Sea buckthorn seeds (Hippophae rhamnoides)

Hippophae rhamnoides

Sea buckthorn, shining thorn, thorny willow, Siberian pineapple: this last nickname comes from the surprisingly exotic fragrance of its orange berries, which remain attached to the branches until the heart of winter. It is one of the few shrubs capable of colonizing dunes, scree and the most inhospitable ground—while enriching them.

Characteristics:

• Bright orange berries: very tart, they persist on the branches throughout winter and brighten the garden.
• Thorny shrub: ideal for a defensive hedge, with highly decorative silvery foliage.
• Nitrogen fixer: its root nodules naturally enrich even the poorest soils.
• Extremely hardy: it tolerates temperatures down to -30 °C, sea salt and violent winds.

Important — sea buckthorn is dioecious:

• Male and female plants are separate, and only female plants bear fruit. To harvest berries, you therefore need both.
• The practical rule: one male plant for every six to eight female plants, planted upwind, since pollination is wind-borne. Sow generously: the sex cannot be distinguished until the first flowering, at around three or four years.

Precautions:

• Its branches bear long, sharp thorns: thick gloves are essential for pruning and harvesting.
• It spreads vigorously through root suckers: plan for a rhizome barrier or regular monitoring if you do not want it to spread.

Sowing advice:

• Exposure: full sun, without compromise.
• Soil: truly all types, including sandy, stony, poor or saline soils, provided they are well drained. As a nitrogen fixer, it needs no amendments and thrives where almost nothing else grows. It only dislikes heavy, waterlogged soils.
• Method: cold stratification for 4 to 6 weeks is necessary to break dormancy. Then sow in spring, in a deep pot or directly in the ground, at a depth of 1 cm.

Planting advice:

• Transplant with 1.50 to 2 metres of spacing in a hedge. Choose the location carefully from the outset: its spreading roots make later transplantation difficult.

Care advice:

• Water only during the first two years; afterward, the shrub becomes completely self-sufficient. No fertilization is needed.
• Prune at the end of winter with thick gloves, and check for root suckers every year.

Harvesting advice:

• The berries are fragile and firmly attached among the thorns. The traditional method: cut the fruit-laden branches, freeze them, then shake them—the frozen berries will detach on their own, intact.
• Harvest after the first frosts, which soften their very pronounced acidity.

Beneficial combinations:

• It makes a defensive, food-producing hedge with wild dog rose, barberry or black elderberry. As a nitrogen fixer, it enriches the soil for its neighbours. See the basics of permaculture.

Benefits for biodiversity:

• Its persistent berries feed blackbirds, thrushes and warblers in the middle of winter, the most critical season for birds.
• Its thorny thicket provides an impregnable nesting refuge, protected from predators.
• Its root nodules fix atmospheric nitrogen and restore degraded soils—it is widely used to stabilize dunes and embankments. See living soil.

Uses:

• Berries for jams, jellies, syrups and juices—their pronounced acidity generally calls for added sugar. They freeze very well.
• Defensive hedges, windbreaks, soil stabilization and restoration of degraded land.
• Traditional medicinal plant, also used in cosmetics. See our medicinal plants to sow.

Symbolism:
Its genus name, Hippophae, means “shining horse” in Greek: it was reported in Antiquity that horses fed on its foliage developed a glossy coat, earning it a place in accounts of Alexander the Great’s mounts.

Harvesting your own seeds:
Crush fully ripe berries in a little water, rinse to separate the seeds from the pulp, then dry them before winter stratification. See saving your seeds.

Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Volcanoes of Auvergne, we choose reproducible, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, sorted and carefully packaged, without any chemical treatment. Our conviction: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.

The shrub that brings inhospitable lands back to life and feeds birds in winter.