Wonder of germination: It’s all about the will to thrive and succeed

Germination is one of the great mysteries of life. Yes, we see it working. Yep, we have lots of science on the process.

But the reality of a seed springing to life, forcing its way out of the ground, showing a steely determination to succeed, an energy and will to live and grow and become something more than it was, well, that’s still a sensational force of nature that, for me at least, is still a magical event, full of mystery and wonder.

Recently, I worked with my grandchildren, Maya, Banks and Jake, in the garden, planting vegetable and sunflower seeds.

We had fun doing it, but it is all an act of faith as you push tiny seeds into dark soil with the expectation of an amazing transformation within a few weeks.

The sunflower seeds germinated quickly, within a week.

They cracked out of their seed shell and put down a tiny root. From there, they pushed up to the light, breaking the surface of the soil, pushing aside obstacles and soil fibre and lifting the remnants of the seed shell into the air.

This is a truly an amazing sight to my eyes – to see this tiny seedling, lifting the weight of the husk of the sunflower seed.

I am in awe of the power at work within the little seed to cause it to push upward and make it want to continue developing until it produces a pair of two perfectly formed baby leaves.

These are technically not leaves at all but cotyledon, sort of embryonic baby leaves that were always present inside the seed.

They help the plant get up and running and thriving and developing. The plant’s true leaves come soon after and look different.

None of that matters much. The fact that germination happens at all is a wonder. We take so much for granted. Pollination by bees. The rise and setting of the sun. But we should see something special in the germination of a seed. It is a wonder.

And the fact that from this moment on, the plant continues to grow and feed and get bigger and bigger and, well, the sky’s the limit in some cases.

If we are at all excited about spring – the blossoms, the daffodils, the new leaves on the tree, the brighter, lighter days – we also should get excited about germinations because without it, there would be no plants, no spring.

Just for fun, you might like to push some bean or sunflower seeds into a pot of soil and see what happens.

Or perhaps take an avocado seed and suspend it over a glass of water using toothpicks and just watch how quickly it sprouts. It is an act of nature worth seeing close up once in a while. We forget so easily.

Anyway, all the sunflower seeds we planted are risen. And the plants are getting bigger and stronger every day.

Next month, we’ll find a nice sunny spot in the garden to relocate them, transforming them very carefully from their seed trays to the garden soil, hopefully without much trauma.

From that point, the sunflowers can soar . . . and the ones we’ve picked will indeed soar to more than 10 feet being Mammoths.

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