Seeds that need to be sown fresh

[Véronique Macrelle]

For years I've been ordering seeds for undergrowth plants (the ones I like), such as Podophylum, Trillium, Beesia, Anemopsis, Corydalis, etc. with almost no success, because when I receive the seeds, it's around March and they hardly ever germinate.

For example, I've ordered red or orange Meconopsis (or Papaver) cambricum seeds at least 5 times, without ever getting anything, and I'm not talking about all the Trillium species I've tried!

I'm thinking that I'm not the only one, which is why I'm offering the seeds of a few (simple) plants that I have at home and whose seeds don't store well.

Perhaps you also have some species that I'd like to swap?

Here is what I have in ultra-fresh seeds:

- Corydalis bulleyana
- Corydalis petrophyla
- Corydalis ochroleuca
- Corydalis ophiocarpa
- Corydalis heterophyla
- Corydalis chelianthifolia (few seeds)
- Corydalis lutea
- Dicentra spectabilis white (few seeds)
- Chelidonium majus 'Flore Pleno', or rather semi-Pleno as it is fertile.
- Meconospsis cambrica (yellow)
- Stylophorum lasiocarpum

- Viola selkirkii (for 1 person, no more, the fruits are tiny)
- Viola prionantha
- Viola elatior

 all are fairly easy plants as long as you have fresh seeds... 

I'm looking for fresh seeds of the genera Podophyllum, Trillium, Beesia, Corydalis, Dicentra (except spectabilis), Papaver cambrica red or orange, or others...



Incidentally, I'm also looking for Arisaema seeds - even if they're a year old, I like to sow them in summer - following a hecatomb in my collection due to a one-off climatic excess. If you have any forgotten surplus ... or fresh sikokianum seeds to come ...

 (I have lost candissimum, lichiangense, costatum , fargesii, franchetianum, intermedium, in large mature tubers , a catastrophe!)
I'm left with only those acclimatised in the open ground, i.e. ciliatum, tortuosum, flavum and perhaps consangineum.

[Catwheazle]

can currently also offer seeds of callianthemum anemonoides (due to Brexit unfortunately only EU or at your own risk)

Bernd

Addendum:    Sorry, all seeds distributed....

[MarcR]

For years I've been ordering seeds for undergrowth plants (the ones I like), such as Podophylum, Trillium, Beesia, Anemopsis, Corydalis, etc. with almost no success, because when I receive the seeds, it's around March and they hardly ever germinate......

Véronique,

Most of the genera you mention, except Trillium will germinate if soaked in GA3 at 250PPM.

You can buy a Ga3 kit from www.jlhudsonseeds.net/ premeasured to allow easy dilution to 1000 ppm or 500 ppm.  When you have a 500 ppm solution you can easily add an equal amount of water for a 250 PPM solution.

Trillium will usually germinate in a 500PPM solution.

I have germinated seed up to 2 years old using GA3 to break dormancy.

[Véronique Macrelle]

Oh yes... I've already done that, but perhaps it was too concentrated? I was closer to 750 ppm.
If 250 ppm works, the little GA3 I have left will be used for more seeds.
Thanks for the address, as I sometimes organise GA3 workshops with members of my section (SAJA association).

I have a pot sown with podophyllum aurantiocaule, a slow-growing Arisaema (thunbergii, perhaps?), Beesia and Anemopsis which were treated in March:
8 weeks in the greenhouse in March-April, 5 weeks in the fridge, and now gone to the greenhouse. But still nothing so far. I've bagged them so that the soil doesn't dry out over the summer.
I think that now, if it sprouts, it will be next spring.


 On the other hand, I've noticed the positive effect of GA3 on the hard seeds of Clematis, and on Aconitum episcopale (climber), on others like Aconitum hemseleyanum, it's slightly effective, but 3 seedlings out of 30 seeds, and even then, after another winter.

 On Viola Beni Zuru, I managed to recover 1 germination out of 4 seeds: however, the cotyledons were still very slow to unfold (2 months!) compared with fresh seeds, but I ended up with a mature plant. (Without ga3, nothing germinates).

With Trillium, I didn't see any difference... I think I've experimented with sowing this way more than 20 times, and I've made progress with all species...
 then my one-year-old seedlings were destroyed by a hard frost a bit too early this autumn (they stayed in pots! I should have put them in the ground)
Finally... you build your experience on your failures. I've never yet managed to get a Trillium to grow as vigorously as it does in the photos on the Trillium subject: incredible and enviable!
Perhaps I should give up this type.

[MarcR]

Véronique,

Using too high a concentration will either fail or will produce week distorted seedlings that soon die.

[Mariette]

My trillium seed from SRGC and NARGS usually germinated without any treatment, though not all of them.

[partisangardener]

Does Trillium not usually germinate after the second winter?
This what my Trillium grandiflorum usually do. I have rarely germination the first spring without special treatment.

[Mariette]

Seeds of trillium may even germinate after 3 or 4 years, but some actually did next year. After all, one never knows if the seed was viable at all. They should not be stored dry, but if remnants of the elaiosoms rest on the seeds they may cause rot in my experience.