First '09/'10 success

My winner was Trifolium alpinum, which germinated after about a week at room temperature, after scarification. 
Then (all at room temp): Vella lucentina, Ononis spinosa, Dianthus pinifolius ssp. serbicus, Dianthus petraeus ssp. noeanus, Limonium perplexum, Laserpitum siler, Lupinus lepidus utahensis (after scarification), Omphalodes kuzinskyanae,... and something new every day now!

Well, alright, maybe it is an addiction... but I can quit any time I want to...      :o

Those were, by the way, packets of seed.  Everybody got that, right?  Oh well, never mind...   ::)

More (all room temp):
Senecio polyodon - I had S. polyodon ssp. polyodon, a South African species (from Gardens North), for many years, until it was eventually crowded out by other plants; I was never quite sure if it actually wintered over, or if it merely acted as a reliably self-seeding annual.
Scutellaria altissima - Rob, I have been very interested in scutellaria these last 2 seasons too (though I see that this one is not exactly a rock garden candidate!)
Sedum pilosum, Satureja montana illyrica (hardiness?), Teucrium hircanicum, Verbascum fontqueri and rotundifolium haenseleri, Delosperma alpinum (hardiness?), Lindelofia longiflora, Codonopsis grey-wilsonii and bhutanica, Campanula argyrotricha...

My winner of the "eager beaver" award goes to winterfat (Krascheninnikovia lanata) - sown on Feb. 21, with germination on Feb. 23... amazing.

Skulski wrote:

Scutellaria altissima - Rob, I have been very interested in scutellaria these last 2 seasons too (though I see that this one is not exactly a rock garden candidate!)
Sedum pilosum, Satureja montana illyrica (hardiness?), Teucrium hircanicum, Verbascum fontqueri and rotundifolium haenseleri, Delosperma alpinum (hardiness?), Lindelofia longiflora, Codonopsis grey-wilsonii and bhutanica, Campanula argyrotricha...
My winner of the "eager beaver" award goes to winterfat (Krascheninnikovia lanata) - sown on Feb. 21, with germination on Feb. 23... amazing.

Lori, since you like Scutellarias, I just posted in the Scutellaria topic on S. incana.  We have some similar tastes in plants, Satureja, Teucrium, Lindelofia.  I wonder which Lindelofia you grow, I once had a maroon red one from Turkey (actually, a Paracaryum).  Do you grow any Onosma?.  Regarding Krascheninnikovia lanata, I had never heard of it before, had to google it to find out what it is.

So, resuming the original discussion... What is everyone growing from seed this year, and any germination success to report?

Since last time, I now have:
Campanula seraglio, Codonopsis bhutanica, Erigeron aureus (4 days to germ!), Incarvillea younghusbandii, Lysimachia lichiangensis, Napaea dioica, Salvia verbenacea, Scutellaria zhongdianensis, Townsendia minima, and Verbascum roripifolium (from my own plant but, as it is said to be a biennial, I suppose I'd best get some more going).

These are all easy, warm (i.e. room temperature) germinators (or I should say that I have gotten germination at room temperature without resorting to any other means).

Come on, folks - join in!  

I am still waiting for my NARGS seeds.......
Have sown a few others. The first to germinate was Campanula aucheri in about a week. (I beheld this one in Turkey last summer and bought  seed this fall.)

Breathtaking!!  Your photo and the ones in Holubec's Caucasus book make this species look completely irresistible!
What are the yellow flowers intermixed with the campanula?  A gorgeous colour combination...

Today, I'm thrilled to report strong germination from Saussurea stella - planted on Feb. 24/10, germination on the 28th!  The seeds are from Pavelka, collected in 2008.  An exquisite species, as shown by the following photo from Magnar Aspaker's very interesting site:
http://www.magnar.aspaker.no/Saussurea%20stella%2009.jpg

Of course, I still have to grow it and winter it, but so far, so good on Step 1.

Skulski wrote:

Breathtaking!!  Your photo and the ones in Holubec's Caucasus book make this species look completely irresistable!
What are the yellow flowers intermixed with the campanula?  A gorgeous colour combination...

I am sorry but I don't know! I didn't make notes but I think I thought it was a Hypericum. Neither did I picture all plants I saw, we had to get down before the fog arrived.

Skulski wrote:

Today, I'm thrilled to report strong germination from Saussurea stella - planted on Feb. 24/10, germination on the 28th!  The seeds are from Pavelka, collected in 2008.  An exquisite species, as shown by the following photo from Magnar Aspaker's interesting site:
http://www.magnar.aspaker.no/Saussurea%20stella%2009.jpg

Of course, I still have to grow it and winter it, but so far, so good on Step 1.

I have met Magnar a couple of times but he lives 2000km north of here! He has a marvellous garden.  Mild winters with snow cover and lacking slugs and with midnight sun in summer he can grow almost all kind of alpines and a lot more.

I managed to get all my surplus seeds sown today. :) Now I look forward to seeing them grow.  It is my favourite pastime, checking for new seedlings popping up! It is like Xmas every time something new appears. Sometimes the ones you expect to be the most difficult appear with no problems, while the so called easy to grow ones just dont show! One never knows, it is so exciting! Many thanks to all the donors and of course all the people involved in the distribution.

