delphinium seeds any good?

I bought a few Summer Nights delphiniums last year and collected seeds from them. I like the lovely blue of their flowers and would like to grow some more from seed. Can anybody tell me if the seeds collected from those plants are any good? I understand that seeds from hybrid plants don't come true. Is this particular delphinium a hybrid?

Any advice? Thanks.

I'm doing the same as you... I purchased 2 plants last year, collected the seeds, WS'ed them and now hoping for the best.

All the sites i just checked... probably 8 sites... not one said anything about Hybrid, nor seeds not coming true.

Sow them and hope for the best. They should be hardy in your zone, so your plants should come back... though they may be short lived Perennials.

Thanks, tsc. I will give it a try. I just did winter sowing for the first time this winter -- did it two weeks ago. Now we are buried in snow :-) I probably will sow the delphinium seeds in April and see what happens.

Happy gardening. Hope you succeed too.

I wintersowed delphiniums two winters ago and got my first delphiniums this year. I am so in love with the one plant and waiting for the others to grow bigger.

I am in 5a so have patience. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to have them come up the first year. Can't remember if there were starts the summer after wintersowing but there must have been or I wouldn't have planted them. Good luck! All you can do is try and I will do some more this winter.

Elaine and Otis

if you live somewhere that does not get much freezing weather during the winter and early spring, one thing that helps with germinating delphiniums is to stratify them by placing them in your freezer for ten days before sowing.

You're right. Seeds from any hybrid probably won't come true, but any delphinium is lovely. They're biennial, take two years to bloom, so you'd be smart to plant the seeds this fall so they come up next spring. Delphinium seeds don't last more than a year.

If you bought starter plants, you'll probably get viable seeds (though not identical to the parent). If you planted commercial seed, the seed you collected may not have anyone home. Several big commercial seed companies put a Death Gene in their hybrids so they won't make seeds at all. Nice!

Let's hear it for heirlooms and seed trading. Commercial seed companies want you dependent on them for next year's seeds, forever.

Good luck!

Placing dry seeds in a freezer has no effect whatsoever towards stratifying them.

It is only chilling (not freezing) seeds that have been placed in a moist medium and have imbibed water, that will result in stratification.

The seed companies do not mention that either!

Recently I planted lupin seeds from commercial package,
and it just said to freeze the seeds for 48 hours.
Then soak for 24 hours.

They will get properly stratified over the winter,
but if one wanted seedlings to set out in the fall,
they might be disappointed.

Delphinium is perennial.
Larkspurs are the shorter lived plant.
Delphinium seeds are viable for several years if you can get them fresh to begin with.