Seed starting chronicles 2012

I've thought a magnifying light like that would be very useful for sorting/cleaning seeds!

I was very pleased to notice that seeds of Sorbus sp cf wilsoniana sown last spring are now coming up abundantly!
I don't know much about what this will look like, especially being 'cf', but here's a description of the species:

http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200011724

interesting that they say fruit orangish red, when many pics you can find online show pink berries (darn, I'd rather have had pink! maybe the cf will take care of that...).. and 5-10 m-- 5 would be preferred, but I'll have to wrap it in something to keep the moose from eating it- it took decades for our regular Sorbus ( I never remember which it is- americana or acuparia? the one with hairy buds, I think) to become more than a multi-stemmed shrub, what with annual pruning by them- it finally shot some trunks higher, and now they eat around lower levels...

I also have S reducta seedlings from last year planted out already and showing slight signs of life... that one might stay low enough to be below snow when the worst predations occur...

Hoy wrote:

Cohan, if you want pink berries I can send you some S hupehensis seed!

Sure! Love those pink berries :) Though I don't know if its hardy, that hasn't stopped me before ;) (VanDusen seed collectors lists it as z 6-8, but I think most of these people don't know anyone in zone 3  ;D

Then, it occurred to me that its funny to look for shrubs for berry colour when most berries are ripe for about 5 minutes here before the birds get them....lol

I scarified seeds awhile back, I managed to scarify my fingertips as well!  I managed to hold most of the needs with a finger, and used an emery board.  For the smaller ones I put them in a baggie and "cornered the seeds" and then went at them with the emery.  Seemed to work, most have germinated.  I need to find a better way....

Germination over the last couple of weeks of some seeds sown around the beginning of May (I think- some of the tags were made earlier and then I didn't get the sowing done, didn't change them all!) and put out in the last patch of snow which soon became a bin of cold water! but still many cool days and near/frosty nights-- Some Violas (have to go out with a notepad to get the names...lol)- several Hieracium (I doubt they really needed the cool period, though the references I found were mixed, so I figured what the heck!) villosum, intybaceum and most recently aurantiacum (hope none of these will be weeds!) and the similar Hypochoeris maculatum; Prenanthes (purpurea, I think-have to look at the tag or find the packet..lol), And some things sown end of May and set outside for (occasionally!) warm days, though nights are still (always!) cool--Sempervivum arachnoideum, Polemonium boreale, probably some other things I'm forgetting now-- I have pics of most, but they don't look like much yet!

Have seen suggestions for germination of Paeonia and Roses on paper towels the latter initially cold and the former initially warm, on wet paper towels.  Some rose people suggested using a solution of 1.5% hydrogen peroxide.

Anyone "stratify" on paper towels?

Charles Swanson MA USA

RickR, your Alyssum stribrnyi seedlings look exactly like Romneya coulteri.

externmed wrote:

Have seen suggestions for germination of Paeonia and Roses on paper towels the latter initially cold and the former initially warm, on wet paper towels.  Some rose people suggested using a solution of 1.5% hydrogen peroxide.

Anyone "stratify" on paper towels?

Charles Swanson MA USA

I used to use Deno's method a lot - moistened paper towel inside of baggie - but have just gone to direct sowing in pots in the last few years.  It certainly saves space (Deno's method, that is).  It can be a little tricky to detach roots from the paper towel, so I'd just tear away as much as possible and plant it with the seedling.  I was not using it for peonies and roses though.

I just found a nice thick cluster of Hepatica transsilvanica seedlings under the mother plant. Any suggestions on whether to divide them this year or wait till next spring. They are growing in a very tight group, on top of each other in some circumstances. Only a few have their true leaves yet.

Thanks Mark. I'll give it a try.

Full of promise ,not far from their first flowering ---- Seed sown June 2009 and potted on once, they don't appear to have suffered from not being separated into individual pots.

That being said i think I'll be potting on/ planting out a few Hepaticas soon as well. :)

Cheers Dave.

Toole wrote:

Full of promise ,not far from their first flowering ---- Seed sown June 2009 and potted on once, they don't appear to have suffered from not being separated into individual pots.

That being said i think I'll be potting on/ planting out a few Hepaticas soon as well. :)

Cheers Dave.

Looking good, Dave! I have some smaller than that (first year) and some maybe about the same size/age.. I sowed them in an old hanging basket planter (not hung though!) expecting to leave them several years till ready to go in the ground.. they are looking good- finally like real, though small, plants, this year.. Maybe I will plant them out this summer/fall, not sure yet... I rarely do anything with seedlings between sowing and planting out...

Thanks Cohan

I also sowed a number of wonderful different coloured japanese 'Heps' a year later in 2010 --a check yesterday and i think a small number of them are budding up .....Fingers crossed.

Cheers Dave.

Yip Trond --i'll let them flower first --see if there is any variation within a pot --repot any 'nice ones' and plant out a small number if i can find some room  ;D and probably give away the rest.

Cheers Dave.

Toole wrote:

Full of promise ,not far from their first flowering ---- Seed sown June 2009 and potted on once, they don't appear to have suffered from not being separated into individual pots

Cheers Dave.

Here's a shot of one of the pots taken today.

Cheers Dave. 

Toole wrote:

Toole wrote:

Full of promise ,not far from their first flowering ---- Seed sown June 2009 and potted on once, they don't appear to have suffered from not being separated into individual pots

Cheers Dave.

Here's a shot of one of the pots taken today.

