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germinating wild flower seeds

20 years ago

I have a number of seeded flats of wildflowers such as compass plant and some goldenrods, that show no signs of life. Half were given 2 mos. of moist cold stratification, the others 3 months. Some seeds,indigos and liatris, have germinated sparsely, and continue to put up one or two a week, and only butterfly weed has done well. Does anyone have reliable success growing these who could give me pointers?

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Comments (6)

john_mo
20 years ago
The species you mention are not especially difficult and it sounds like your stratification was appropriate. I'm guessing that your flats are still inside. I bet you will get better sucess when you can move them out into some spring sunshine.
brenda_near_eno
20 years ago
Winter-sowing is ideal for native seeds. There is a forum devoted to it. Asters are notorious for low germination rate - not certain of seeds you listed. I agree with John about putting them outside and giving them more time. Of the seeds I winter-sowed in 2L pop bottles last December, calycanthus, amsonia, several asters, hibiscus, polemonium, polygonatum, thermopsis, trichostema just sprouted in last week of warm weather. Still no sign of Actaea or astrantia.
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Since you have a problem across the board there are a few things to check first, even though you may already have a few of those things well in hand. A reasonable rule in problem solving is to emphasize sterility and warmth for sprouting, and to emphasize light and nutrition for growing. They are not the same thing at all. First, make sure the seeds, once wet, never ever go dry even for a minute. Second, once wet, be rigorous in not letting them get chilled below, say, 20 degrees C. Not once! Note this is not a hard and fast rule for all seeds (see Campanula's first note) but it's a place to start. Third, sprout them in a "soil" with scant nutrition. You can start seeds in sand or in coco fiber alone. Assume the seeds contain all the nutrition a plant needs up through the pair of dicot leaves. Thirty three percent manure is too rich by far. Fourth, once sprouted, fertilize with a very very weak material, perhaps even manure water, and be frugal with it.
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crankyoldman
20 years ago
I used the paper towel method for stratifying wild seeds this year, putting them out in my garage as Deno suggests in his book on seed germination. It worked great, much better than when I have stratified seeds in flats. But even so, I think the fact that your seeds are coming up a couple at a time goes hand in hand with the fact that they are seeds of wild plants. They tend to have germination that is spaced out like that rather than all at once like a domesticated plant. Have you tried using liquid kelp solution for watering? Kelp has something in it similar to GA3 and helps with germination some.
philmont_709n2
20 years ago
i had unbelieveable result with wildflowers by wintersowing. check out the wintersowing forum
davidl_ny5
20 years ago
brenda -- I just got one actaea germination (of several seeds) after two winters (or three)! They are really stubborn and will take at least until next Spring for you.
shelley_r
20 years ago
Another vote for winter sowing. I've also had excellent success with it. Check out the forum.

Shelley

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cold stratification?

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