Re: Darlingtonia Seeds

Clarke Brunt (clarke@brunt.demon.co.uk)
Sun, 11 Feb 1996 21:23:33 +0000

On 10 Feb 96 at 16:53, Gary Habeeb wrote:

> Last fall Clarke Brunt so kindly gave out Darlingtonia seeds to anyone who
> requestd them. Thanks Clarke. I planted (in a peat sand mixture) and left
> them outside. In Northern California the outdoor temp drops into the 20's
> and snow has covered them more than once. I thought by now though that
> something might have happened, but the seeds remain, undeveloped. I was
> wondering how the other recipients of the seeds have done. My success is
> by no means a reflectin on the quality of the seed or Clarke's generosity,
> I'm just curious.

You'd probably rather hear from some of the others than me, but
anyway... I sent out 27 lots of seed in all and planted one lot
myself (I wasn't going to, as I have enough seedlings already, but I
thought I'd better test the new seed for germination).

So far 8 people have reported germination. Mine have germinated too,
but I don't think you should worry (yet!). From previous experience,
it's just a matter of temperature. If they are kept warm (not *very*
warm - just maybe 60F / 17C) then they are happy to germinate in
Winter, but if cool, then they just wait until Spring like they no
doubt would do naturally. Mine are in an unheated room upstairs in
the house. They germinated, but then the temperature got a bit low
for them and they are just sitting there with only partially expanded
seed leaves - I know from experience that this won't matter and they
will get going when it warms up.

If you had an adult Darlingtonia, then you wouldn't expect it to be
growing in the Winter, so don't worry that the seeds aren't!

-- 
Clarke Brunt (clarke@brunt.demon.co.uk)