Trilliums from green seed

[Matt T]

In their book Trilliums Fred and Roberta Case suggest that sowing "almost ripe green seed" of Trillium will germinate without a dormant period. Does anyone have experience of this?

Unfortunately none of mine are likely to appear for at least another year.

[Ian Y]

I always prefer to sow Trillium seed as soon as it is ripe. It should be noted that the seed is ripe before the capsules open so green as the Cases describe.

Seed coats harden up and the longer they are stored the harder their coat becomes so it will take longer for moisture to beak through the outer layers to stimulate germination.  I have also heard it said that any germination inhibitors may form very late in the development of the seed so by sowing it green there may be no inhibitors so you may get quicker germination.

[alanelliott]

"old seed" a year after harvest germinated well but over 4 years, I wasnt in a hurry, before I stopped checking.

It was sown in a 5L pot covered in hort fleece to keep the birds off and placed outside and left. I wasnt in a hurry.

[Maggi Young]

I wasnt in a hurry.

 All very well for you, Al, you're young enough NOT to be in a hurry!! 

[alanelliott]

All very well for you, Al, you're young enough NOT to be in a hurry!! 

Hahah I didnt have a garden thats my excuse!

[Maggi Young]

Oh right - well that's a very good reason ,too!

[Tony Willis]

Trillium grandiflorum seed I received from Kristl that had been stored damp germinated the spring after sowing.

I collected a couple of seed pods of Trillium ovatum in Washington(they were growing wild in a garden we visited) and they were totally unripe. I  opened them and the seeds were white and quite squishy and I thought they would be no good. I sowed them anyway in July just after I got home and they germinated like cress the following spring.

[annew]

I experimented by sowing unripe seeds, then ripe fresh seeds of some last year. Watch this space..

[Matt T]

An interesting range of replies and experiences.

This year I have sown both damp packed seed from Anne and dry (then soaked) seed from the SeedEx, so it will be interesting to see what happens over the coming months.

Please do keep us posted with the results of your experiment Anne

[Claire Cockcroft]

Trillium rivale, kurubayashii, sulcatum, and parviflorum all seed around my garden.  At the end of summer seed drops naturally (if I don't get to the capsules soon enough) and most germinate the following spring.  I don't see any long wait for germination.  But where the seeds drop is usually a well-mulched bed that stays fairly moist.  Perhaps that prevents the seeds drying out and lets things get moving?

[Diane Whitehead]

Claire has west coast trilliums self-seeding in her west coast garden, which is as expected.
I also have success with west coast species.

Trillium sulcatum is from the eastern U.S. (Cumberland Plateau, the Carolinas, Virginia, etc).
The conditions between east and west are very different.

I generally get very little, if any, germination of eastern species, though I have never
had just-ripe seeds.  I guess I should buy some plants from Thimble Farms so I can
produce my own seeds and sow them green.

[annew]

Claire, how do you know the seedlings are from seeds shed one year ago, and not  earlier?

[Claire Cockcroft]

That's a good question, Anne -- I pay attention when I see a seed pod on the ground (because I missed collecting it).  The next spring I see a huge number of seedlings in the very same place.  Sometimes I scoop up the seeds off the ground and place them in another place.  Then VOILA! -- the next spring there are the seedlings.

Diane, if you ever want seeds of T. sulcatum, just send me an email.  I have hundreds -- thousands? -- of them and need an outlet for the seed.  Some have crossed with flexipes to give me picotees.