Clematis from seed frequently do not look like their parents. That is why it is exciting to plant them!

This is the best source I know of for people with the patience to do this. I have grown clematis from seed but wish I had started the process years earlier, when I was young and eager.

Here is a link that might be useful: clematis from seed

Alicia, I agree with Marie that the website she linked above (Brian Collingwood's)is the best site that has all the info contained in one place as to how to start seed. Just be prepared for a wait since Henryi is a type II and can often take 6 months to a year to get any germination. The basic way to start seeds of any clematis is essentially the same. The main difference is how long you have to wait to get germinations. As Marie pointed out, seeds from hybrids (Henyri is one) are likely to give rise to plants whose flowers may look similar to or vastly different than the parent plant. If you want an exact duplicate of a given plant, layering is the way to go.

By the way, for future reference, check out COTW (Clematis on the Web). That database can give you the parentage of most clematis if it is known.

Here is a link that might be useful: COTW

I received some seeds in a trade last winter as being from the parent 'Henryii'...(which I highly doubt now).

They germinated, every single one of them in about a month.

Foliage resembles my 'Radar Love'... Some wilted and died but I managed to plant about 5 of them from the orignal 21 I think it was...

They grew like weeds this last summer. I'm betting in 2 or 3 years these things will have yellow flowers.

Just my experience.

Dax

Gardenbug, thanks for the link. I'm still a little unclear as to whether cold stratification is required; some seed I will sow in a sunken pot outside, others I will put in the fridge to stratify.

Alicia, see the link below to a page where Brian talks about chilling seed. Henryi would be considered a thicker walled seed so stratification won't hurt but is not necessary. To date, all seeds I have sowed have been kept in my unheated garage which never goes below freezing in the winter. I have not sowed any type II seeds however.

Dax, it does sound as if you have tanguticas. If so, don't be surprised if you get blooms next year. The tanguticas are known for growing fast and developing flowers in short order. Macropetalas grown from seed have produced flowers for me in two years and they flower mainly on old wood.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Germination/Need for Stratification

This guy does have a lot to say about growing Clematis. No question about that. I'm doing things my own way now however. I've decided that with a lot of things I grow from seed..mainly trees, that soaking them in tightly covered jars (i.e. peanut butter jars, etc.) for 12 hours then replace with very warm water on cycles of doing this 3 times and then into cold stratification for 3 months then sow. This is similar to hard, thick-coated seeds such as Acer palmatum which this type of method is employed. I'll have to wait and see but I'm doing this method currently with 'Blue Moon'.....Then into the greenhouse with bottom heat they'll go.

I also prefer that the seed absorbs enough water to sink. If three times doesn't sink the seed, I continue with this approach for days on end until all seed in no longer floating.

I can only hope.

Dax

Dax, I think Brian posted his information so that people would see how he does it and for beginners to use as a starting point. I don't think he means to convey that his way is the only way to germinate clematis seed and he encourages experimentation in the whole arena especially as to ways to speed up germination (soak vs. nonsoak, cold treatment vs. no cold treatment). To be quite honest, I have seen references point out the idea of actually picking the embryonic seed out of the husk on several types of clematis to speed up germination but I am not going to begin to go that far! LOL

I have tried soaking clematis seed in hot water overnight and planting them. Joan, who sometimes posts on this forum under the name Bloomorelse, tried this and thought that it helped her germination times. Two sets of the seeds I tried this on included some florida hybrids and pitcheri. About 12 seeds of both types of clematis were soaked in separate containers in hot tap water overnight. Don't remember the next morning if they were floating or had sunk by that time. Both type of seeds were planted on 8/23/05 and following is what has happened to date:

Florida seeds: one germination on 11/20/05 and one germination on 11/23/05. No other seeds have germinated yet in that pot but the pot is out of the plastic bag and under grow lights since the seedlings haven't produced their first set of true leaves and I don't want to risk losing them by attempting to transplant them out of the pot. The pot is moved outside into direct sunlight on those days that I am off and the weather is above freezing.

Pitcheri seeds: One germination to date on 11/15/05. Ditto to no other germinations and how I am keeping the pot uncovered. No further development on the one seedling as far as any further leaf growth.

In both cases, the seedlings that did emerge did so in approximately 90 days. If you look through the germination times Brian lists, he has had Florida seedlings emerge in 170, 382, and 405 days. My florida seedlings are supposed to be open cross-pollinated seeds of C. florida and who knows what else so I am unsure of what their normal germination times should be. My solitary pitcheri seedling emerged in 90 days as compared to 210 for the one entry I could find in Brian's list. Does that mean that soaking works? Don't really know and I would not venture to say since only 1 of the 12 seeds I planted has germinated to date.

You may be interested in the following two links that I was directed to by someone a while back that shows different techniques to use on different types of clematis seed. I haven't really used any of the techniques but you might be interested. You need to look at both links because one gives you the code of germination techniques that is listed on the other web page. Happy reading!

Germination Codes
http://webhome.idirect.com/~jehan/Information/germinate.htm

Germination Guide

Thanks for the links.

Sorry it tool me so long to thank you. I didn't get to them till yesterday.

Regards,

Dax

Thanks for the links.

Sorry it tool me so long to thank you. I didn't get to them till yesterday.

Regards,

Dax

No problem Dax. I know people have other things on their plate besides looking at postings on GW! LOL