Refreshing – Aconitum ‘Ivorine’

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White on blue is a refreshing combo. Yesterday, amidst the heat wave I took few pictures of Aconitum ‘Ivorine’ just starting flowering.
Pure white, tinged with green flowers on sturdy stems make this Aconitum very appealing.  The bluish background provided by Juniperus ‘Wichita’ is pure serendipity – most of my plants were planted where I could find a proper space in this new garden without much thinking of colour combinations.

Aconitum septentrionale ‘Ivorine’

It doesn’t clump excessively, which is unfortunate; I could use more seeds, so this is the next ‘ivory’ generation! Very easy to germinate if the seeds are sown fresh or kept moist and allowed a warm/cold cycle. The pots can be brought indoors around February to germinate and grown under lights will achieve a better growth by June. I had no more space available this year so they germinated outside somewhere beginning of May.

Aconitum septentrionale ‘Ivorine’ freshly transplanted seedlings

 

 

 

Exception – Sedum atratum

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Growing annual plants is very satisfying – they germinate, grow, flower and set seeds in one season; some will also self-seed themselves for the next year; nothing to worry about throughout the winter…I can understand the attraction. But I still like to grow perennials ;))

Sometimes I make exceptions – and Sedum atratum is one notable because I collected the seeds from a place in the Carpathians that is not easy to reach; it reminds me about ‘my mountain’, and belongs to the ‘little plants’ category.

Sedum atratum ssp. atratum in the Carpathian Mts.

Last year some nocturnal animal took a snack from a little clump growing at the edge of the rockery; luckily a few seeds were already into the safety of the tufa rocks and I can continue to enjoy it. Maybe even collect a few seeds later.

Sedum atratum ssp. atratum among Dryas octopetala ‘Tundra Pygmy’

Sedum atratum ssp. atratum is an annual species, with the mention that I’ve seen non-flowering rosettes and most likely also behaves as a biennial; from the mountains of South and Central Europe.
It is great in a rockery or scree area, showing here in there, without bothering other species; small, fleshy stems and leaves, which turn deep red later in the season.
Best to scatter the seeds in the desired place, in late fall or early spring.

 

A late arrival – Lindera benzoin seedlings

I’ve been watching out for Lindera germination on a regular base and had started to think about what could have been wrong: I collected the seeds myself, cleaned the pulp by hand (the seed coat is very thin), kept them moist and warm in late fall and then provided winter cold outside.

Lindera benzoin fruits & seeds

It seems nothing was wrong – a couple of days ago they finally showed up! Apparently they like to germinate (speaking of the shoots) after it gets a little warmer.

Welcome!

Lindera benzoin seedlings

Breaking the tradition – Medeola virginiana germination

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More updates on germination requirements

It seems that Medeola virginiana seeds don’t follow the traditional double morphophysiological dormancy (MPD). Unlike most species with this type of dormancy, which require a cold-warm-cold cycle to germinate and produce roots in the warm period (2 years seeds), M. virginiana seeds do not form a root during this time; instead, root and cotyledon emerge at the same time in the second spring after sowing.

Medeola virginiana seedlings; seeds sown fall 2015 – germination spring 2017

Speculations are that this sort of germination pattern may represent a transition towards a type of more complex MPD.
Or is it sorcery involved ? ;-)

OK, the practical meaning of all this: be patient and don’t scratch the pots looking for tiny roots in the first year.

For me: I could keep the seeds in moist storage until the second spring, if I would have that many…

Note: again, we are talking here about sown fresh/moist kept seeds.

Back to basics – Aquilegia

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Most probably the first plant I grew successfully from seeds (that is, which I saw it flowering :) was an Aquilegia. I don’t remember precisely which one and it doesn’t matter; I like them all very much. They are easy to grow, provide a whole array of heights/colours and are good pollinator plants.

Yes, some are short lived, and yes, most will be attacked by leafminer, and of course, they hybridize and not all seedlings come true to the mother plant, but I still like them very much.

