Germinating now?

[TheOnionMan]

A couple of items germinating.  The first is Anthericum ramosum, one of my very favorite plants, making an elegant long-lived dsiplay in summer.  While it makes loads of seed, in the past 8-9 years, have only found seedlings a couple times, which I gave away to friends visiting the garden.  Last year, I helped it along by scratching in the seed immediately after harvesting it late summer/early fall, and I see lots of nice seedlings. The second photo shows the plant in flower mid July... an airy display of white-butterfly flowers.  In the third image, self-sown seedlings of Tulipa clusiana forms, should be interesting to see what turns up.  Didn't notice the thread-like seedlings in their first year, but then again I was working and away from my garden too much, these seedlings are obviously in their second year.

[Lesley Cox]

I've always sown my seeds both own seed and from the groups or purchased, in small pots and by and large, have a lot of success but I'm strongly tempted to try this "sown around the mother" method, especially for my own seed of bulbous species but perhaps others too. Mark do you put the seed from the exchanges that way too? I'd be a little worried that the 3 or 4 seeds that come of many species might find the great outdoors a bit much for them. I guess the general weed situation would have to be pretty much under meticulous control too.

[TheOnionMan]

I've always sown my seeds both own seed and from the groups or purchased, in small pots and by and large, have a lot of success but I'm strongly tempted to try this "sown around the mother" method, especially for my own seed of bulbous species but perhaps others too. Mark do you put the seed from the exchanges that way too? I'd be a little worried that the 3 or 4 seeds that come of many species might find the great outdoors a bit much for them. I guess the general weed situation would have to be pretty much under meticulous control too.

Good question Lesley.  I resorted to direct sowing outside, as a harried working-man's solution, and it well exceeded my expectations.  If I could convert my state of unemployment to a permanent state of being retired, I would probably return to a greater percentage of sowing seed in small pots, particularly if I got myself a greenhouse, but not entirely.  My top 10 current guidelines might be:

1.  Direct sow slow-germinators and long-to-mature plants, like Trillium, Tulipa, Crocus, and Acanthoprasum/Malanocrommyum Allium species, labeling their locations.  Down-side, might end up with the familiar label graveyard for things that don't germinate.

2.  Direct sow around various bulb species to bulk them up.

3.  Direct sow plant species to encourage a "bulb lawn" or "wildflower pasture" effect, Cyclamen come to mind.

4.  Direct sow easy-to-identify plant species... why fuss and bother with pots when a small bit of bare earth does the trick.  Example, Anthericum ramosum... low results in pots, good results in the ground, then move them to where you want an airy spire of white.

5.  Direct sow tricky plants like Castilleja or orchid species, maybe you'll get lucky.

6.  Sow in pots or flats quick germinating plants. In my hardy Hibiscus hybridization program, I sow in pots, they come up like grass... but as of last year, I started direct sowing in the ground.  I do start Magnolia species in flats, warm germinators that come up in 1-2 weeks from seed.

7.  Sow in pots seed varieties for which very little seed was received.

8.  Sow in pots seed varieties I want to take extra care in making sure of the variety or species, particularly when exploring a genus new to me.

9.  Sow in pots plants that have tiny or minuscule seed.

10. Sow in pots species for which I am totally unfamiliar.

[Lesley Cox]

All of those sound pretty sensible and give me plenty of scope for some experimentation. I'll start off with Crocus and Narcissus seed. David N worries about 150 pots of seed but I have over 1000 here at present, many of species such as Colchicums, Juno or Onco irises which I'm still hoping may produce something after 5 years or so. Anything I sow in the grownd will help to reduce future seed pot numbers. (And that isn't counting the pots which DID germinate and are waiting a year or two years before planting out or potting up, the frits, crocuses etc etc).

[Sinchets]

After a late heavy snowfall earlier this month, followed by unseasonally warm weather this last week and now back to cool with rain- I have finally had germinations in pots of Onco and Juno Iris and Colchicum- some of which were sown in autumn 2007. Some of the Onco seed I direct sowed in the garden 2 years ago has come up now, as has seed from last autumn. I guess this shows we can try, but the vagaries of the weather and a plants requirements are quite hard to fathom
I'm trying to cut back on the amount of seed I sow in pots, as the last few years here have shown me that black plastic pots and the bulgarian sunshine are not a good combination. Here it is a struggle for young plants trying to establish a root system and this is even with the use of shade netting. In the open garden the self sown and direct sown seedlings never look back.

[TheOnionMan]

I still sow some seed in pots, starting to see some germination... Iris sintenisii ssp. brandzae.

[Sinchets]

We have had rain for over 24hours here now- fantastic stuff! Today a pot of Crocus versicolor (from Archibald seed), which was sown in October 2007 has given me 5 blades of Crocus grass- I'm happy to have at least 50% germination after a wait of 2 1/2 years. I also have germination in Narcissus alcaracensis- again from a 2007 sowing. To prove how wet it has been, I noticed a bearded Iris seed, which has germinated on the landscaping fabric in the nursery today. I guess it must have fallen uncollected from the pod last summer. It already has its root down through the fabric into the sand below.

[Mike Ireland]

Germinated in last few weeks
Corydalis fumariifolia
Lewisia nevadensis
Meconopsis horridula, amazed at the number that germinated and the fact it happened less than one week after sowing.
Trillium kurabayahii shows 1st and 2nd year seedlings
Trillium rivale
Androsace cylindrica x hirtella

[Mike Ireland]

Sanguinaria canadensis, this seed from Kristl Walek and another pot from a friend who lives nearby was sown 2 years ago and both germinated this month.

Mike

[TheOnionMan]

Meconopsis horridula, amazed at the number that germinated and the fact it happened less than one week after sowing.

Mike, it looks like you're going to have a horridula time pricking out all those seedlings

[Mike Ireland]

Mark
I have some friends who have a nursery, probably most will go to them.

[Lesley Cox]

Mark, I hope your seedlings of I. sintenisii ssp brandzae turn out to be true (source?). I've had this several times and it has always turned out as I. setosa hookeri (or nana or whatever you want to call it). I remember brandzae as my mother grew it many years ago, a slim, elegant plant with very narrow upright leaves and a rather fine, spidery flower. I've never been able to find it since.

[TheOnionMan]

Mark, I hope your seedlings of I. sintenisii ssp brandzae turn out to be true (source?). I've had this several times and it has always turned out as I. setosa hookeri (or nana or whatever you want to call it). I remember brandzae as my mother grew it many years ago, a slim, elegant plant with very narrow upright leaves and a rather fine, spidery flower. I've never been able to find it since.

Does it look correct in this photo: http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/BeardlessIrises#brandzae

In my photo, you can see the label, it is from Pilous seed collected in the Vrancea Mountain, Romania... my guess is this is a good source.

[David Nicholson]

.......a little pot of Calochortus clavatus sown 2 April 2008 that I had quite forgotten about. Nice surprise.

David can you take a photo please i've never seen Calochortus seedlings before.

Here they are Dave. I said they were unremarkable

[TheOnionMan]

They look like onions to me