My Hartmann et al sez Davidia i. need a double dormancy of 5-6 months warm strat followed by 3 months of cold strat, suggested PE bags of 1sand:1peat.

HTH.

Dan

Thanks Dan!! I may even go back and collect more of the seeds!!
Joann

I heard they take 50 years to flower. Will you still be alive to see the flowers?

They flower much sooner than that. But old fruits (they are multiples, not single seeds despite being roundish) lying on top of the ground are not likely to be good for planting, you want to get them soon after they fall.

Different fruits will begin to show sprouts at differing intervals, once the root dormancies begin to be overcome. After part of a fruit has sprouted a root, another set of circumstances must be experienced before it is possible for a shoot to appear from the same embryo.

Put them in a basket of loose organic material, check after enough time has elapsed to see which have sprouted roots. Pot those up individually and place in a sheltered environment (even a greenhouse) for the stems to sprout. Put the rest back and wait for more to sprout roots. Working your way through all the fruits collected in a single batch could take a few years or more.

I share bboy's concern that not all seeds collected are viable - surely some have been found by critters. Seeds needing such dormancy however are less likely to rot while sitting on the ground. I also think that it will be a number of years from now before anything resembling a decent specimen will be identified. It will be a fun exercise to see what happens, if anything.

Dan

Now I am really curious about these seeds. I actually brought home two nuts/seeds. They have an outside coating that is kind of spongy but inside they are rock hard. I took a hammer to the first one just to see what is inside in case the nut would open to release seeds. After whacking it many times it finally just cracked but seemed to be woody hard all the way through with nothing different inside. I think I will go get a bunch more and take pictures of them so you can see them.
Joann

Starting trees from seed is a very enjoyable project!

I've also thought about planting a Davidia Dove tree myself.

Schumacher seed sells Dove tree seeds.

Many mail order nurseries such as forest farm also sell them. Not the big examples you spend 100's for from a nursery but then again their roots aren't pot bound or 1/10th the size they need to be either.

Here is a link that might be useful: F.W. Schumacher Seed

Dove tree reproduces on disturbed soil in nature. Fruits not buried by slippage or falling into moist surface debris soon deteriorate and fail to grow. Similar behavior is shown by golden chinkapin (Chrysolepis) here in the western US.

The more I hear about how hard it is to grow these seeds the more I wonder how on earth this tree ever reproduced itself all these centuries!! It's a wonder there are any of them left! I wonder if any creatures in china eat these seeds?
Joann

As bboy says, they will bloom much quicker than 50 years. I have had one for about 15 years and last year I got the first blooms. I started out with a 3 ft. whip in a two gallon pot.
{{gwi:347741}}

Outlets here nowadays have stocked the 'SHN' cultivar originating with a tree at Sonoma Horticultural Nursery in California that produces larger than normal floral bracts. These often begin to appear on vegetative propagules in 5 gallon pot sizes.

Sowing Davidia involucrata Seeds:
For best results, please follow the instructions in the order provided.
Please Note: This seed has a long pretreatment period: 4-5 months in warm stratification (roots develop) than 90 days cold stratification (growing shoots are stratified) then the plant will emerge from the soil when things warm up.
Scarify: Soak in water for 24 hours
Stratify: Warm 120 Days, then Cold 90 days, 40 Degrees F in a Moist Medium (Not Wet).
Germination: Sow 1/4” Deep, Keep Moist, (Not wet). Use a well aerated soil containing sand and perlite as well as vermiculite in equal parts. Germination may take up to 18 months after the pretreatment requirements have been met. Each seed may have up to 10 individual seed chambers so a single seed can produce multiple seedlings.
When the first 'sproutling' is seen, remove the seed from the seed bed and separate the sproutling from the seed (once enough roots exist to support the sproutling) and then re-plant the seed in the seed bed to await the next sproutling. If left attached to the seed the sproutling may inhibit the germination of the other seed chambers as well as creating strong competition between the sproutlings from an individual seed.
For more information about seed pretreatment and growing trees and shrubs from seed, please try the following links:
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fcpg018.pdf/$file/fcpg018.pdf
http://csfs.colostate.edu/pdfs/growseed.pdf

"Each seed may have up to 10 individual seed chambers so a single seed can produce multiple seedlings."

One seed will produce one plant. Most Davidia FRUITS will contain multiple seeds.

Oh, and, Magically3999, your second link doesn't appear to work.

Hi. I been growing this kind of tree since november of last year.. I had a HUGE one in my back yard. But it got struck by lighting and in danger of the other half falling on my house i cut it down.(late summer) It starts growing even it cut to just trunk. Some start groing from the ground.. dig it up and then found a seed and now its months growing with fruit and flowers. Been growing it inside..

CAN YOU EAT THE FRUIT???????

What you have growing in the pot in something herbaceous in the Solonaceae (nightshade family), many of which are poisonous. The seeds may have fallen into the soil from a nearby plant or been placed there by some critter. Not a dove tree and do not eat, as it could have very bad consequences.

+1. I don't know Davidia from Adam but the plant in that pot is one of the nightshades. Potentially deadly poisonous.

Back to Davidia - I germinated one a few years ago. This may not be much help, but I simply planted it in a pot and set the pot outside in partial shade. I let it go through a couple seasons - and voila, dove tree seedling! It did go through the double dormancy listed above - sending down the root/radicle the first summer, overwintering, and then initiating shoot growth the second spring.

Hi! I Hope you can answer my question. I purchased a Dove Tree last year, and she bloomed beautifully throughout the summer. Three large seedlings (fruit) developed and before it got too cold, I picked them and put them in an outside potting drawer. They are mostly covered in brown, but they are green underneath the layers. I want to germinate them, but since I didn't wait for them to drop to the ground naturally, I'm wondering if they have a chance to grow.

Do you think they are fertile, and that I should try and put them through the stratification process? Renee in Washington State pro.fit@msn.com

What do you have to lose by giving it a try?

It can take 18 months for a viable embryo to sprout. That's why I was asking about picking vs. dropping naturally. They may be too undeveloped to try such a long germination process on a seed that has little chance of growing

But you don’t have to do anything except plant it and forget it. Hence nothing to lose. Even if it doesn’t grow.

Meanwhile try to find some ripe fruits which have fallen naturally. I found some still intact in December on the ground under a Davidia in a London park. Otherwise you’ll have to wait until next autumn.