Aquilegia flabellata var. pumila has few of the above mentioned flaws: it usually comes true from seeds, and the thick, leathery foliage won’t be affected by the leafminer (or very weak attack); all ‘flabellatas’ could be grown just for their handsome, fan-shaped foliage.

Aquilegia flabellata var.pumila – cute as a ‘button’ ; grown from seeds of course

 

A. flabelata ‘Nana Alba’ will be flowering soon…
Update – and it did, not a ‘nana’ but very beautiful!

 

Lost in translation – updates on germination requirements

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Slowly, as I have the chance to try more species myself, and/or find reliable info, I work on making updates for the germination requirements on the Seeds shop. I already mentioned about Sanguinaria canadensis.

It is easy to ‘get lost in translation’ when reading about various types of morphophysiological dormancies, but a short summary for species from temperate regions that require warm/cold cycle for germination will be as follows:

This dormancy breaking requirement is naturally fulfilled by summer (high temperatures) followed by fall (lower warm temperatures) and winter (cold stratification). Note the need of high followed by low(er) warm temperatures.

Because of the collecting/shop logistics and peoples habit of buying seeds in late fall, this means that such species, when sowed in late fall/winter will need the whole next season to undergo these requirements, although otherwise they would not qualify in the ‘2 year germinators’ category.
So it goes: changed from require ‘cold stratification’ to ‘warm – cold stratification’:

Hydrophyllum virginianum
Hydrophyllum canadense
Aralia racemosa
Prosartes lanuginosa (moist packed seeds available this fall I hope)
Ilex verticillata

Hydrophyllum virginianum seedlings, seed sown fall 2015, too late for the warm treatment, germinated this spring (2017)

Prosartes lanuginosa: seeds sown after collecting in early September 2016 – germination right now (I only had about 9 seeds)

Other warm/cold germinators that we already know about and I already posted pictures (many require moist storage): most Corydalis, Allium tricoccum, Asarum canadense and europaeum, Saruma, Anemone quinquefolia and A. nemorosa, Dicentra (D. formosa in the featured image), Thalictrum thalictroides, Jeffersonia, Hepatica….

Corydalis nobilis seedlings

Simplicity – Geum triflorum

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Easy to grow in the garden and from seeds, this North American Geum is an absolute a delight!  An unpretentious, care free plant in most locations; sun and good drainage required. Best when planted in large numbers for the ‘smoky’ effect of the feathery seed heads (Prairie Smoke ;) in the summer.

Geum triflorum – Prairie Smoke, Old Man’s wiskers; rosy-red, nodding calyces/flowers, followed by feathery seed heads; the compact, ferny looking foliage will become reddish in the fall.

Propagation from seeds: I did a whole bunch last year – sown in the fall and left outside (cold/moist stratification) and the germination was excellent; I planted the seedlings in the garden by late fall.
The grown up clumps can be easily divided every few years.

Note: Other sources indicate sowing at warm.

Geum triflorum seeds head

The thing about Sanguinaria

…is that the seeds can have two types of morphophysiological dormancy (after Baskin & Baskin):

  • In the first case the roots will emerge in late fall after a warm stratification and the shoots growth will begin in the following spring (= after cold stratification); deep simple epicotyl dormancy.

Sanguinaria canadensis: seeds sown in summer 2016 – complete germination April 2017

  • In the second case (said to occur in about 49% of seeds according to a study), the shoots growth will begin in the second spring after sowing; deep simple double dormancy.

Sanguinaria canadensis: seeds sown in late summer 2015 – complete germination in 2017

The lots of seeds shown were collected from different sites, and I wonder if this was also a decisive/only factor in displaying the different types of dormancy. It is well known that the germination dormancy traits have a genetic component.

Temperatures in the summer/winter may also have role; to be sure I will try to repeat the sowing with seeds of both populations/at the same time. It would be nice to know and collect seeds from certain populations knowing they will germinate in the first year after sowing.

