Cyclamen hederifolium seed

[daveyp1970]

After seeing Johns C hederifolium and there different leaf forms i sent away for some(seed) my self from Jan and Mieke Braveboer i would like to know when i get them how to go with them.when to sow ect?these will be the first Cyclamen i have grown from seed.



cheers Dave

[Maggi Young]

Dave, I believe you will find all sorts of useful information on this subject in this Forum thread:

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=192.0 

[Diane Clement]

Hi Dave
I use the "Reading method" which the Cyclamen society promote following research by Reading University.  It works very well for Cyclamen hederifolium, graecum, africanuma and persicum and is worth trying for most of the other species (purpurascens and repandum don't usually respond to this treatment)

You first need to soak the seed overnight in warm water with a drop of washing up liquid, this will wash off the sticky substance that attracts ants to disperse the seed and acts as a germination inhibitor.  
Then fill your pots with a mixture of JI and grit.  Wash the seeds then sow them on the surface of the compost, then cover with at least 1cm of grit.  Then put them in a box or tin or something that excludes the light, which is important for germination.  The other important factor is to keep them warm - between 13C and 18C is best.  At this time of year, I find the best way to do that is to keep them indoors in an unheated room.  
Here's some pictures originally posted on my blog:

[Diane Clement]

And for more of the germination story on my blog:
Sowing here:
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Midland/+January+/161/
Germination here:
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Midland/+January+/166/
Some pictures from underground :
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Midland/+February+/171/

[Darren]

Agree with Diane. I just used the 'Reading method' with graecum seeds from Kurt Vickery and the surplus seed of various species I picked up at the SRGC discussion weekend in early october. All have been very successful. Otherwise i'd have had to wait until next summer to sow them and lose a years growth.

[David Shaw]

I didn't even bother to soak my seed from the Discussionn Weekend but if I were getting any seed now I would soak them overnight.

[angie]

Hi Diane, Found your blog Very, Very, interesting.
I maybe missed it out but why have some of your pots got wire grid on them .
Thanks for sharing with us all your tips.
Angie

[daveyp1970]

Diane Darren and everybody thank you very much for the advice, can i clarify,i follow your seed sowing steps and from what i understand i let them grow on and then let them go dormant in the summer next year then they follow there normal pattern of growth next autumn or do i try to keep them in growth through next summer and allowed to go dormant the following summer.

[Diane Clement]

Diane Darren and everybody thank you very much for the advice, can i clarify,i follow your seed sowing steps and from what i understand i let them grow on and then let them go dormant in the summer next year then they follow there normal pattern of growth next autumn or do i try to keep them in growth through next summer and allowed to go dormant the following summer.   

If it's possible, keep them coolish and moist through next spring into summer as long as possible.  They will then keep growing and the tuber will get larger.  When mine have germinated (indoors) I put them outside usually in January against the north wall of the house and they stay there for the next year.  Sometimes they dont go dormant at all the first summer.  If they are warm or dry they will go dormant, then they will come into growth naturally in the autumn. 

[Diane Clement]

Hi Diane, Found your blog Very, Very, interesting.   I maybe missed it out but why have some of your pots got wire grid on them .
Thanks for sharing with us all your tips. Angie    

Thanks Angie.  The reason for the wire grids is MICE in the greenhouse.  One year when repotting I realised that several pots of crocus had evidence of mice digging.  In particular, one pot of Crocus serotinus which had 14 corms in was empty.  Later that year, flowers starting coming up in the sand plunge and I managed to retrieve all 14 corms from the sand.  The mice had evidently buried corms in the sand for a winter store.  However, I wasn't so lucky with all the species and some of my autumn crocuses are muddled up and a nuisance to try and sort out.  So I use various "methods" to annoy the mice, one method is wire squares on the tops which I put on before the top dressing of grit, but sometimes they work their way to the surface.  It's been quite effective for a couple of years, the hardest job was cutting all the squares but now I have them I can reuse them.     

[angie]

Thanks Diane, good idea, I thought it might be for the mice, I had a lot of trouble with mice this year in the garden and coldframe I bought a mouse trap that the shop said could catch up to ten mice at a time and boy I nearly got there 9 in one go, so l used it for two months and I caught 33 mice, what chance would my garden bulbs have if l hadn't caught these. Diane wish you lived closer you could give me some lessons on seed germination I am hopeless.
Angie

[johnw]

This mouse trap we have to see!

One year a nest of mice made a nest in a huge Rhodo pot in the greenhouse. They were entering through the drainage hole. They chewed off many of the leaves of the Cyclamen, even some shoot stalks.  It took a few years for those that lost their growth stalks to recuperate.

johnw

[Diane Clement]

Diane wish you lived closer you could give me some lessons on seed germination I am hopeless.   Angie  

Angie, I think you have VASTLY more experienced seed germinators living MUCH closer to you than I am!      
The main recommendations I can give are

     sow lots of seed every year
     read Deno
     keep careful notes
     don't be put off by failure!

However, it sounds like you are better at catching mice than me, I only manage one at a time  

[iann]

If you have trouble germinating your seed, throw them on the lawn and they will magically sprout patterned leaves amongst the grass

[angie]

If you have trouble germinating your seed, throw them on the lawn and they will magically sprout patterned leaves amongst the grass

Worth a try
Angie