Nature’s miracles are all around us. As plants people we are thankful for them, but more or less take them for granted.  Sometimes, our curiosity gets the better of us and we try to look into the heart of a miracle that we become acutely aware of.

While browsing a botany book one evening, I became interested in a particular aspect of plant growth that I considered of special importance. This was because I had recently planted some rhododendron seeds that I purchased from our chapter seed exchange.  I would like to share this with others of us who are using our magnifying glasses to check on germination and growth. Since I am not a botanist, what follows is my understanding of this subject, and my observations following germination.

First, however, it should be noted that neither rhododendrons nor azalea (ericaceous) seed require a dormancy period prior to sowing.  They may be sown immediately after harvesting.

As we are sowing our precious rhododendron or azalea seeds, some hardly larger than a spec of dust, we take time to try to broadcast the seeds as evenly as possible over the surface of the germination media.  But what thought do we give regarding the placement of the seed to provide the proper orientation for normal growth? When we plant bulbs, for example, we take care to orient the bulb so that the point is up making sure that the stem growth will be up and the roots down.

The fact of the matter is, one of nature’s miracles guarantees the proper growth of the seed. There, even though corn seed, as another example, is large enough to orient properly during planting, the farmer would never finish planting a hundred acre cornfield if this were necessary. So, he sows by machine at random, knowing that the plants will grow properly.  Also, if you planted bulbs on their side, the stem would still eventually grow up, and the roots down. So it is with our small seeds.

Natures miracle, in this case, is a hormone which is known as auxin (from a Greek work (meaning "to increase’). Auxin’s principal function is to stimulate increases in cell length, especially near stem and root tips.  Obviously, this is an extremely complex study, and we could get into great technical detail here. However, for our purpose, we will just take a simple look into the part that auxin plays in orientation of the growth of seedlings.