Note: To be clear, for Sanguinaria we are only talking about fresh/or moist kept seeds.

 

It’s Corydalis time!

To say I like Corydalis very much would be an understatement. The delicate, ferny foliage and early, colourful flowering of many species, make them wonderful spring harbingers.
Quite a few tuberous species are easy to grow in the garden in our cold climate (I usually don’t fuss around with pots, except for seedlings): C. solida especially, but also C. caucasica, C. packozy, C. cava, C. bracteata and probably few others.

Corydalis solida seedlings

Corydalis paczosky seedlings

The same applies for rhizomatous species like C. nobilis, the Pseudofumaria group (formerly C. lutea and C. alba), C. ophiocarpa, C. incisa; also the North American Capnoides sempervirens.

Corydalis nobilis seedlings

Corydalis incisa and C. ophiocarpa which were grown under lights are already advanced.

Corydalis incisa

Corydalis ophiocarpa

I agree it is much easier to buy plants (if available), but for a fast increase of the personal collection, growing from seeds is the better option, not to mention cheaper. They germinate very well if sown fresh or after moist storage. Sowing asap and keeping the pots outdoors (i.e., a warm/cold treatment) is the best option (by asap I don’t mean next day, the seeds sown up to about a month after collecting are OK even if not kept moist).
All you have to do is sow, cover the pots/trays with a mesh and keep them in a partly shaded area; water once in a while. For the winter, place in an area that usually gets covered in snow (or where it is easy to pile snow on top) or a cold garage. By spring they will start to germinate.

For the more adventurous there is also the option on sowing the seeds directly in the garden, reproducing their natural way of multiplying; the seeds are dispersed and buried by ants which feed on the elaiosomes, for which reason, in time they will show up in various places around the garden.

Same applies for Claytonia or any of the other spring flowering species that are best sown fresh: Dicentra, Hepatica, Erythronium, Anemone quinquefolia, Sanguinaria and so on – more about all these soon…

See more Corydalis pictures below in the related posts.

Stress relief – Rhodiola sachalinensis

Nothing is better for stress relief than sowing or transplanting seedlings. More than this, I had the perfect seedlings for the purpose – of Rhodiola sachalinensis.

Rhodiola sachalinensis and other Rhodiola species, particularly R. rosea, have long been used as traditional medicinal plants in Asia and Eastern Europe for various ailments, and they have been categorized as adaptogen plants, similar to the better known ginseng species. Besides this, they make for excellent rock garden plants.

Rhodiola sachalinensis grows wild in the mountainous regions of China, Japan, Korea and Russia (Altai region). Unfortunately, it is a dioecious species and the ones that survived from a batch of seedlings started 2 years ago, turned out to be all male plants at flowering.

So, I sowed a few more seeds and I will keep all the transplanted seedlings hoping that at least one will be female. Some were a bit more robust and already showed the nice, thickened caudex; I couldn’t abstain taking a picture:

Rhodiola sachalinensis seedlings

Rhodiola semenovii will have to wait to be sown next year, and I don’t have a picture of it, but here it is Rhodiola rosea in its wild habitat (Carpathian Mts.)

Rhodiola rosea

 

 

 

Intention – Podophyllum delavayi

My intention was to write a longer post detailing the germination/seedlings growing of a few Chinese Podophyllum species, but by the time the evening came the desire to do that has vanished.

As a proof of my good faith I will let you admire last year’s Podophyllum delavayi seedlings. Last year by this time they were like this:

Podophyllum delavayi seedling, March 24/2016

And today, when I ‘performed’ an emergency repotting, like this:

Podophyllum delavayi – one year old ‘seedlings’ sharing the same pot

Podophyllum delavayi one-year old – showing extensive root system

It was a good intention though…

All over again

The first Arisaema of the season – in love all over again… 

Arisaema fargesii seedling

 

Pink sunglasses

Winter is a black & white season in this part of the Northern Hemisphere. I patiently await for the invention of suitable glasses that would project on my retina sunny, flowery images all day long.

