Patience again
So much of learning to garden consists of learning patience. For various reasons, I had a certain level of anxiety about the return of two winter-dormant plants: the "oriental" lilies and the stream orchid, Epipactis gigantea. This weekend the latter finally poked up through the camellia flower carpet-bombing campaign, as seen to the right, and the first lily was spotted as well (not as picturesque as this L. regale).
Just as last year, though, seeds generate the most anxiety. So for (my own, I know you couldn't care less) future reference, the germination update:
(All seeds stratified in ziplocs of moist peat in the vegetable crisper the penultimate weekend of January, except the Alliums, which went in a week later. Bulb seeds in 4" plastic, everything else in flats. Timing info came mostly from Alplains.)
Aquilegia eximia | Two seedlings in the same cell immediately after germination, 3rd just appeared (in same cell). |
Allium amplectens | Sown after one month, without sign of germination, back into fridge after about a month to try to get something started. |
Allium bisceptrum var. bisceptrum | Sown after c. 2 months, without sign of germination, no action yet. |
Calochortus catalinae | germinated quickly and thoroughly, looking good. |
Calochortus kennedyi var. kennedyi | Same as above, a week or two later. |
Erythronium helenae | Same as Allium amplectens. |
Erythronium tuolumnense | Recommended stratification not finished. |
Fritillaria recurva (4 populations) | All germinated, planted out 10 days ago, sending up cotyledons now. |
Lilium bolanderi | Nothing yet. |
Lilium pardalinum ssp. pardalinum | Germinated after c. two months, planted out, presumably getting hypogeal. |
Penstemon eatonii var. eatonii | Germinated, sending up cotyledons now. |
Penstemon grahamii | Nothing yet. |
Silene californica | Secondary leaves going up now. |
Triteleia hyacintha | A single cotyledon appeared after planting out, up to 5 now (maybe I let it dry out too much?) |
Overall, I'm pretty happy about these results, assuming that the Alliums and Erythroniums will work out eventually.
Labels: Epipactis gigantea, list, patience, seed, spring
3 Comments:
Looks like you had a lot of success--congratulations. You posted or sent me a link about hypogeal germination, but I can't find it now. Please re-post?
I wish I could remember! Maybe this? Which, of course, doesn't correspond exactly to what I thought I remembered.
Since I wrote this post, the L. pardalinum has started sending up visible shoots, and L. bolanderi has still done nothing, but I'm thinking of taking it out of the fridge anyway.
This sounds like good advice too.
(I also got bored and brought the A. amplectens and E. helenae back outside this morning. If nothing happens I'll just leave them out until the fall. Hope we get more rain next year!)
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