusty soil. Then water from the bottom and/or spray with a fine mist. Do keep the pot out of the hot sun and make sure the pot is cooler at night. Once I tried starting them in a cool basement with a fairly constant temperature and this did not work. A couple of times I tried starting the seeds by placing them in the ground and this did not work. I also managed to start them by putting some in Park's Starts (rubbery peat-like cylinders) on a windowsill in late Winter. Also do not attempt to plant plants you do manage to start in hot conditions, I did this and very few (or none? I forget) managed to survive.

Fireweed is in the Evening Primrose family meaning that it can spread rapidly. My first experience with fireweed led me to think it would soon be all over the place however it is not nearly as aggressive as some other members of the family (like showy primrose, Oenothera speciosa, one heck of a spreader that has been in many seed catalogs in recent years). It forms a limited number of shoots in the spring and if you pluck them out you will not get new sprouts all over the place. If you dig up a sprout in the Spring it will only grow slowly that season and not bloom until new sprouts come up the following year. It also has does not compete well against other perennials like Helenium, New England Aster and Bee Balm so in a wild setting it will not take over as far as I can tell. Also deer and elk are supposed to like the plant and they would control it in the wild.