Paeonii seed germination

[Raymond Wergan]

Paeonii seeds can take up to three years to germinate. I have been packeting, and  one of the contributions to this years seed list came in a sealed plastic bag,which had picked up condensation during its travels. This resulted in one brand new seed producing a quarter inch root,therefore germinating in a matter of weeks.

Is this a recognised way of dealing with hard seeds?

A lot of you may know this,I didn't!

Raymond,Newtopn Ferrers,Devon.

[GordonT]

Raymond, in my experience seed of Paeonia requires a warm/cold/warm cycle to show any above ground results. The initial warm period will produce a radicle, but above-ground vegetative growth won't appear until it has gone through a cold period. Kristl Walek of Gardens North Seeds wrote a good description of what goes on with these seeds. You can find it here:
http://www.gardensnorth.com/About.Germination.asp#paeonia

[Raymond Wergan]

Thank you Gordon. Reckon that mine has sped through the first (warm) cycle and can now go out for stage 2 ....into the cold. Kristy very interesting. . Raymond

[Gail]

I've had Paeonia tenuifolia up very quickly, even from old seed, and conversely peonies that take 3 years. I've tried various combinations of soak/not/warm/fridge etc but now just tend to stick them in a pot outdoors and let them do their own thing...

(NB. Don't do the oft-cited float test - sow what sinks and discard the floaters. I have definitely had floaters germinate)

[brianw]

I had a very large handful of Paeonia delavayi seed last year, from mixed red, yellow and their offspring, forms. They sat in a pot dry for some months in my unheated greenhouse. Eventually (maybe January?) I put them in a large shallow clay pan and covered with sharp sand and left on the ground. In spring they started shooting and I found almost 100% germination. I potted some and lined out some and composted the rest. I wish all seed germinated so easily.

[P. Kohn]

We follow Gail's approach of sowing and waiting and assume germination in year two. We always get good germination with mlokosewitschii but others are more variable. This year we have sown several peonies fresh from our own seed and will be interested to see if this speeds things up.  With seed exchanges this isn't possible of course.

[Leena]

Here is also good pictures of germinating peonies (scroll down the page). I sow peony seeds in moist vermiculite in zip log bags, and keep warm until they grow the root. Then I pot them and place in cold and in the spring the first leaf emerges. With seed exchange seeds sown in February I keep the seeds in warm (the root is formed some time during the spring- early summer) until autumn when I either plant them outside or in pots in the cellar, and it has worked fine. If I put them to cold as soon as the root has formed in perhaps May, then they would germinate in late autumn which is a wrong time for me.
I think there are differences in what temperature different species need to form the first root. P.officinalis and P.obovata seem to grow them in lower temperatures (10-15°C) than for instance P.lactiflora or tree peonies (more than 20°C), so it also depends on your climate.

[brianw]

I sent my seed of "molly" and delavayi to the AGS seedex this year so can't experiment again, but some of this years (January?) sowing of Delavayi are plants 30 cm high and 40 cm across in leaf, in the garden. Those in pots got starved so half the size. Quite a lot smaller of course when the leaves drop.
Now if only I could get Rockie to seed ;-)

[Carolyn]

I've had Paeonia tenuifolia up very quickly, even from old seed, and conversely peonies that take 3 years. I've tried various combinations of soak/not/warm/fridge etc but now just tend to stick them in a pot outdoors and let them do their own thing...

(NB. Don't do the oft-cited float test - sow what sinks and discard the floaters. I have definitely had floaters germinate)

I read  somewhere that P. tenuifolia does not need warm/cold/warm cycles but will germinate in a few weeks in warmth. I have sometimes found this to be true.