Meanwhile, I use my indoor light stand as an indoor garden. It is bright and I get to wear sunglasses that adjust to my desired colour*. Today I have chosen pink for Incarvillea (various species, all commonly called Incarvillea or hardy gloxinia).

Hardy gloxinia species belong to the so called ‘warm germinators’ (will germinate at room temp.). They are also easy to grow indoors and, like many other tuberous species, will benefit from an early start, having more time to develop a good size tuber by late spring when they can be planted outside. Some may even flower in the first year, like it happened with I. delavayi. I have already grown from seeds I. delavayi and I. zhongdianensis.

Incarvillea delavayi, a first year seedling flowering

Incarvillea zhongdianensis, a mature plant (alas, not in my garden)

This year I am happy to start two other species: I. mairei and I. younghusbandii. These are smaller species height-wise, the second a real dwarf, but with larger deep pink/magenta flowers; this combination gives them an even more exotic look for our Northern Hemisphere gardens.

Incarvillea mairei, a relatively young plant

Looking at the world through pink sunglasses in late January is pretty amazing!
Then, there will be days for yellows, blues in many shades, purple, orange…

I. younghusbandii – click for google images.

*Such sunglasses of course, do not exist; except in my imagination.

Here’s a very, very short list of others ‘warm germinators’ that can be started early and will grow well under lights indoors.
Anthemis, Arisaema,
Astragalus, Anthyllis
Anthirrhinum, Iris*
Biscutella, Calycanthus
Oxytropis, Sanguisorba, Roscoea
Scabiosa, Hypericum,
Draba, Allysum
Campanula*, Dianthus*, Lilium*
Agastache, Primula*,
* not all species

You may want to know….

also, see update from Feb.8

How the moist stored seeds of C. nobilis are looking at the moment. This is the first time I have ‘excess’ seeds and it is interesting to see how they ‘behave’.

The growth of the embryos has resulted in the expansion of the endosperm and splitting of the seed coat. This is not happening in many species and has been reported as well in Corydalis ambigua; I also noted it in Hydrastis canadensis last year (see below).

Corydalis nobilis seeds with enlarged endosperms (January – seeds in moist storage)

Hydrastis

Hydrastis canadensis seeds with split seed coats by early January (germination in April)

These type of seeds, which have an undeveloped embryo when ripen, require warm stratification before embryo growth can occur in late autumn. The root emergence, followed shortly by the cotyledons, will happen then in early spring (somewhere in mid-March-April).

If I’m not wrong, that’s when I expect to see the ‘little lords’ showing up!

UPDATE – Feb.8

I was wrong! – by second week of February I spotted the first radicles!

Corydalis nobilis – germination start

It continues to be very gloomy here, so a bright and sunny picture will do us all good :) And, I repeat again because not many are mentioning; besides being very hardy and beautiful, the lord of the Corydalis is also fragrant!

Corydalis nobilis

Warning!
Germination of Corydalis nobilis from dry seeds it is so poor (not to call it non-existent), that’s not even worth trying it.

Surprise, surprise! – Iris pumila

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Growing from seeds is always full of surprises, especially for first time sowings, like in this case for Iris pumila.

Iris pumila – a dwarf, early spring flowering, bearded Iris with a wild distribution from Central Europe to the Caucasus. The large flowers can be violet, blue, purple, yellow, or in various combinations like it naturally happens in wild populations; it is super hardy and excellent for the rockery, or a sunny border.

For best germination, most sources suggest soaking the seeds and providing about 4 weeks warm and then a longer (few months) cold period. So, my plan was to keep the sowings the furnace room for 3-4 weeks (+/- 23C day/ 17C night) and then place the pots outside under snow for the remaining of the winter. I sowed on Dec. 19th – and a couple of days ago (Jan. 5)…surprise! I found some pots with the first shoots were out. The plan has changed of course, and my light stand will be up very soon :)

Iris pumila – seeds soaked, sown on Dec.19th at warm – first signs of germination Jan. 5th (few even sooner)

The pots contain seeds of differently coloured specimens, although this little Iris can provide even more surprises colour-wise!

