6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

Sheryl

I've grown them many times from seed. And as suggested above they would probably like a fair amount of sun in your area.

My method:
Place in ziplock bag with moist material (sphagnum, pot6ting soil, vermiculite, etc.) and place in butter compartment on door or in crisper of your refrigerator. When at least half of your seeds have grown a root, remove them and plant in pots at room temperature. Plant very shallow at about 1/8" (3 mm) and spread a layer of coarse sand on the surface about 1/4" (6 mm) deep.You can also remove them individually as each forms a good root and plant. Keep moist and warm till they appear and plant out when you want to. Some keep them in pots for 1-3 years but i generally plant in a seedling bed in garden after they get their first true leaf.

George.

sheryl, you've sown them in pots already and your plan sounds fine. Just as a space saving step, I'll often put them into a tiny ziplock with about a tsp of moist vermiculite (will easily accomodate 40 or so seeds) and leave that on my desk for approx 2 or more months before sowing, exposing to chill. I normally do the chill outdoors here where my late Fall and Winter temps can often be a day/night average around 40F.

There's no need to cover with landscape fabric any seeds you've sown in the ground. If the plants had been your own and dropped ripe seed, they would have laid on the ground, been watered occasionally until Fall rains began, spent a winter outdoors and most likely have germinated for you in earliest Spring. IF birds or rodents hadn't carried them away :)

Just be sure not to cut your warm/moist or cold/moist periods too short, I try to give seeds at least 10 weeks in the second stage of cold/moist. I don't have a harsh winter like you do, but if you are bringing them in, how warm would your sunny window be? After warm/moist, cold/moist periods, germination begins for me while cool - in the 50 - 55F range.

I top with grit or vermiculite to discourage mosses or algae from forming (with any sown seed that will be with me a few months), the coarse sand mentioned by George would be good too.

Most of the cannas in my garden were started from seed. This is the second year I've grown cannas from seed, and have had close to 100% germination. File the seeds (try grabbing the seed with a pair of pliers and rub against a wood file) until you see a white spot. Take a container (I use an old water bottle) put the seeds inside and cover with about an inch of warm to hot water. Leave the container on a heating mat, and rinse the seeds once a day. You'll see a root poke out within five days. Then, transplant the sprouted seed (I do 2 per 3" pot). Seal in a ziplock bag, and put on heat mat. You should seed a sprout poke out within 2 weeks guaranteed. I've tried seeds collected from last year, and have also tried seeds a few years back, and it's worked great.

I have also had success growing cannas from seed but the seed is very hard. I finally found a way to put a small hole in the seed, after trying EVERYTHING! I held the seed in one hand with needle nose pliers and pressed it hard against a metal rasp in the drill on high speed. It is the only thing that worked. I could not get anywhere with a file or a sharp knife or scizzors or any of the dozen things I tried. Now I know what works and will use that method for all of them in the future.

After you soak them in warm water, you will know if you have penetrated the seed coat as they will swell and double in size.

I don't seem to have a long enough growing season to get mature seeds before the frost. Would it help if I started them in pots indoors earlier in the spring?

I would love to grow more variety of canna from seed. I grew dwarf white and one that is probably yellow this year. I have red flwrs/green leaves also. I am looking for seeds for the Tropicana variety or any fancy spriped leaves and the red leaves. I bought a Tropicana gold last fall but it didn't survive the winter :-(

Oh. I failed to mention, one of the grasses turned out to be millet and another looked like what old farmers might have called milo maize. Wild birds here liked the mustard, the milo maize and the small sunflowers while still on the plant in the garden patch.

I tried to grow seed for my chickens this year. I planted millet, amaranthus, poppies, flax and sunflowers. The only one that came up were the sunflowers. The local groundhog ate them all when they were about 4" tall. I know the poppies need cold to germinate and it was late spring when I planted the others.

Why didn't the millet, amaranthus and flax seeds grow?

what if you planted a container of clovers nearby them?? the bee's would be attracted to the clovers and then the bee's might go to the castor beans? i have clovers all over in my yard, hubs hates it, but i refuse to get rid of it because i have such great pollination of the plants in my yard!! **big smile** ~Medo

Clover is wonderful I can't understand why anyone wouldn't enjoy the flowers as well as the smell. We don't have clover, what we have here is something that looks like clover but put on burrs and need to be killed before it gets started or it will spread all over our yards. When I lived in Michigan we use to suck on the blooms for the sweet taste plus try to find those 4-leaf clovers. It is a pretty plant so whats not to like?

The tall sedum "Brilliant" will grow from seed and selfseeds every year in my garden. It has a more lilac coloured flowerhead than the red one you have which is probably "Autumn Joy". I've never had "A.Joy" self seed and have never tried to grow it from seed because it starts SO easily from cuttings. Just break off a piece, stick it in the ground or a pot and it will grow roots quite quickly.

does anyone have any sedum cuttings or seed to sell?