Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Seedy Subjects! => Grow From Seed => Topic started by: WSGR on October 15, 2019, 08:14:40 AM
-
Lordy! Bought some seeds and found out it would take up to 7 years to see a flower! ::) I might be dead by then! :(
Need some advice badly about how to treat the seeds, what compost and where to put the pots. Incidentally, lovely photos from the old thread and would love to know what camera Steve was using - the clarity and details simply took my breath away!
Any advice appreciated. Thank you in advance.
-
Seven years seems a bit excessive. My own usually take about 4 years to first flowering. Ian Young's estimable advice on seed sowing should be available somewhere here if you search, but to summarise sow the seed with a little depth, vernalise over winter and with fresh seed you should see cotyledons in spring at about the time the mature bulbs emerge. Potting compost with a little extra sand works well for me. As with lily seedlings and the like keep them cool and well watered without waterlogging to keep them growing as long as possible. I've just been looking at a pot of 2nd year revolutum seedlings; most of the seedlings emerged the first spring, but a small proportion are only just appearing this year - so a little patience is useful.
-
This link takes you to the Bulb Log where Ian first wrote the chapter of his e-book on Erythronium from seed.....
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2015Jan141421233053BULB_LOG_0215.pdf (http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2015Jan141421233053BULB_LOG_0215.pdf)
There's a wealth of info on all sorts of bulbs Ian grows in the Bulb Log, which can be found on the main SRGC Website :
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=bulb (http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=bulb) is the link to every Bulb Log since 2003!!
Ian Young's e-book - Erythroniums in Cultivation - in pdf form - 278 pages in full colour - has a free download via this link :
http://www.srgc.net/filessub/general/ERYTHRONIUMS-IN-CULTIVATION%20-2016-IanYoung.pdf and for anyone interested in Erythroniums, it's a jolly good read!! :D
-
Agree, if Erythronium seedlings take 7 years to flowering you are not doing it right!
You can sow now in a pot with very well drained compost (plenty of grit or perlite) and most should come up in the spring. I know Ian sows quite deep but I had problems with damping off when I did this - probably about 6-7mm is enough. Repot annually when dormant - at first you don't need to seperate the seedlings just put the whole lot in a bigger pot as you would when potting up an individual plant. Once they are a bit bigger you can pot them individually or even plant them out in a suitable spot in the garden.
Erythroniums are great fun from seed and you can save yourself a lot of money! The same applies to other bulbs such as lilies btw.
Good luck! Tristan