Ranzania germination

[Diane Whitehead]

Report from a friend who has tried Ranzania year after year,
from every source that has offered it, including Pilous.  Never
any germination.

Her latest lot of Pilous seed has just arrived.  The Ranzania
seed was wrapped in a damp paper towel and germinated
enroute.  She is ecstatic.

[Lesley Cox]

A Forumist known to me had fresh Swedish seed germinate exactly 1 year after sowing, and almost the same day as receiving a further batch of seed from the same source. I believe a dozen seedlings are growing on well now.

[gote]

It seems that when I have been sending out Ranzania seed in the berry, the results have been better. I get the impression that Ranzania seed are easily killed if allowed to dry out. Seeds sent through seed exchanges are probably always dead on arrival. The last year I sent seed in a plastic bag with a piece of moist tissue paper. I sterilized using sodium benzoate hoping that this would not damage the seed since it is a natural ingredience of some kinds of Vaccinium berries.
I hope i will get reports back from this experiment.
Göte

PS
Lesley: Please prod the forumist to report unless he already has done so.

[Tony Willis]

Gote
 you kindly sent me a berry and I have just looked under the top dressing and see the earliest signs of germination. I think it will be some weeks yet before they appear above ground but life is there.

[Rodger Whitlock]

No sign of ranzania germination here, but the weather is still pretty chilly. The only thing that's come up en masse so far is Anemone caucasica.

PS: On Feb 10, I rummaged around in a pot of ungerminated Ranzania and the seeds look just fine beneath the top dressing.