Colchicum germination

[Diane Whitehead]

How long does it usually take colchicum to germinate?

I have had pusillum germinate in 2 1/2 years and corsicum in four.  However, I am still waiting for autumnale MESE 302 and bornmuelleri to germinate after seven years.  I have just dumped them out and counted the seeds, and they are all still present and still hard.

Do I include these in my will with instructions to my great grandchildren?

[Maggi Young]

Well, Diane, if I had any children to give me grandchildren, that's what I would do! In the past we've had feeble results with colchicum seed from exchanges or chums sending wild collected seed. Ian has done better with home seed and in the last few years he has raised a few pots, but for many years we got diddlysquat!

[Lesley Cox]

If I remember rightly, on the old forum Tony Goode's advice was to wait - and wait - and wait and eventually something may happen. I'm still waiting for some pots to show after 4 years. We are happy (well, prepared) to wait for Trillium seed so why not for Colchicum? It's not as if we have to DO anything with them - just wait (and water from time to time).

[Maggi Young]

If I had to wait as long for trilliums as we've waited for some colchicum seed I'd have given up and planted a packet of annuals, any annuals, instead! I know you have to wait a bit for flowers, with quite a lot of bulbs especially, but at least if you've got a seedling to fuss over, you feel you are getting somewhere! Mind you, I've been waiting over twenty years for a flower on my Rhododendron auriculatum now and I must say my patience is wearing pretty thin, pity it wasn't working on the rest of me!
I'm beginning to think I've just got a duff plant that will never flower, I do hope I live long enough for the damn thing to prove me wrong!!

[Lesley Cox]

Have you thought about root pruning it Maggi, as if you were going to wrench it? I have, and it worked for R. roxieanum oreonastes and R. williamsianum. I took a sharpish spade and shoved it down hard on all 4 sides of the plant in springtime about 5 years ago, and both have flowered beautifully ever since. I guess they were around 20 years old, having lived in 3 different gardens. I didn't cut right round, just two spade widths on each side, about 20cms out from the drip line.

Nearly mid day and I've done nothing. Must get out and use my Christmas present on some more long grass.

[Maggi Young]

That's my next move, Lesley, but I'll have to be careful, the Bulb Despot has erythronium and trillium all around it. If he sees me there with a spade, the shock could kill him. And he has no life insurance!

And Lesley, weren't you hoping for some lacey undies for christmas? They won't be much use for grass trimming, will they?

[Diane Whitehead]

I waited 32 years before Embothrium coccineum flowered.  I had a Rhododendron boothii that someone gave to me in disgust after 20 years, and it never flowered for me either in the 20 years I had it.  When a tree fell on it, I felt absolved from responsibility.  I have been waiting 35 years for R. aureum to flower and now it looks as though it may die of Phytophthora before it does- one branch is dead. 

[Maggi Young]

My Rhod. aureum flowered after about ten years, I think. It hasn't strained itself much flowering since , though! Some years it gives a reasonable show but more often its just a few flowers... but it is lovely!

[jomowi]

Diane

I had no problems germinating colchicum seed which we collected in the Dolomites. and have had successful germination with seed exchange seeds.  Have you tried chipping the seed coats so that water can penetrate?

Brian Wilson
 Aberdeen

[Diane Whitehead]

No, I haven't chipped or abraded them at all.  Do you do that as a regular thing, Brian? Is that why yours germinated, and how long did it take?

[jomowi]

Diane

Never tried it for Colchicums.  Mine just came up, the idea just came to me when I saw your post.  I do know however that "hard" seed coats are well known to inhibit germination in some genera, particularly in the Leguminosae.  The idea is to let water through the outer coat by abraiding it lightly but AVOIDING damage to the seed reserves and embryo which would cause fungi to enter.  Use a lens to watch what you are doing. 

It is also possible that the seeds are not keeping wet enough to start germination.  I get better germination of Iris if I keep the pots get exposed to the weather rather than keep them in a frame.  Sometimes more seeds germinate after I plant the potful of plantlets out following several years of growth. 

I suppose the other alternative is to try gibberellin treatment.

Brian WIlson

Aberdeen

[Diane Whitehead]

I crack the seedcoat of any Leguminosae (though I think that family's got a new name now - Fabaceae?) by nipping it with nail clippers. Then they germinate in a few days.

I'll try one or two or my colchicum seeds.

[art600]

I must have been lucky, as Colchicum seed of at least 3 species collected in Iran germinated just like the Crocus seed I collected.  Was able after 2 years to distribute some to better growers than me.  Now I have the long wait until they flower.

[Diane Whitehead]

Yes!  success!

One of my 13 seeds of Colchicum autumnale MESE 302 germinated
this week, 8 years and 1 month from sowing.

Still no growth from the 7 seeds of C. bornmuelleri, also sown in
February 2000.

[Maggi Young]

Wonderful, Diane! I can't tell you how much this cheers me:  the success rate with Colchicum seed here is dismal  I got a ticking off from Ian for getting more colchicum seed this year from Gothenburg.... told i was wasting my time! Mind you, he never throws out the old pots, so there is still hope, even if some have been around even longer than yours! The percentage of Colchicum species we germinate is TINY, I have no idea why they are so difficult for us....plenty other bulbs enjoy life with the BD