Bulbs from Seed (Making more from what you've got!?)

Saw these Bulb and Rhizome Propagation instructions from Landpro and thought they might be useful. They have very good pictures explaining the steps....

http://www.landspro.com/page8.htm

To some it may seem like a lot of trouble, but, it could be an interesting experiment....Particularly if you have expensive or heirloom bulbs, from lilies or christmas amaryllis for instance, and want more. (I think you have to be patient though!)

Would like to know if anyone has had success with bulbs from seed or some of the other propagation methods that they give directions for?

Thanks. t.

I've grown crocus, scilla, allium, cammasia, muscari and zygadenus from seed. Slow process to reach flowering size, on average about 3-4 years. Those listed above are easy. They all need stratification period so I usually sow them in pots in the fall and overwinter them in the cold frame or even under the back deck. Come April-May, they start to sprout, looking like grass. I keep them watered until the show signs of dying back, then I withhold water, essentally relying on natural rain. I may dump them out of the pots in August and see if they are large enough to plant out but generally, I leave them for another winter and spring, dumping them out in the second August. By then, they are usually large enough bulbs to handle so I plant them where they are to flower then wait another year or so before they reach flowering size. An exeption are zygadenus and allium, if they are summer-green species (i.e. they grow all summer rather than go dormant). With those, I grow them in the pot for the first summer then plant them out as a full pot or if thick, divide them into clumps in the fall. Alliums may bloom within 3 years. Crocus, scilla, muscari and cammasia are so readily available that growing from seed is purely for sport. However, zygadenus are not as commonly available and some alliums are only available as seeds so that is the only way to aquire them. Attached is a picture of Allium flavum I planted as a full pot three years ago. They bloomed this year for the first time.

Your allium are lovely and do you by chance have a pic of your zygadenus? (I am not familiar with them at all.)

Todd, Do you have any knowledge of growing liatris from seed? I have seen it offered both as a 'bulb' and a 'seed'....was wondering if seeds would be easy and cheaper...although the bulbs are not too expensive....

I suspect you always have a fascinating horticultural project going at your house--from your posts you seem to be doing something interesting all the time!

Here's a pick of Zigadenus elegans in my garden, grown from seed in 1993. They are commonly called White Camass or Death camass.

Opps, forgot about the Liatris. They should be straight-forward from seed. I don't think they need a stratification period. Simply surface sow the seed in spring and they should come up within 2-3 weeks.

T. Thanks for the very elegant camass pic. Am I corect in assuming these are from the same family as the blue camass(ia?) (bulbs that I still need to plant!).

Good, I saved seeds from my liatris last year and I will try them out in spring.

(I hope at some point you will post pics of your whole garden. I suspect it is wonderful)

Raining today so no bulb planting for me!

t.

Wow you are late planting your bulbs. I was concerned because it was Oct 20 before I planted mine! Zigadenus is fairly closely related to Camassia. Indeed, they both hail from western North America. Native Americans would eat the bulbs of Camassia but Zigadenus, the DEATH Camass is poisonous so if they dug up and ate the wrong bulb, it was bad news! Camassia mostly have blue flowers, with some alba forms, while Zigadenus is off-white to greenish.

I spent so much time taking individual flower photos that I took very few overall garden pics. Will have to change that next year.

Yes, I'm kinda late with the bulbs but they didn't come in until late and then it rained too much. And I bought way too many to deal with!

I think (hope) it will work out OK.

I love looking at garden photos, especially the flower combinations. You have some elegant specimens and I'll be interested to see how you use them in the landscape....

Thanks for all the advice. t.

I thought I'd posted on this thread earlier ... says a lot for my memory!

We grow some bulbs from seed, partly due to garden budget, partly because they are easier to obtain from seed and partly because home grown plants tend to be a little hardier. I've had some success with Allium, Pancratium, Moraea, Lilium, Cypella, Calochortus (still waiting for them to pop up for a 2nd year), Bloomeria, Babiana, Sparaxis, Freesia, Massonia (which has just sprouted after 1 year), Lachenalia and a number of unknowns from bulb seed mixes.

I'd also heard that they were too much trouble from seed but I've not found that so far, some take their time, but I've tried quite a number of perennials that are a pain in the neck from seed too LOL. I suppose some do take quite a while to flower from seed but others flower the following year from seed.

As most of the bulbs I've tried are from drier climates, it does mean they spend a lot of time indoors but that's not a big problem since they don't need a lot of attention when they are dormant either.

I have done some scaling of lily bulbs and had good luck doing it.

Its the directions at landspro that made me brave enough to try it.