Cheers Dave. 

Great colours!

Having chipped a lot of legume seed earlier in the spring I decided I should get on and sow it. Summer temperatures are perfect, around 25-30°C and the seed germinated in a couple of days. So far so good. And then an influx of slugs out of nowhere discovered them, causing much cursing and a quick transfer to the greenhouse and scattering of slug pellets. Fortunately some are growing away OK and more have germinated, so at least most pots will produce a modicum of seedlings. Next year I will take more care.

The first photo shows Sophora arizonica with probably half of the seedlings chomped below the cotyledons. The second group were less effected: Lupinus excubitis, Sophora stenophylla and Robinia neomexicana. The third shows Oxytropis prenja, Ebenus pisidica and Hedysarum pestalozzae. Many of these are not likely to be too easy to grow even without slugs around but they are such fascinating plants, and like the final picture of Lupinus chamissonis often have very beautiful foliage even in the absence of any flowers.

My allotment of seeds from NZAGS arrived a week and a half ago.  I immediately planted a few indoors at room temp. covered with clear plastic and they germinated within a week - leading the pack is Townsendia hookeri, Gentiana verna, Ranunculus lyallii and Pterocephalus perennis.  Also coming along is some of Gene Miro's Ourissia coccinia.  In the past, when I have planted these in early spring, when most of my seeds come in, there is a problem with damp off and some just don't germinate at all.  Hope springs eternal.  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

Good luck with all of those Fran :)

I collected a few berries of Arctous rubra, which is now one of my very favourite sub-shrubs, so I'd really like to get some going! Does anyone have any successful germination tips? Sounds like it could be a bit tough.. I will put them out over winter.. right now I have them in a bit of water with a touch of vinegar and kefir, in a highly unscientific effort to give them some simulation of passing through a digestive tract! then, barring any specific advice,  I'll sow them on top of gravel...

Cohan - never heard of Arctous rubra but, after looking at Google shots of it, I'm impressed - sort of related to Arctostaphylus, n'est pas?  Your handling of its propagation is rather heroic, in the medical sense, I'm thinking.  Hope you will keep us informed about your progress with this most interesting plant.  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

Fran- yes, close to Arctostaphylos, in fact I think some authors may still retain it under Arctostaphylos.
I'll be sharing some recent photos of it when I get them all sorted, and I think I need to put together a set of it in several seasons- I've now seen it in early spring just emerging and flowering, in mid-summer in its full velvety greenness (I actually thought it was a low Salix until I saw it in flower!) and  beginning fall colour on my recent visit..
I have seen some photos where it did not look so different from common Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, but the plants I am most familiar with, near the foot of Athabasca Glacier, look very different from it- with larger leaves, and many stems coming from rhizomes rather than above ground persistent stems (apparently they do both). It is also variously described as deciduous or 'marcescent' which apparently in this case means the leaves seasonally die but do not necessarily fall off- the plants I've seen mostly seem to shed them, as I only saw fresh leaves in spring.. I wonder if this relates to winter weather- how much snow/wind/rain there is to strip them off? If I do get any seedlings it will be interesting to compare habit here to the alpine location..

I'll never really know if my heroic intervention  will help --well, if there is no germination, I'll know it didn't help! but if there is germination, I wont know if its just due to outdoor winter stratification..lol.. I don't really have enough of the small seeds to try many different things, so there is no control group!

There may be some other differences (I've read the descriptions but forget), but the obvious one is black berries on alpina vs red berries on rubra.
We only have rubra in Alberta, I think- oddly, Flora of Alberta only mentions rubra, but efloras North America mentions alpina as occurring in Alberta, though rubra is sometimes labelled as a subspecies of alpina or of Arctostaphylos alpinus..
I went to check the efloras genus description to see the difference in the species, but the page is down for maintenance..

Dave, what a range of flower colour! 

Tim, legume seedings must be among the cutest... Lupinus chamissonis is a beauty - I must look that one up.

Well done, Fran.  I seem to recall having lousy luck with Pterocephalus... must try again.

Silene petersonii.
Finally some colour today in a pot of seedlings sown ,(x Ron Ratko's seedlist), way back in March 2009.

Having been potted on only once ,maybe well over two years ago, probably accounts for the foliage ,including flowering stem,only being 5 cm in height.

I love how the macro shot shows the prominent veining on the fringed petals of this little beauty.

Cheers Dave.  

Cute little plant, Dave.  I wouldn't be surprised if the striping on the calyx remains prominent on the seed pods, as with Silene uralensis (below) and many other Silene:

It would be interesting to see another photo later on when it's in seed.

Its a cutie, Dave!

Thanks all regarding the Silene --it never set seed ........ :'(

Here's an Ixiolirion tataricum flowering from my own 'home' seed . :P :P

Cheers Dave.

RickR wrote:

              Oxytropis nana - germinated at room temperature in 2 days after scarification and 2 hour soak.  It was quite amazing how quickly they absorbed water.  In the 2 hours it seemed like they doubled in size, but in reality they increased in size by about 50%.

I did a second trial at room temperature with an equal number of seed from the same batch (NARGS Seed Ex seed wild collected in Wyoming) unscarified and not soaked.  One seed emerged in 35 days, so far.
              [attachthumb=3]

Comparing my methods and results to yours in general, it appears to be the scarification that's the key, not the soaking.  I don't soak any pea family seeds (or any other seeds with exception of a few drops of GA-3 solution for gentians), yet get comparably rapid germination.