Re: Starting from seed
- Subject: Re: Starting from seed
- From: E*@aol.com
- Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2001 13:03:07 EDT
In a message dated 8/5/01 11:37:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
ldnewton2@home.com writes:
<< Obviously, starting perennials from seed will be more difficult than I had
originally thought, because I'm not into broadcasting seeds.
>>
Hi Larry,
Some advice from this list is probably overwhelming you. All perennials are
not broadcast. Duncan's post is another very good one. You may want to work
your way up to Noman Deno (seed guru of gardeners). In fact Deno's books are
writen the way he likes with little editing so are sometimes hard to consult.
Maybe if you used this approach: decide which perennials you want to grow
and then research them one at a time. Be prepared to fail with with at least
half of them and be happy with the successes.
They reasons for growing from seed as I see it are you can have a great many
plants for a small price, you can have a plant not available easily or
cheaply from a store or catalog, or you can become a seed freak which is not
at all uncommon. If you can find what you want at a garden center and it is
a reasonable price, there is little reason to do seeds.
Next, on germination of many kinds of perennials, common sense will tell
that these plants do not all come from the same geographic location. Some
are not even perennial but grown in the perennial borders as they look best
there. You must mimic in some way what mother nature does to germinate the
seed. That is why the warm and cool germinators are discussed, why
stratification is done. I belonged to a daylily group for a while and
remember the seed rule as being exactly 28 days in the fridge and then to
around 70 degrees in light. Growing perennials from seed is not this
demanding. I have a white flowered iris pseudocorus which for reasons
entirely unclear to me has produced from last year's seed, one million plants
which are being constantly pulled and composted.
The method of germination is narrowly confined to the family, genus and
species. It can vary within even the species so decide what you want to grow
and search around to find what that seed needs. What I am try to say is that
there is no one answer. Some pop right out of the ground and are very
obliging, live forever. Others need some skill (really patience) and
surprise you when you least expect it. Also, the information on commercial
seed packages is a bit off, after all a sale is wanted.
You mentioned library and if you have one with a large garden section, you
will find Christopher Lloyd/Graham Rice on seeds. This book gives method and
discussion on several pages, confidence.
I have somed paeonia seedlings that I have been planting for ten years. The
seed is from a species individual and have never germinated anywhere I could
find them until last summer. Now I have three small plants so you can see
some are a pain in the .................
You should probably plant your seeds in a frame or an eight inch shallow pot,
cover with grit and have a look every other day. You also mentioned Midwest.
In the hot months many seeds (except weeds) do not germinate well. You get
better germination in the fall and spring. A very small hardy plant will
need protection over the winter.
The main thing is that you keep going and do not let any seed problems put
you off trying again. All of us have seed failures and all of us are always
looking for the secret of some plant.
Claire Peplowski
NYS z4
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