Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Specific Families and Genera => Hepatica => Topic started by: kalle-k.dk on January 15, 2011, 04:50:22 PM
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Every year in early January, I take some seed pots into a room where the temperature is around 18 degrees, I place the pots in a skylight where they grow to the beginning of March. Then I transplant the seedlings into small pots and fit them like other seedlings.
When I do it that way, I can get flower for about 10 percent after two years.
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Kalle-k,
what is "Hepatica yellow" that is written on the label in the last pot?
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It is the color of the flower, it is a japonica.
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Takk, kalle-k. Can I ask where you have got seeds from? Had been very interesting to try growing this type too! Seems you have a good hand with these plants.
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Thank you too Hoy. The seeds are from my own yellow Hepatica, we have some different name sort of yellow Hepatica. It's very exciting to grow Hepatica, right now they are in a greenhouse kept free of frost.
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Thank you too Hoy. The seeds are from my own yellow Hepatica, we have some different name sort of yellow Hepatica. It's very exciting to grow Hepatica, right now they are in a greenhouse kept free of frost.
Do you sell seeds? I am interested in buying! (Or swap - but you probably have more plants than I have!)
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We can probably find something we can barter with, I expect to get some seeds of the yellow forms.
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We can probably find something we can barter with, I expect to get some seeds of the yellow forms.
Tusen takk, kalle, that had been wonderful! Hope you get lots of seeds ;D
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Karl, we would be interested to see a picture of your yellow hepatica!
When you take the seed pots inside, has the seed already germinated?
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I enclose a photo of the yellow Hepatica as it looks now (taken today, it's a bit bad because it is already dark outside) the second picture is from last spring.
I take only a few pots inside, and they have not begun to germinate at this time, but do it after few days inside.
My experience is that you quickly get flowers in Hepatica if you prick out very early spring.
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The yellow is very pretty, especially with the little red stamens.
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It is a beauty, and a very unusual colour.
I will bring my seed pots indoors also. Do you prick them out as soon as they germinate? I usually wait until they are 1 year old, or I seem to lose many of them.
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The yellow Hepatica is very nice, indeed. I must confess that I didn't know such plants existed!
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Hi Anne. I prick my Hepatica out when they have the first small leaf, and I lose almost none of them
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Ah - mine don't get their first true leaf until they are 1 year old! Should I feed them?
I am sorry to ask so many questions - there is much I need to learn.
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I only add fertilizer when they are prick out
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Karl, it sounds great to have flowers already the second year. I have decided to follow your example and have now a few pots inside :).
Your yellow hepatica is a real beauty.
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I always bring the seed pots undercover just before Xmas but into a cold greenhouse without any heat other than bare frost protection.Invariably germination begins by the end of January or early February and the seedlings are not disturbed until the following year,about now in fact though it is not critical and can be delayed for a couple of months if that suits.I always prick out into 2/3ltr. pots with between 20/25 seedlings to a pot depending on which size of pot is used.The seedlings by now have a couple of true leaves and a distinct hard shoot and are much easier to handle than at the cotyledon stage.I also think that it is much easier to control the moisture and temperature of the larger pots than individual small pots particularly in the Summer months.Ideally I would move them into individual 10cm.deep pots the following year but more often thn not they stay in the large pots for two years wher they produce their first flowers.They are lightlly fed occassionally during the first two years and are never allowed to dry out.
I am not saying that this is the perfect procedure but only that it is the one that I follow and have found successful over the years.I took the pictures below this afternoon and they were sown in May 2009.They are from Craemar,Transylvanica alba and japonicas.
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What a lovely sight, John :). Last year I brought my hepatica pots into my unheated outhouse to speed up germination, I have no greenhouse. They did germinate OK but then the mice found them :'(.
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I always start feeding the mice in the Autumn ;D ;D ;D
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Ah, that's where I went wrong then ;D
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I must be doing something wrong (or not doing something right). Mine never produce true leaves in their first season. Perhaps I should try feeding them, poor things.
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I must be doing something wrong (or not doing something right). Mine never produce true leaves in their first season. Perhaps I should try feeding them, poor things.
Be careful!
A
I was "kind" to some seedlings last fall and they all burnt to death! Not Hepatica though.
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3 days after I brought the seed pots indoors, the first seedlings are germinating!
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Lucky you. Nothing here yet, inside or outside :-\ . Only some brave hellebore seedlings outside in totally frozen pots.
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I too only get the cotyledons the first year. Are we saying that if repotting them when they first produce those cotyledons then stimulates true leaves in that first year? ???
