Starting winter growing seed/Veltheimia seed

Lee Poulsen wpoulsen@pacbell.net
Tue, 10 Feb 2004 16:56:01 PST
On Feb 10, 2004, at 1:45 PM, Hamish Sloan wrote:

> Now, I need some help. Any suggestions on how to germinate Tecophilea
> cyanocrocus. Two lots of seed ex PBX so far going no where! Need cool
> period? need total dark?

I had the same experience you have had. I paid good money two or three 
years in a row to several different British seed sellers (trustworthy 
ones, the ones many of you, myself included, have obtained many 
different species if seeds from over the years). I never got a single 
germination from the Tecophilaea seeds. Finally, a couple of years ago 
I had seeds from my own plants, and some packets of seeds from a couple 
of these same sources (Archibalds and Pottertons)--that I had saved in 
the refrigerator from orders the previous autumn. Based on some 
discussions that Mary Sue initiated (possibly a TOW?), I planted them 
all out in late September/very early October while the weather here in 
Southern California was still quite warm during the day (80s F./30 C., 
50s at night) and about a month before the first rain fell. I left them 
outside fully exposed to the changing autumn seasonal weather here. 
Sometime in December after the winter rains had begun in November, all 
the little pots of seeds started sprouting.

So I think they really need that warm daytime weather with the 
gradually increasingly chilly nights to start with, before being 
exposed to the cool days and rain of the beginning of the mediterranean 
style rainy season in order to initiate germination. In my previous 
attempts, by the time I got the seeds from the autumn orders it was 
already November or later and the days were no longer warm. It didn't 
occur to me to try holding them until the following early autumn.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena area, California, USDA Zone 9-10


More information about the pbs mailing list