Mountain Laurel seeds

I have received some Mountain Laurel seeds from a coworker and am wondering what is going to need to be done in order for them to sprout successfully?


Any advice/help greatly appreciated.

Are the seeds Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) or Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora)? I would have assumed the first one, except for the fact that you're in TX so figured you might be talking about the TX one. If it's the Kalmia, I'm not sure how much it would like your summers, they tend to prefer cooler temperatures.

I don't know how to get either one to germinate, but figured someone else might come along with some advice if they know which seeds you have.

thanks ecrane3,

it is the texas mountain laurel : ) ..........I was looking in plant files and found several posts on how to germinate the seeds there as well.

How to germinate Tx Mnt Laurel. They are tough! File or grind the red seed til you see a tan material then STOP. This will allow the seed to absorb water. Plant in a DEEP pot. The tap root needs lots of room. They will sprout to about 3 inches pretty quick and then stop. It will be about a year before you get any more growth. They are very slow growers. Commercial growers soak the seed in sulfuric acid for 1 to 2 hours and then plant.
Hope this helps, Gene
If you get the seed early enough, just as the pod starts to lose its green color, the seed have only small red areas and they have not gotten so hard. These will sprout with out scarifying. Gene

How many years do they take to bloom?

I am curious about this as well. I got some wholesale plugs of this plant last year. They are the same size as when I got them, maybe just a bit taller. I am assuming they don't like a lot of water and fertilizer but geeze, when will they grow? Thank goodness I am not trying them from seed!!

Rebeccanne,

How big are yours? I am getting some seeds from a seed trade, so I havent even planted them yet! Looks like I will have them in the green house a while!

Mine are about 3 inches tall, been potted up for a year and they have grown less then half an inch. They have been fine outside, leafs are nice and green but so slow to grow. Hope I can see a flower in my lifetime....lol

I know what you mean!

At 10 years they will be about 6' tall, normally multi-trunked, and starting to bloom. The bloom is beautiful and smells distinctly like grape cool-aid. They only have one pest and that is the sophora worm, something like tent catapillers. They must be sprayed if they attack because they feed on the tender new growth that is going to be this years bloom. Gene

I wonder if I should just buy one as I am almost 60 .... LOL I don't think I have time for this seed....

I am assuming mine are about 3 years if they are growing this slowly. So I have 7 years for a bloom? I will try and remember what they are....

It took mine fifteen to twenty years to build a wind shield along the one side of my property. At maturity now it is show time as they bloom each year. I started with twenty four inch plants from a nursery and built an excellent bed for their liking. They average ten feet to fifteen feet tall here in Pennsylvania at maturity. They are slow to grow but once established they can hardly be harmed by any reasonable treatment.

You can see them along the edge of my property and patio in progress in the picture.

Another view......note patio wall being formed. The mature plants were cut back a lot. They will grow back in within a couple of years. Patio in progress.

I'm surprised they'd be hardy in Pennsylvania. Or are you talking about regular mountain laurels (Kalmia)? jataylor was asking about Texas mountain laurel, Sophora secundiflora.

They are lovely little trees, but they do take forever and a year to grow. And you can't even over-water them to try for increased growth, they'll rot.

Yardqueen, if you're going to buy one, may I suggest the "Silver Peso" cultivar? It has gray, felty leaves with the same round shape that really set off the purple blooms. One of the few things I'm sorry I left behind in Phoenix.

The laurel is the one that is everywhere from Maine to Georgia over our mountains. There are three phases...most are white, a few light pink and an assumed mutant red. Pennsylvania is plum full of them so thick in the Northern third of the state that one can hardly walk through them many places. When in bloom the state is nearly as white as when we have snow cover.

OK, yours is the Kalmia then, not the plant that jataylor was talking about. That's what I sort of figured given where you live, the Sophora is only hardy to zone 8 or maybe 7.

I sprouted 13 seeds a little over 3 months ago. I stole the seeds from some healthy trees planted in public medians in my city of Tucson, AZ. I lost 4 of them when I transplanted them to permanant places outside but the others are strong. They are right about 3-4 inches tall. I guess I will have to enjoy the ones in public places for a few years since it will be awhile before they bloom in my yard! Does anyone know if they will need extra winter protection because they are so small? The trees seem to do well here overall- just not sure about ones so young.

Those will be very nice plants when they get some size. They are very attractive.

Jeanette

They are hard to propgate from cutings and seed, But lightly cover them in a mix of moist 50/50 peat and pearlite.
Keep them moist and don't expect germination for a month or more. When they sprout keep the seed box covered until the sedlings are 2" high and then plant them individually in another flat and keep the humidity high
.

Dee, I would bet they'd be fine unless you had a really tough winter. (I used to live in Tucson.)

Probably wouldn't hurt to put a few bricks nearby, just for the extra heat gain, if you follow.

Thanks for the brick idea- I never thought of that. My mind is racing these days trying to figure out how to deal with winter- as I've only really started planting things in the last year, and although most are hardy, there are some that are borderline.
I had a hard time getting the seeds to sprout initially. I tried soaking them, sanding them, nicking them and nothing seemed to work. I ended up throwing the first two batches I soaked/sanded/nicked into the garden and that is where many of mine came from- a month or so later they just sprouted! The third batch I tried, I used seeds that had just a spot of red on them, but they were almost completely white. They sprouted right away without any problem at all. So between the ones that worked and the late accidents, I have quite a little orchard of these trees!
I have pictures of them all on my blog- the address is in my profile if anyone is interested!

Guess I don't know how, I couldn't find it.

Jeanette

It is listed as a link called my home page, but here is the address. http://www.adesertobserver.blogspot.com/

I have a little slideshow up with their current pictures on the main page, and if you click on the Mescal Bean-Sophora secundiflora link under "previous posts by topic" it will take you to the earlier posts where I comment on the earlier days of sprouting seeds.

Dee you have a wonderful website. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at "another" part of our great country. Truly amazing the difference between, not only the weather that creates the differences, but they themselves, the flora and fauna. Your site is a real trip thru the desert. Thank you. Saved me gas. LOL

Jeanette

Thank-you Jnette- it is alot of fun to do and I hope to be able to look back and see the changes as my fledgling yard grows year after year!