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Romneya coulteri

My small experience with growing romneya coulteri from seed:  A
native plant group I belong to did an experiment 2 years ago in
October.  We set up two (clay) pots with soil in them and romneya
seeds spread on the top of the soil.  One pot then had dry pine
needles spread over the seeds and soil.  This was set afire and
burnt out in a few minutes.  Then some of the ashes were transferred
to the second pot.  One person took the "fired" pot home, and I
took the second one.  Both pots were kept outside and given no
special care, other than (probably) a once a week watering.  The
"fired" pot seedlings came up fairly quickly with widespread
germination.  The seedlings were transplanted to 2-inch separate
pots in the spring, if I remember rightly.  If I have the right 
batch in mind, they are now ready (some of them) to be potted in
gallon pots.

Meanwhile, my pot at home, the one that got just the ashes, managed
to produce 1 seedling after a few months.  I left the pot alone,
and probably forgot to do anything with it.  This spring, about a
year and a half after sowing, there were more than a few other little
seedlings that came up, perhaps as a result of the winter rains.

So it seems that fire helps to speed up germination of this romneya.

Ray Deutsch, Menlo Park, California Zone 9/10 NARGS Western, AGS
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