I was WAY too overzealous this year...I have about 175 pots sown!  Mind you, I generally get only about 50% of the pots germinate the first year, but that still leaves 80-odd pots with seedlings that need thinning, repotting, etc.  It's a make-work project!

Boland wrote:

I was WAY too overzealous this year...I have about 175 pots sown!  Mind you, I generally get only about 50% of the pots germinate the first year, but that still leaves 80-odd pots with seedlings that need thinning, repotting, etc.  It's a make-work project!

That's true! Have divided and potted about 20 species the last two days. A couple of them are Helleborus sown at least a year ago and sprouting in February. I always get too many plants!

Grannysmith, welcome to the forum!  What sorts of things are you growing?

Todd, I went hog-wild this year... My Excel seed-starting spreadsheet tells me I have attempted to germinate 199 species (yikes, I knew it was crazy but had not added it up!), and I have germination now on 124 species, or 62%.  I've got 2 trays of plants that have been outside for a while now (in the garage overnight), and 14 trays downstairs under lights (of ones that have been potted on, saving up to 8 plants max)... each tray holds 48 pots...  Still have a few pots in which the seedlings need to be transferred to individual pots.
I chucked the 2 trays of reluctant germinators outside about 3 weeks ago.   Whew!
Of course, the big question is, how many of these will be hardy?

For those of you who keep ungerminated pots of seed over to the following year(s)... Do you water throughout the summer to keep them moist?  (I assume not, as wouldn't that rot the seeds?)

I do hold ungerminated seed pots for another year, and sometimes another two years.  While most initial seed sowing starts with the seed pots enclosed in plastic or covered with a Saran wrap, when they fail to germinate, the pots come out of their little "greenhouses" and are just placed with other potted growing materials.  They get watered whenever the growing plants need it, although I have to admit the bare pots do get neglected sometimes.  But no, they never purposely go bone dry.  After all, what if they are hypogeal germinators and I don't know it?

I do the same as Rick and very often things germinate after a year or two. The problem is what germinates is not always what I sowed! Very often birch, fireweed, willowherb, bellflower etc have occupied the pots. However I have learnt to recognize the common weed's cotyledons.

Thanks for the welcome  I was very restrained this year and only got 60 packets,I usually get about 100. I do hold seed pots over on species that are known to be a bit "difficult".  Then if they still don't come up,I do what an elderly gardener friend always did.  I tip the contents of ungerminated pots out in the garden.  Often you will find something comes up long after you gave up on it.  I am growing species liliums, iris, fritillaria, small bulbs, campanula, helleborus, salvia, penstemon and many others. I have quite a collection of liliums now and am always on the lookout for more. LOL. I also love South American plants especially tropaeolum and bomarea and the small bulbs.  I would like to have everything! I am seriously addicted, I guess.  ::)I just love being out working on my plants.  Forget the housework! :D

I am also a species lily buff.  25 plus grown to flowering, with another 20 or so not flowering yet. 

Also have delved into Fritillaria the last few years.  Seed germinated this year so far: Ff. affinis, agrestis, biflora, biflora x purdyi, carica, crassifolia ssp. kurdica, pallidiflora, persica, pinardii, purdyi x biflora, rhodocanakis, sewerzowii, stenanthera, whittalii.

Checking my pots, I find that more Tulipa urmiensis have germinated and rising along with the ones sprouted last season.  As I lifted the tag to see its identity, I accidentally pulled one of the new seedlings with it.

So here it is, typical of alpines (and prairie plants), the root goes straight down without branching for a long while.

This explains how our spring bulbs have no problems moving into lawns...they send their root down quite deep!

Hmm, I would have thought the Tulipa urumiensis seedling, even at that tender age, would have a tiny bulb formed?  (The first-season scilla/chionodoxa/puschkinia seedlings that I pull out of places they shouldn't be, seem to have tiny bulbs...) However, never having (successfully) raised tulips from seed, I have no comparison... looks like tulips take longer?

I think you are right with your thinking, Lori.  That one that got pulled up was only a few days old above ground, not a year old one.

Rick,
The "first-season" scilla/chionodoxa/puschkinia seedlings are ones that just germinated the same spring (otherwise, they would have been pulled out the previous spring).  For them to be "a year old", are you saying that the seeds germinated the previous summer/fall, and bulb formation started, but foliage was only sent up in spring?   Hypogeal (?), in other words?
Your tulip seedling is different though; immediate cotyledon above the ground? 
Guess I should just look up growing bulbs from seed and educate myself!  I know nothing about it (clearly)!

Don't ask me why I said "few days old above ground."  A mistake since it understandably put a question mark in your mind.  Tulipa urmiensis is not hypogeal germinating, as I winter sowed the seeds on 19 Feb 09 and the first seedling emerged on 22 April 2009.  That is the one I refer to as one year old now.  So yes, they grow immediate cotyledons above ground.

RickR wrote:

...I winter sowed the seeds on 19 Feb 09 and the first seedling emerged on 22 April 2009.  That is the one I refer to as one year old now.

Isn't that how it works for racehorses?  ;D ;D  Sorry, completely off-topic! 
Thank you for the clarification.