The yellow is gorgeous. I didn't know Heps came in yellows. :o
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I didn't either - I'm trying to remain calm. :o
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In a seed pot with H. nobilis var. pyrenaica seeds from Ashwood I found this different looking seedling.
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That looks very unusual Gunilla.............looking forward to seeing pictures as it progresses to a mature plant.
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In a seed pot with H. nobilis var. pyrenaica seeds from Ashwood I found this different looking seedling.
Seems to lack chlorophyll! Think it will die when the store of starch is used up.
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Yes. I think it probably will. I have seen lack of chlorophyll quite often in Hemerocallis seedlings but not in Hepaticas before. It looks odd with the bright red stem.
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Gunilla, if you mange to grow it you'll have a magnificent plant!
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tomorrow I will post a photo of my Hepatica seedlings. Do they always produce true leaves when one year old? Seeds were sown fresh and green last year
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Mark,
You obviously have not been paying attention as all of the information that you request has been posted on more than one occasion by myself and others.
Sow fresh June/July
Germinate Spring the following year
Prick out the year after that(anytime from Jan.onwards when the plant will be producing a hard pointed growth bud)
You have obviously sown the seed far too thickly and therefore you will have to prick them out sooner than I am reccomending.
I sow all my seeds in a 5"sqare pot sown individually with tweezers 7 x 7 i.e 49 to a pot,that way they can quite happily remain in the pot until it is convenient to move them on(a further year if necessary)
The first picture sows a 5" sq.pot sown in July 2019 still undisturbed of transylvanica alba.
The second 2ltr.pot of japonica sown June 2009 and pricked out Jan.2011
The third is the same as above but with XCraemar
The fourth is as above but with transylvanica lilacina
Notice the difference in vigour between japonica and the others.Japonica takes much longer to build up into a robust clump although there are exceptions.
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tomorrow I will post a photo of my Hepatica seedlings. Do they always produce true leaves when one year old? Seeds were sown fresh and green last year
John has really said it all, but I'll add a couple of my pictures. As John says, they germinate in February or March following sowing the previous May. I find they usually produce their cotyledons and one single leaf in their first year. Then the second year they produce proper leaves (they are doing this about now)
First picture is young seedlings in their first year. I don't have as many seeds as John so I usually sow up to 10 seeds in a 7cm or 9cm pot.
I don't normally repot, but these were a bit crowded, so second and third picture shows a young seedling in February this year when I repotted them into 1 litre long toms
The last picture is of a pot sown May 2009, just starting to make new growth
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here are my seedlings
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Flippin' heck, Mark, you've got a right job on there!
John and Diane - do you find there is any secondary germination in subsequent years, or is it safe to assume that the first germination is all there will be? I want to know how careful I need to be winkling out seedlings from a pot that has had poor germination.
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Flippin' heck, Mark, you've got a right job on there!
John and Diane - do you find there is any secondary germination in subsequent years, or is it safe to assume that the first germination is all there will be? I want to know how careful I need to be winkling out seedlings from a pot that has had poor germination.
Anne, there sometimes is further germination (or the first germination sometimes only occurs) in the following year (two years after sowing). I wouldn't winkle anything in the first year, they don't grow a lot during that year anyway so don't need pricking out.
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I have absolutely nothing to add to these instructions.
I just want to say that some postings on this forum are just fantastic.
The help and information that is freely given is next to unbelievable.
Thank you all
Göte
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I agree, Gote. I have learned so much just this year.
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I agree too, Gote and Anne ;D I have learnt so much since I read this forum :D
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Flippin' heck, Mark, you've got a right job on there!
John and Diane - do you find there is any secondary germination in subsequent years, or is it safe to assume that the first germination is all there will be? I want to know how careful I need to be winkling out seedlings from a pot that has had poor germination.
Anne, there sometimes is further germination (or the first germination sometimes only occurs) in the following year (two years after sowing). I wouldn't winkle anything in the first year, they don't grow a lot during that year anyway so don't need pricking out.
I agree entirely but in the case of Marks seedlings he has sown the seed far too thickly and I would prick those out.
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In a seed pot with H. nobilis var. pyrenaica seeds from Ashwood I found this different looking seedling.
Seems to lack chlorophyll! Think it will die when the store of starch is used up.
You are right Hoy. Sometimes such mutations happens - they loose some gene responding for forming of chlorophyll and plants die. Sometimes this happens with mature plants, too (in bulbs which replace bulb every year). Unique in this aspect are hostas, there are variety which in spring makes pure white leaves. In mid summer they dies and are replaced by green ones, which produce food for plants next years growing. This is unique and I don't know another such "joker". My wife is growing it in her nursery and this hosta allways surprises all visitors, except short period when white leaves start to die and doesn't look very spectacular.
Janis