Pyrola from seed

[Hristo]

did you have any luck with the pyrolas?

Hi Cohan, I went all natural with the Pyrolas and sowed them into habitat tubs, tubs are woodsie soil filled  moss/sempies/ferns growing with tuffa blocks upon which Haberlea, Ramonda, saxifraga and a few Chasmophytes grow. I sprinkled the Pyrola seed in here as the tubs are now well established and stay moist all year round, we'll see what happens, fingers crossed!!

[Hoy]

Hristo, have you tried Pyrola seeds before?
I have ordered Pyrola and Chimaphila seeds and intend to sprinkle the seeds in my woodland. Don't know if this works. Have anybody tried?

[Tony Willis]

I ordered a number from Krystl in the summer and am waiting for them to germinate. I expect them to come up like cress in spring!

I knew a great propagator,dead a while now, who grew moneses from seed to flowering many years ago so it is possible.

I should have added that I collected some soil/sand from an area with pyrola growing in it and have mixed this with my compost before sowing

[Hristo]

Hi Hoy,
No this is a first try with Pyrola seed, I have heard that they require/appreciate a fungal symbiant as do orchids, others may know better than I about the validity of this. If true, sowing into an established woodland type soil would help as it may well harbour a suitable fungal partner. If the answer is no to the fungal symbiant maybe a similar approach to sowing hardy gesneriads would be a suitable approach. I edged my bets and sowed them in my tubs, I have orchids in them and gesneriads!!
Tony, how did you sow yours?

[Hoy]

Thanks, Hristo. I have lots of fungi and toadstools here but i don't know if they'll do!

[Tony Willis]

As mentioned above I mixed some soil from a site with them growing in it which was actually almost pure sand with a bit of humus in it with some bark compost and surface sowed. I did this in case a symbiotic fungus is necessary in the hope some would be present.I kept them warm all autumn but as nothing happened I  have now moved them outside in sealed bags for the winter.

here is a picture of them growing wild about fifteen miles from where I live.

[cohan]

if there is a fungus necessary, it must be pretty common here- P asarifolia is very very common here, growing all over my acreage from open woods among grasses and forbs, mowed clearings,  to dry or moist coniferous /mixed woods in semi to deep shade in moss or spruce duff, etc etc.. less abundant but still common in the same range of habitats is Orthilia secunda, P elipticala much less common but not rare, and Moneses is occasional-a good sized colony is on the north side of a lilac and sorbus,  in a mowed area on the drier side of the acreage...
mind you, in the not too dry areas, we also commonly have platantheras and corallorrhizas,so there must be an active fungal life in the soil.. i wonder if decomposing wood would be a good source of what the seeds need as well?
i have not yet tried sowing any, but should get to some experimenting...

[Hoy]

I have no pyrolas in the garden but they are common not far from here. I think I'll take some soil from there and scatter around where I sow the pyrola seeds. I have rotten wood of pine, spruce and hardwood too in the woodland.
You are luckier than me, cohan, I have no wild orchids yet but I am trying to establish some!

[cohan]

I have no pyrolas in the garden but they are common not far from here. I think I'll take some soil from there and scatter around where I sow the pyrola seeds. I have rotten wood of pine, spruce and hardwood too in the woodland.
You are luckier than me, cohan, I have no wild orchids yet but I am trying to establish some!

to be clear--the pyrolas etc are not really in my garden (although the moneses sowed themselves by planted shrubs) rather, most of my acreage is just an extension(interruption?) of the natural forest, and woodland/woodland edge species are native/self sown all over the land..
these are mostly not very exciting orchids that are on my land, though i have found calypso not far away on the main farm this acreage was separated from; unfortunately, that is a single plant, and flowers have not produced seed so far.. i used to see some other clumps on the farm, but there have been some changes in those spots, and i have not been able to locate them...

[Diane Whitehead]

yes, calypso can be very picky.  My brother, with 40 acres of forest
and field, moved a few of his calypso just a few metres, and they
did not like their new home.

He has no pyrola, though.  It is something I have always wanted to
grow.   I have never seen it for sale.

[cohan]

diane, if you are interested in pyrolas, i could easily send you seed, and even plants (i have them all over, including in places that get mowed or where i may want to plant other things, so its quite ok to experiment) -they might be a bit picky on transplanting,which, coupled with fussy germination, is probably why they aren't much available... but with care they should do it--might be  a matter of figuring out when they are making new roots-they flower midsummer, and if i am remembering right, new leaves come after that, so maybe that would also be the time of root growth and best transplanting? i will have to experiment...

[Hoy]

I have tried to move Pyrolas a few times but never succeeded. I think they root poorly or not at all in new places. Now I'll try seeds!

[Tony Willis]

They produce underground stolons sometimes more than a foot long and these sub divide as well with the leaf rosettes at the tips. They seem to have no apparent roots however far back you excavate along the stolons which makes moving them difficult. The pieces can then take months to die having earlier making you think of success. I have observed that the flowering rosettes die anyway after seeding.

[Hoy]

They produce underground stolons sometimes more than a foot long and these sub divide as well with the leaf rosettes at the tips. They seem to have no apparent roots however far back you excavate along the stolons which makes moving them difficult. The pieces can then take months to die having earlier making you think of success. I have observed that the flowering rosettes die anyway after seeding.

My observations too. Therefore I'll use seed - and hope for the best!

[cohan]

interesting...i will have to mark some plants to watch more closely.... i think there have (usually?) been green rosettes on stems i harvested seeds from, but usually they are in groups, so i can't swear to it, though i recall being careful not to pull up the rosette...
i wonder if transplants would 'take' with rooting hormone, or something more drastic like GA3?

maggi, do you think we have reached the point of needing a pyrola thread?