Czech Galanthus seed

[johnw]

I wonder how others are doing with Galanthus seed from Holubec and Pilous.  Of all the seeds I've ordered I've had exactly 1 Pilous seed sprout. Two G. plicatus Abant, Turkey and today G. trojanus 2016 seed from Holubec. Not a great return for the Euros spent.  I'm hesitant to work out the percentage!  Suspect the seed is old as no collection dates are ever given.  Is anyone having better luck?  I wonder if seed sprouts in the autumn and then is killed when winter strikes?

Can anyone suggest a more reliable source of cw unusual species?

john - +9c and sunny
 

[Vincent]

I've sown some Galanthus sp. from Holubec last year and now have a few seedlings in each pot, I guess five or more. Don't know how many seeds I had, but the results are satisfying enough for me. I got G. plicatus (2x), G. woronowii and G. koenenianus. Also Pilous does state in his seedlist in which year the seed was collected

[Vincent]

It's actually not Pilous but Holubec who states the year in which the seed was collected, I've just realised

[Leena]

I think there is collection year in Holubecks catalog.  John, maybe your seeds were older lot.
I have sown in January 2015 G.elwesii, G.koenenianus, G.krasnovii, G.woronowii and G.trojanus.
I think the seeds were collected in 2014.
G.elwesii germinated in autumn 2015 but I lost those seedlings because I put them outside in autumn 2016 and that was a cold winter (though my own G.elwesii seeds around it and seedlings survive outside).
G.krasnovii and G.koenenianus never germinated but it could have been my fault for letting the pots dry out.
G.trojanus and G.woronowii germinated in spring 2017, two years after sowing (same as my own Galanthus seeds sown fresh in summer 2015, I don't know why it took them so long)
Here is a picture of G.trojanus and G.woronowii last week. So I have been happy with Galanthus seeds, but I never got a germination from his Helleborus seeds.

[johnw]

Leena - I've never had germination of their platyphyllus or krasnovii.  Looking at my last orders in 2016 I see no collection dates.  I may try one last time.

john - +15c, sunny

[Diane Whitehead]

I stopped ordering as I had poor results from Pilous seeds - or the seeds had poor treatment from me.

In January 2005, I sowed six packets
 no germination:          G. peshmenii,  G. reginae-olgae ssp reginae-olgae, G reginae-olgae ssp vernalis
germinated Feb 2006: G. artjushenkoae, G. ikariae ssp snogerupii, G. lagodechianus

I have a note for each that in November the seeds were mouldy.

Of these, the only one that survived to flower, in 2014,  was Galanthus artjushenkoae from the Talysh Mts, Azerbaijan

In January 2008 I soaked seeds of G. fosteri col Gaziantep SE Turkey.  They germinated that fall, and apparently
there was no mould. 

I am still awaiting germination of a couple of species Vojtech collected in Turkey, and sown Feb 2017.

[Mariette]

Of a few packets of Pilous seeds I once ordered, I had only one or two seedlings from one packet - if any seedling at all.

[Mariette]

This is the only seedling germinating from one packet said to be G. transcaucasicus, bought from Pilous in 2014. Looks like an early G. plicatus or plicatus-hybrid, I think. Last year it flowered in the border at about the same time.

[Edgar Wills]

Hi Mariette,
That does look like plicatus to my untrained eyes..
Happened to come across a post by Tony Willis where he grew transcaucasicus from Pilous seed as well:
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=15937.0
Its the last post on the linked page.

What do you think about the seedling he shows? Could it be correct?

[Josh Nelson]

This is the only seedling germinating from one packet said to be G. transcaucasicus, bought from Pilous in 2014. Looks like an early G. plicatus or plicatus-hybrid, I think. Last year it flowered in the border at about the same time.

Mariette - I agree - that's plicatus subsp plicatus and definitely not tanscaucasicus, the latter having supervolute rather than explicative vernation

[Josh Nelson]

Hi Mariette,
That does look like plicatus to my untrained eyes..
Happened to come across a post by Tony Willis where he grew transcaucasicus from Pilous seed as well:
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=15937.0
Its the last post on the linked page.

What do you think about the seedling he shows? Could it be correct?

Edgar - Tony Willis's also looks to be explicative and likely therefore plicatus (probably subsp plicatus with a good inner mark).

Presumably a mistake but neither of the two flowering seedlings shown are tanscaucasicus

[Josh Nelson]

Here's a link to Tom Mitchell's very helpful profile on G. transcaucasicus:
http://www.revolution-snowdrops.co.uk/galanthus-transcaucasicus/

As Pilous also supplied plicatus seeds from Lake Abant, then perhaps these are what have been supplied instead of transcaucasicus; see TM again in his Revolution Snowdrops blog; the Lake Abant population is documented in the second half of his post on plicatus:
http://www.revolution-snowdrops.co.uk/galanthus-plicatus/
 

[ashley]

This is what I have as transcaucasicus from VP seed; not plicative but not flowering this year either.

[Mariette]

This looks more what I would expect from Galanthus transcaucasicus, Ashley! A nice friend supplied a clone flowering in November, which looks very much the same, especially the bright green of the leaves.

[Mariette]

Hi Mariette,
That does look like plicatus to my untrained eyes..
Happened to come across a post by Tony Willis where he grew transcaucasicus from Pilous seed as well:
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=15937.0
Its the last post on the linked page.

What do you think about the seedling he shows? Could it be correct?

Thank You for Your link, Edgar! Remembering that the discussion about erroneously supplied seed started last season, I thought it best to show the pic of my seedling here. At least now I´ve got another Galanthus plicatus flowering at the same time as ´Three Ships´.