when to sow....

[Cfred72]

Patience, patience ... ☺ My plant (single clone) does not produce seeds. I am glad to have received seeds from SRGC in order to have a chance to multiply in a few years.

[Cfred72]

My adult plant is already starting to throw jets off the ground.

[Tristan_He]

I'd go with what others say for most things - sow now and let the cold get to them (or at least what passes for cold in our soggy mild bit of NW Wales). I've had good success this way even with things that are supposed to be sown earlier like bulb seeds.

The only exception are very small seeds like many Campanulas and Gentians - these don't tend to need stratification and I think are more prone to rotting due to their small size.

Incidentally, does anybody else leave a few weed seedlings in their pots if they have been out a long time? So long as they don't get too big I think they can help to keep an open soil structure, otherwise pots left out can get very compacted.

[Tristan_He]

Also does anyone have any advice on suitable host plants for Pedicularis (mostly Chinese spp)? I sowed some on their own last year but after good germination they stopped and died. I've sown some with some grasses but would be interested if anyone has other advice.

[Catwheazle]

Pedicularis seems to need a host plant, e.g. Rhinanthus Presumably these are even certain types that must be present.
Last year I made a large-scale sowing experiment in the open air in the autumn, with a bed in which typical plant types
were already (established).
Let's see what will. In a lean meadow it worked very well with Rhinantus.

Bernd

[ian mcdonald]

In the UK our native Pedicularis are found in wet meadows, marshes and mountain flushes. Rhinanthus are parasitic plants on grasses. I have tried sowing Rhinanthus seeds on my front "lawn" but they do not germinate.

[Hoy]

I have tried sowing Pedicularis and other hemiparasitic plants both in pots and in situ. Although I had good germination in pots the plants never lived on. Plants sown outside among other plants (mostly grass) have survived and even flowered. I have had best result with Castilleja though.

[Helga]

I got seeds of Narcissua bulbodicum at the seed exchange. When should I sow them?
thanks 

[Maggi Young]

Sow them half way down a pot now, Helga - you may get some sporadic germination but most should  come up next year.

[Helga]

Thanks, Maggi!
will do that!

[brianw]

A number of seed pods start to open when the seed are still green or white, only turning brown as they dry. Eranthis species, and Caltha palustris currently come to mind. Naturally these would scatter, drying as they mature, and germinate the next autumn/spring. Is it possible to gain any advantage by early collection and sowing while still green/white and before the seeds go dormant? Looks like I will have lots of the Caltha this year. Maybe a walk by the river is called for ;-)

[Gail]

I've sown seed from a pod on Paeonia ositii that got broken off when they were still cream (normally black). Germinated happily next spring and resulting plants have been flowering well this year. Not sure that gained anything - peony seed will often germinate next spring anyway although it does often wait till second season, but certainly not harmful.

[brianw]

I was thinking more of jumping a season by preventing dormancy. Just something I recall, but maybe under lab. conditions.

[Gail]

Well certainly worth trying. If you have plenty of Caltha you could do a controlled trial...

[Lesley Cox]

Regarding the Caltha seed. I had masses of the white form this last summer/autumn and I sowed two potsful of very fresh seed as I think it is such a lovely thing in bloom and I wanted it for my little nursery. The seeds were still greenish and I had snipped the capsules off the plant as soon as they began to open They germinated in about 3 weeks to a month after sowing, hundreds of them, while the weather was  hot but I was watering a lot so that was all right. Then one night after about a week, the whole lot vanished! I could still see the remains of the tiny stems but every cotyledon leaf was gone. AND NO MORE CAME UP! It was a slug, as there was the silvery trail as evidence. I have learned, late, to put a single slug pellet onto every seed pot before germination starts, usually in the corner where the seeds are not spread but the slug manages to sense it somehow and in what has been a very rainy year, I've disposed of many slugs before seedling have disappeared.

I first had Caltha palustris alba in the early 1980s, a small plant I was able to get buy and bring home from Jack Drake's Inshriach nursery. It survived for a few years but wasn't happy and it was only when it flowered at last and I harvested a very few seeds, that it decided to enjoy the southern hemisphere, I had previously had seed from Jack but, being older seed had never had germination. So for Caltha at least and I believe for all Ranunculaceae, very fresh seed is vital even if it means sowing at the worst possible time.

I'll be much more careful with the seed which forms in 2019/20. If you'd like some white Brian, let me know. I would send it literally on the day it comes from the plant.