Growing from Seeds

"Since a hundred million dollars in New York and twenty-two fish-hooks on the border of the Arctic Circle represent the same financial supremacy, a man in straitened circumstances is a fool to stay in New York when he can buy ten cents' worth of fish-hooks and emigrate"

Mark Twain

I've been following a thread on the Pacific Bulb Society regarding seed propagation of Fritillaria with some interest. I do try to sow quite a lot of seed every year, and I've learned a few things about it over the years. So the other day I was cleaning up the greenhouse and noted some,  2nd year pots of Iris planifolia, Fritillaria lusitanica, and Crocus cartrwhightianus 'Marcel' open pollinated,  I had long given up on had some nice seedlings popping up. I do always try to save seed pots for two years and I have had some make it three and finally germinate but usually by that time there are so many weeds it's often hard to keep 3 year old seed flats productive in that sense. 

A mix of seed pots that were sown in the fall of 2018 but didn't germinate until November of 2019

 

I usually treat all seeds the same, sowing them as soon as they come in. Sometimes that is early fall, if you are buying from collectors,  sometimes as in the case of the exchanges it can be midwinter. I use a couple different mixes for seeds, in the past I stayed primarily with a gritty mix, heavy on pumice and with a small amount of peat and usually an organic like compost or shredded leaf mulch. Lately I've been having fine results from using a soiless mix, like Pro Gro HP, with added perlite or pumice to increase the drainage. I sow into either square quart pots or 4" depending on the amount of seed and then I cover lightly with a crushed grit like quartzite, available as a turkey/chicken grit. I water them in good and set them outside of the greenhouse on the groundcloth area to get whatever the weather can throw at them. If I get pots that are germinating right away I'll move them into the greenhouse to better control the amount of moisture they get. At that point I'll keep them just barely moist. Often Fritillaria seeds especially seem to follow a pretty natural cycle of germinating when the weather first begins to warm in the spring, so often by late March the seed pots will be showing good germination from a November/December sowing. I think the best advice is just not to throw out pots that don't germinate the first winter/spring. I'll let the seed pots go bone dry through the summer and often as can be seen in the above pic they will germinate as soon as the pots get cool and wet again in the following fall. 

The garden work is pretty well wrapped up for the season, just in time for the Turkey day. The greenhouse is nice and clean and with the weather forecasted to be down into the 20's throughout the Holiday week the tender bulbs have been moved into a climate controlled area. Should see the coldest temps of the season coming up this week with forecasted lows possibly hitting into the high teens and maybe some snow in the forecast. 

Happy Holidays to all, 

Mark