In spring two years ago, I planted some cotton seeds from my raw cotton stash. Miraculously some germinated, even more miraculously, one survived to adulthood. I covered the little thing with wire, composted and mulched around it and pretty much left it alone. This summer it produced flowers (which I neglectfully forgot to photograph), then bolls, then more bolls until finally, it died (possibly from sheer exhaustion).
Cotton is , by nature, a short lived perennial plant; it grows and produces for two or three years before completing its life cycle. When it is grown commercially it is treated as an annual and sprayed to kill it off after the first season. In the home garden you can leave it to produce beautiful flowers and cotton bolls for as long as you like.
This is the little cotton plant in it’s early days
The buds are such an interesting shape
The plant on it’s last flush of bolls
A close up shot of an open boll, ready for harvest
An even closer shot of the boll
Harvest time
Starting to process the harvest
Spinning cotton
It has been a while since I have spun cotton, but I couldn’t wait to try my own, home grown cotton on the wheel. It is so satisfying to be able to go from seed to socks all by myself. I don’t know how far my harvest will go, but I do know I will be planting more cotton next year.
Really enjoy your articles, Garden Goddess
Why thank you Gillian.
How do you prepare your cotton fibre? Do you use a blending board or hand carders? Looks pretty good.
I use some old wool carders to give it a semblance of order then roll it into a rolag. I can spin a pretty fine single with that.
That is so cool … never seen one of those plants up close … let alone see it spun! Very cool, good on you!
That’s why I write this blog; so many things I want to do, that I know can be done, are not represented in cyberspace. I like to do new things (as far as craft is concerned) and learn to do things myself, so if my writing gives someone inspiration or information then I am a happy woman.
Yuss! And thankyou!! x