Here begins a long post, for anyone interested in obtaining and growing Lilium seed from me. I’ve done quite a few hand pollinated crosses this past season. Some successful, some not so successful. Some I thought I would be getting a ton of seed, but not so either, as they sometimes turned out to be mostly chaff, even with normal size pods. All a learning experience indeed, and for me, that’s what gardening is all about.
Listed here are those successes that I have sufficient seed to share. If you would like to try growing any of these seeds, D-mail me with your address and request(s), in order of preference, in case I cannot fill all your wants. If you want seed sent in a bubble wrap envelope, send me one and postage to go with it. Otherwise I will use a regular envelope with a folded card, very adequate, and used by esperienced lily growers for mailing. 42 cents postage is hardly worth compensation, so don’t bother.
This year, all seeds have been candled, at least to be best of my ability. Candling is the process of shining a light through the seed to determining the presence of a seed embryo.
There may be the odd piece of chaff now and then; when you are dealing with seed chaff lighter than bits of tissue paper, any draft can be "devastating". Let me tell you that listening to Santana’s Supernatural while candling seed is just not a good idea. LOL Surprisingly, and particularly difficult to discern viability were martagon type seeds. Here seeds that I would normally classify as dead, I know (at least some) must be alive, by previous experience.
For the seed below, all except the martagon and michiganense seed are immediate epigeal germinating. That’s fancy talk for “sprouts in the first season”. The martagon and michiganense seed are delayed hypogeal, and require more patience. They germinate the first season, but need a cold treatment before sending up leaves.
See here: http://members.shaw.ca/lilynet/netlil/id52.htm
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Unless otherwise indicated, all crosses were hand pollinated, with precautions taken against contamination.
Offers this year:
Lilium davidii var. wilmottiae x Lilium liechtlinii
Lilium lancifolium var. flaviflorum x Lilium ‘Kentucky’
Lilium leichtlinii x Lilium maculatum var. wilsonii
Lilium martagon ‘Claude Shride’ – open pollinated with L.m. ‘Terrace City’, L. ‘Super Tsing’ and L. tsingtauense.
Lilium michiganense x Lilium michiganense
Lilium ‘Prawn Tiger’ x Lilium maculatum var. wilsonii.
This message was edited Nov 16, 2008 2:38 PM
Lily seed giveaway 2008
Lilium davidii var. wilmottiae x Lilium liechtlinii
Flowers are really true orange. Sorry for the small pic in this one. You can always google . . .
Lilium leichtlinii
Lilium lancifolium var. flaviflorum
Lilium 'Kentucky'
More orange, but with a pinkish hue as it ages.
Lilium maculatum var. wilsonii
Lilium martagon 'Claude Shride'
Lilium michiganense
Pod parent
Lilium michiganense
Pollen parent
Lilium ‘Prawn Tiger’
Again, true orange is the correct color. The unruliness and irregular twisting of the petals is a normal trait.
Hi Leftwood,
I sent you a Dmail.
Thanks
Danita
Hello Leftwood!
I would LOVE to grow your lilies - all of them ;o). Is it OK if I send you money via PayPal for the padded mailer and postage?
Hugs,
Ursula
Sorry, I don't have a paypal account. At least at this time, I do not want one. Ursula, you are out of the country, and currency exchanging for such a small amount doesn't make sense either. I will make an exception in this case. I have enjoyed your posts, especially those concerning alstroemeria, and your many plant file contributions. Send me a D-mail with your wants.
Rick
Hi Rick!
Thanks for your kind reply to my request. Sorry for my delay in responding but I was out of town, without internet connection.
I will send you a d-mail.
Thanks again,
Ursula
Leftwood, I would love to have a few seeds of each or whatever varieties you can send. Thanks so much! All of the parents are gorgeous. Will send you a d-mail.
Rick how do you store your seed. I have way too many but wanted to store some. It seems the freezer is the way to go? I guess I was wondering about the viability of lily seed stored at room temps 50-70F...
Tnx
Andy
Non-autodefrosting freezer storage long term is best. Constant freezing and thawing is not good. Remember my "Bad Frig, Bad Frig, whatchya gonna do?" thread? I went to search for it, but came up with : The site is moving fairly slowly recently so I have temporarily disabled this search feature. from Dave. You can find it later.
"Experts" say lily seed loses significant viability at 8-9 months at room temp., but it has got to be variable, and according to species too. It is also as you would think regarding cooler temps above freezing, the cooler the temperature, the less degradation. This is all assuming the seed is dry. This brings up a story in which I will digress momentarily:
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When candling seed, has anyone had the static electricity problem? Sometimes it can get so bad on my lighted tracer that that I can't pick up a seed because it keeps jumping away from my fingers! (This is only an illustration of other problems that arise.)
So every so often I mist the area to ground things. Once, I apparently repackaged seed in a plastic baggy when they were not sufficiently dry, and look what happened! (see pic below) A seed started germinating in the bag! (The darker part is actually green.) Seed that isn't moist enought to germinate, but is still moist, I am sure is not a good thing either.
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My lily seed came out of the deep freeze a week ago, and is stored in the frig, going in and out, while I do sorting for what I want to plant now through spring.
Everyone's seed went out in the mail yesterday. In a lot of them, it is quite easy to see embryos with the naked eye. They are usually the fairly straight lines in about the middle of the seed. Keep them in a cool place if you can (frig is best).
Good Luck!
Got the seeds today. Thanks for sharing:-)
Bev
Got the seeds the other day. Thanks so much.
John
I'd love to try someif you have any left.
thanks,Laura
I would love to try to grow some of the seeds from the oranges and red if you have any left to share.
I would also like to grow some of the seeds ...I would love to have a few of each color...
Thanks in advance
you have mail
I have been able to send seeds to everyone so far, and still have a few left of certain ones, especially the more "picky" delayed hypogeal germinating types. So if anyone else might still be lurking . . .
I would love to try some of your lily seeds. I don't have any of the ones you mentioned and I'm quite a fan of lily!
I would like to try some of the delayed hypogeal as well as I'm a first time hybridizer and I'd like some experience with this type with ones that are likely to succeed ;-) My own are perhaps dead?
I live in zone 5 with soggy spring soils if that matters in what you send.
Thx, Karen :)
Rick, I'm lurking (& salivating). Would love some michiganense and Prawn tige x maculatum var. wilsonii if you have any left.
inanda aka the other Ginny
I'll dmail you my address if you have any left. I've been away so not much computer access for last few months.
Richard,
Thx so much! I got them today and am starting them in baggies.
I also candled them to be sure I had the right idea on what viable seed should look like. :) ( turns out I did!)
Just think... in 3 yrs or so maybe I'll see my first martagon:-)
here's my first successful seedling from my first hydridization attempts this fall...
Karen
I can't remember if I posted - rec'd the seeds and thank you so very much. I'm really excited abt growing these. :)
Laura
Sorry to burst any bubbles, Karen, but martagons take 5-7 years to bloom from seed. But you never know, you could get lucky!
Nice seedling.
Leftwood,
I see sprouts in my baggies on both varieties you sent!
big grin!
Karen
That's great, Karen!
I know I sent you at least one hypogeal germinating type, and if I remember right, in my haste I didn't mark them as you had asked. But you can always check the beginning of this thread, where they are listed as such.
They are cute, though, aren't they . . .