Germinating now?

[fermi de Sousa]

Fermi, did the Narcissus germinated?

Not yet! The Habranthus seed you sent is already up

now that the Rodophiala germinated, when will you water them? I've some to sow and I'm a bit worried about the water.

I usually sow those flat seeds of South American amaryllids as soon as I get them as I don't think have a long viability. The ones pictured above were sown in autumn and started to germinate during the winter! Others sown at the same time started to germinate when the weather got a bit warmer - within the last couple of weeks.
cheers
fermi

[John Kitt]

Partial success for the beginner is an intoxicating experience!!
I was given seeds of Rigidella orthantha in March and sowed them immediately. As yet no signs of germination.
In August I made my first attempt at germinating using the Deno method and until recently no results.
In desperation I treated these seeds with Gibberellic Acid and lo, after 5 days SUCCESS!!!
I say "partial success" because I have so far only a tiny root. I have carefully transferred to an open potting mix and will hope for the best. However, I am panting with anticipation.

[Maggi Young]

I think it is just these very trials and tribulations which demonstrate the miracle that is a sprouting seed.... it is  not always easy to initiate growth and the delight felt when we see signs of life beginning from a tiny seed are such a great reward for us.
I feel so sorry for those poor souls who never try raising plants from  seed... they really don't know what wonders they are missing out on!

[fermi de Sousa]

Fermi, did the Narcissus germinated?

Cris,
They started like cress a few weeks ago - after you asked I decided to give the pot a dunk in some water and left it there till they germinated!

This was taken last week and there is an errant irid as well!
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

I may try this with a few of my tardy Narcissus seed pots, all from the Northern hemisphere and those often take an extra year even if the seed is very fresh.

[mark smyth]

well done everyone. I feel so bad for not growing my own plants

[Rogan]

Joy of joy! More plants from seed!   

Eucrosia mirabilis just germinating - 14-21 days from sowing.

[TheOnionMan]

During our miserably hot summer with record drought conditions, Cyclamen purpurascens flowered earlier than normal and flowered well in spite of the weather.  There were lots of seed capsules from the previous year, and while I missed more than 1/2 of the bounty, I did catch some and sowed the seed outside in place, just scratching the seed into the soil and pine back mulch... this technique has been so effective.  Today I noticed innumerable clusters of cute seedlings all over, these seedlings almost as cute as Epimedium seedlings... yay!

[mark smyth]

Mark do you make your own mulch? I like it.

[TheOnionMan]

Mark do you make your own mulch? I like it.

Mark, it's just pine back mulch, dark brown and not too chunky when fresh, but quickly decomposing to a finer grade in 2-3 years, looking grayish when dry.  It does wonders over time to enrich the soil and to lighten my otherwise heavy rocky clay soil.  While it is supposed to be bark mulch, there are pieces of shredded wood in there too.

[TheOnionMan]

From more in-situ sowing, as a follow-up, here are 2 year old seedlings of Helleborus niger.  I'm loving this method, just scratch-n-sow (I should trademark this phrase ) when the seed pods are spilling seed, and stand back and let them germinate and grow on their own accord, no handing of seed pots, no manual watering, no visual mess of pots and flats, no muss no fuss   In this view, what's interesting is that in the fall 2-year seedlings put out some larger secondary leaves.  Also shown here, is a 3-read old seedling plant, maybe big enough to produce a few flowers late winter 2011.

[Lesley Cox]

Mark I agree, you should register or patent the phrase. It is obviously a more productive one than the "Scratch and Win," those nasty little tickets one can buy here as part of the lottery system, where you rub a coin or something over a silver area and discover you haven't won a prize.

This seems such a good way to sow many woodland-type plants, with no weeding worth speaking of, no sowing in pots, watering frequently and then having to pot them individually. Just sow then plant elsewhere in due course. I'll be trying it myself this coming autumn. I use a mulch of pine bark fines and rotted pea straw. Together they make a lovely humusy compost. (Of course one get the odd pea coming up. I think it would be worth using too, for irises of many kinds such as the PCs. Before the winter I planted out a small plant of a dwarf form of I. douglasiana. There was just the one germinated after two years in the seed pot. Just last week I noticed another 20 or so had germinated in the garden, not around the plant but in the nearby area where I'd distributed the compost from the seed pot. They are now rescued and into small nursery pots.

[Paul T]

Or 'Scratch and Sniff', which were about at one point, where the picture on a card or something similar was impregnated with a perfume which released when scratched.... so you could see a picture of a lemon and scratch it, thereby releasing lemon perfume.  There was a whole range of flavours.  Not sure they're around any more?

I feel old! 

[astragalus]

From more in-situ sowing, as a follow-up, here are 2 year old seedlings of Helleborus niger.  I'm loving this method, just scratch-n-sow (I should trademark this phrase ) when the seed pods are spilling seed, and stand back and let them germinate and grow on their own accord, no handing of seed pots, no manual watering, no visual mess of pots and flats, no muss no fuss   In this view, what's interesting is that in the fall 2-year seedlings put out some larger secondary leaves.  Also shown here, is a 3-read old seedling plant, maybe big enough to produce a few flowers late winter 2011.

Mark, I use your "scratch and sow" method with Penstemon thompsoniae, a caespitose penstemon I really like.  For years I donated seed and also sowed it myself in pots.  I never got germination.  A few years ago I just scratched the some of the seed into the trough where it was growing and the following spring had 30 seedlings (too close together).  I transplanted them later in little groups and they are now growing happily in the crevice garden and scree garden.  Apparently, the trough is not really essential, but it makes a wonderful seed bed.
1. Pictured here in the trough.

[TheOnionMan]

Mark, I use your "scratch and sow" method with Penstemon thompsoniae, a caespitose penstemon I really like.  For years I donated seed and also sowed it myself in pots.  I never got germination.  A few years ago I just scratched the some of the seed into the trough where it was growing and the following spring had 30 seedlings (too close together).  I transplanted them later in little groups and they are now growing happily in the crevice garden and scree garden.  Apparently, the trough is not really essential, but it makes a wonderful seed bed.
1. Pictured here in the trough.

Anne, I have never tried P. thompsoniae, it's a real cutie.  But your experience is similar to mine, on some plant species I rarely get germination, or very poor germination at best, and then hard to keep them going in pots to make the transition to the garden.  Direct sowing has really worked well, I think because with the larger volume of earth the seed is sown into, is less effected by micro-fluctuations of drought, alternate freezing-thawing, excess moisture, soil temperature, all of which plagues the small bit of soil in seed pots. 
PS. Is that the foliage of Aquileguia scopulorum to the upper right?