Germinating Cardiocrinum giganteum

Paul Tyerman ptyerman@ozemail.com.au
Mon, 06 Sep 2004 05:53:12 PDT
At 04:12  6/09/04, you wrote:
>Does anyone have any experience germinating seeds from these?  I'm getting 
>some soon and I'm not sure what I need to do?

Steve,

Have you ever tried germinating Fritillarias?  I have treated mine exactly 
the same way and have just had a heap germinate.  Supposedly viability 
drops off quite rapidly, but I do not know for sure about that as mine were 
fresh from my own plant.

Basically, I filled a pot with seed raising mix (whatever you use for that) 
to about 1cm from the top, placed the seeds on the surface and covered with 
3-5mm gravel to just below the rim.  That is how I tend to treat most of my 
bulb seed.  I noticed this week that the shoots were up quite thickly in 
the Cardiocrinum pot so it must work <grin>

I would hazard that these will not like being disturbed much when young as 
they are a strange type of bulb that seems rather "temporary" when small (I 
can't think of any other way to describe it).  I would be thinking or 
repotting the whole pot when they have filled it, rather than trying to 
split them up individually too quickly.  Given how large the 4 year old 
bulb I bought a few years back was I think they grow rather rapidly, so I'd 
imagine that you'll be repotting in a years time, which is definitely when 
I would be thinking about just repotting the whole root-mass into a larger 
pot instead of dividing them up.  I think you'll need to get some size on 
the bulb before you start jeopardising roots.  That is my impression anyway 
but there are likely others here on the list who would have more 
experience.  My cardiocrinum are either freshly germinated or were from a 
sowing of old seed which barely germinated and so they aren't exactly thick 
in their pot! LOL

I hope that this is of some help?  Good luck!!


Cheers.

Paul Tyerman
Canberra, Australia.  USDA equivalent - Zone 8/9

Growing.... Galanthus, Erythroniums, Fritillarias, Trilliums, Cyclamen, 
Crocus, Cyrtanthus, Oxalis, Liliums, Hellebores, Aroids, Irises plus just 
about anything else that doesn't move!!!!!


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