Leontice ewersmanii from seed

[Lori S.]

Does anyone have any insight on germination methods for Leontice ewersmanii?
Thanks.

[Lesley Cox]

I've had a few seeds of the Leontice and sowed them on my regular seed mix, which tends to be gritty, and covered them with more grit, to about .5 of a cm. All germinated though a few after a full year, most much sooner.

[Lori S.]

Was that at room temperature, or was a cold period part of it?

[Sinchets]

As I remember mine came up in spring after a winter outside. If you are sowing in pots watch out for them putting the baby tuber out through the drainage holes- they like to make their way deep quite quickly!

[Lori S.]

Thank you both very much for the information and advice.  I'll start with them indoors for a couple of weeks, or maybe a month or so (unless I hear that yours were in the cold, Lesley); if no action from that, I'll put them in the cold room or chuck them outside.

[Darren]

Musings inspired by the useful comment from Lesley:
 I once had seed of L minor and it germinated very well, the cotyledons persisted for 6 months before dying back. I was optimistic but then disappointed to discover that no tuber had formed on any of the seedlings. Bearing in mind what Lesley said, I wonder if my pot (standing on a hard surface) was not deep enough to induce any tuber formation? Or perhaps the relatively small container resulted in a warm root-zone which might have the same effect - it would make sense if the root had to reach a depth where it found suitable (cooler?) conditions before tuber formation is initiated. Just guesses but if I had seed again I would sow them in a deep pot, preferably plunged.

[Sinchets]

We saw Leontice growing wild in Greece last year in a meadow which was solid terra rossa clay. Something had been digging for the rootstocks- it looked more likely to be a wild animal than a person- and the holes were about 50cm deep. I imagine this was why my seedlings sought to escape their pots into the plunge and why I advised watching out for this.

[Lesley Cox]

Lori all my seed goes outside and is never kept warm. Most seed is sown in summer or autumn, coming from the northern hemisphere. That's when it arrives usually and that's when I'm collecting my own. I've found in the past that seed saved until the "right" time to sow, never does get sown so better to do it as soon as possible after purchase or harvest.

Mine too Darren kept the germinating cotyledons for many months. They remained in their seed pot for 2 years but when I put them into another, bigger pot last year they had made small (.5cm) tubers which were lying on the bottom of the pot as erythronium bulblets do. In all that time they had never been really cold as we've had mild winters recently and in any case, my seed benches are quite sheltered though they do get frozen solid from time to time. Cold here is nothing like your cold though.

[Lori S.]

Cold here is nothing like your cold though.

No, indeed... not if that "zone 9" note in your signature means anything!
However, winter sowing does work here, nonetheless, assuming the species has at least a remote possibility of hardiness.  (People even winter sow tender annuals, which is rather pointless IMO, as they don't get the advantage that indoor sowing gives in our short season.)  The seeds are from Kazakhstan (Almaty) so I reckon they have as good a chance as any.

OK, outdoors they will go, in a deep pot. 

Thanks, all, for the info and interesting discussion.