I don’t know if the seeds will germinate in the same way after going into a deeper dormancy, but this is still a good time to sow – and few fresh seeds are still available in the shop!

Growing Jeffersonia from seeds

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I’ve repotted some fine young Jeffersonia seedlings two weeks ago and now it took me a great pleasure to write this post. Jeffersonia diphylla (Twinleaf) is a wonderful NA species that should be mandatory for all gardens; the pictures show it in its glory at Aspen Grove Gardens.

A delight from early spring (April) to fall, and notice that although a woodland species, it is grown with a fair amount of sun and does very well.

Jeffersonia diphylla in April

Jeffersonia diphylla- late June

Jeffersonia diphylla fruits

Just like bulbous/tuberous species, the ones that form rhizomes need 2-3+ years to develop their root system before they will start flowering. The faster/better their rhizome grows, the sooner they will flower. Again, it is very easy to underestimate the size of a seedling root system. This is why the repotting is very important and can be done either in the fall or spring. Each period has its pros and cons, but for our climate at least, I incline for the late fall (after they’ve gone dormant).

 I will outline next the whole process from sowing to repotting the seedlings:

  • Sow the seeds as soon as possible after collecting, or keep moist at room temperature; however, keep in mind that this species doesn’t keep too well in moist storage and seeds are available (if) for a short period.
  • Sow as usual or use my ‘space saving method’ – also very practical for someone who doesn’t want to have one pot sitting around by itself. Sow all the seeds in one larger pot and ‘plant’ the pot in the ground (in late fall I added some mulch on top, which I’ll remove in the spring).

Tip: ‘plant’ the pot close to a shrub/tall perennial plant that will shelter and shade the seedlings; also close to the house so you won’t forget about it (the seedlings require extra watering during dry spells). Mine was close/beneath an old Peony, unfortunately I don’t have a picture.

  • Seeds have germinated somewhere in May (about 100% by the look of them). Foliage wise, not much it will happen the whole season, only one shoot with the cotyledon leaves.
Jeffersonia diphylla seedlings

Jeffersonia diphylla seedlings

  • Use a diluted fertilizer once in a while (only if you remember…), water regularly; nothing else to do till late fall.
  • By late October- early November watch for signs of dormancy.
  • Let the pot dry out a bit.
  • Tip off the whole content and gently separate the seedlings (don’t forget to congratulate yourself, take pictures, eat some chocolate/cake…)
jeffersonia-diphylla-one-year-seedlings-in-late-fall

Jeffersonia diphylla: one-year old seedlings ‘extracted’ from the pot

  • Repot in a fresh potting mix (I don’t have any ‘special’ formulas); one or more seedlings/pot. Planting 2-3 seedlings/larger pot will make a ‘clump’ faster.
jeffersonia-diphylla-one-year-seedlings-in-late-fall1

Jeffersonia diphylla seedlings showing an extensive root system after one season of growth and a well formed bud.

  • Water well, and if it’s late November, that’s all they need.
  • Storage: cold frame, or again, ‘plant’ the pot(s) in the ground and throw mulch/few leaves on top.
jeffersonia-diphylla-repotted-one-year-seedlings

Jeffersonia diphylla: repotted seedlings ( I have 2-3/pot)

  • Another good option is to grow them one more year in the same pot; this way the seedlings will be larger in size and easier to handle, especially for those who are not used with transplanting little seedlings.

Special thanks to Robert Pavlis @ Aspen Grove Gardens, for growing this beautiful, ‘photogenic’ species and providing the material for this post, i.e. the Jeffersonia seeds :)

You can apply the same technique for growing its Asian counterpart, Jeffersonia dubia. Next to come – how to easily grow from seeds Aconitum alboviolaceum…stay tuned.