Fresh Darlingtonia seeds

[Flytrap]

Special thanks to my old friend Doug Fung, for donating a bunch of fresh darlingtonia seeds. The background of these seeds is that they hail from the low lying regions of the Oregon coastline, and hence don't mind temperatures a bit milder than their mountain habiting cousins. I've described them as "lowland" darlingtonias on the CPUK forum. We will offer some of these seeds as prize material for our Contest (see Contest link). So all you TC types, this is what you may be waiting for

To encourage more participation on this forum, we will only offer seeds to folks who are the most active posters on our forum, and who also indicate (here) that they want some of these Cobra lily seeds. Seeds will be split among the number of folks who express interest and who best qualify as recipients (ie. contributors to this OCPS forum).

I'll shoot a few pics of the seeds for all to view later this weekend.

[mabudon]

MMMMmmmm...

I've given this species 2 or 3 attempts from seeds and seen SQUAT, but maybe the 4th time would be the charm(and since there are some folks here who have success with them, I mmight be able to figure out what went wrong, as I can safely rule out "unknown age" as a possible problem) ...

I am interested, and will work some kind of something out with you PM-wise, as always thanks for posting the offer

[Flytrap]

Here's a pic of darlingtonia seeds - collected a couple of weeks ago by Doug:



Note the "bristles" sticking out from each seed ... sort of like those thistle weeds that cling onto your clothes. So when you dip your finger into the batch of seeds, the seeds will cling onto your skin, clothes or fur/feather (if you're not a homo sapien) helping the genus disperse itself. So the plant relies not only on wind dispersal, but also by animal hitch hiking. So here's the tough question, then why does this montypic genus have such a short (small) range?

These seeds are super fresh (as of last week in Sept. 2006)... so here is some germination info copied from our ICPS website: www.carnivorousplants.org/seedbank/species/Darlingtonia.htm

Darlingtonia californica is found in sphagnum bogs and seeps in northern California and coastal Oregon. Its typical environment is a mild slope with water flowing though but it may also be found on protected dripping cliff faces. The slopes may be any exposure from hot sunny lowland south facing to cool highland north facing. You would think that with the wide range of exposures in the wild, the plants would be easy to grow. For most people they are not. What all or almost all the wild locations have in common is cold spring water constantly flowing through the habitat. It is believed the difficulty growing the plants in captivity is keeping the roots cool during warm weather.Darlingtonia seeds needs a damp cold stratification for 4 weeks before they will germinate. If you plan on keeping the plants in a terrarium for an extended period, you may start the seeds at any time. For plants to be kept outside it is best to start the seed in the fall if you plan to keep the seedlings under lights the first winter or plant in late winter if they will be put outside in late spring. If you live in an area where Darlingtonia can be grown outside unprotected year round, consider starting the seeds in pots outside during the winter.

For seeds to be started indoors or in a greenhouse, the seed should be stratified in the refrigerator. The method that uses the least space in the refrigerator is to place the seeds in a small plastic bag with a few large pinches of damp chopped sphagnum. Keep the seed in the refrigerator 4 weeks.

Sow the seed on the surface of finely chopped sphagnum moss. Live sphagnum works best but needs to be trimmed back regularly. Don't bury the seed. Place seed about 5 mm apart. If the seed have not already been stratified, put the pot in a plastic bag and store in a refrigerator, garage, or other location that stays between a few to 10 degrees above freezing for 4 weeks.

After stratification, move the pots to a bright, location. You may leave the pots in the plastic bags until the seeds start to germinate. As soon as they start to germinate, remove the pots from the bags or at least open the tops and put the pots in a sunny location or under lights. Darlingtonia don't need as much light as Sarracenia but they do need lots of light to show their best colors.

The plants should remain in pure sphagnum. Darlingtonia grows best in loosely packed long fibered sphagnum moss. Live sphagnum moss is probably best but has to be closely watched as it can overgrow small plants. Top water the plants regularly. Many members put ice cubes of pure (distilled or reverse osmosis) water on the soil surface every day during hot weather. Others pump cooled water into the pots. What ever you do, larger pots will be a more stable environment. Air temperatures and humidity are not major issues as long as the roots are cool.

[mabudon]

Anything extra to add to the ICPS growing tips, David??
I have more or less followed the instructions and have had NO luck with the Genus so far- hopefully the freshnes of the seed stock will be the key (plus there's nothing CP-wise that has beaten me four times in a row, tho there's always a first/fifth time eh ? )

[Flytrap]

My best germination efforts come from just tossing darlingtonia seeds onto sphag moss, and leave them alone over our famous Canadian winters. I've never had any problems germinating these plants as I've always been fortunate to have fresh seeds. So...sprinkle seeds over green sphag, keep moist, keep outdoors...try to figure out a way so the rains and snow doesn't wash away your seeds, and you'll be rewarded with seedlings come mid March.

My own darlingtonias used to set seed and drop seeds around my pond - and once in a while, I'd find baby darlingtonias and vfts growing a distance from the parent population. But unfortunately, these babies never last for more than a season, as inevitably the soil they "land on" is not conducive to growth, and they would all die (usually of summer dehydration).

Doug had once brought a pocketfull of darlingtonia seeds to Long Beach on Vanc. Island, where he apparently scattered some seeds onto the sphag bogs. Years later, there were nice darlingtonia plants growing vigourously in the sphagnum bogs.

I've received two queries for seeds. Others who are interested should post their request before the end of this week so that I can divide up and post the seeds - I'd also appreciate a few stamps or whatever to help offset mailing costs. thanks.

[z]

I remember haveing success with Darlingtonia seed in the past. My method of stratification was to place the seeds in a bowl of water and let soak for a few days, up to a week or so. I had some pretty good germination rates using this method. Once germinated, be prepared for a long wait, because they are REALLY slow at growing.

I heard that the secret is to have fresh seeds and try to avoid the long stratification process, but don't quote me on that .

Anyways, if I am qualified, I would love to recieve some seeds, too ;D .

[Flytrap]

Hi Z

Not only have you qualified, you're also one of two winners on our first CP contest. So send your co-ordinates to Tom. Happy growing!

[Flytrap]

update on darlingtonia seeds:

over half had been sent out to various places - including some to our ocps for prizes. The remaining seeds sat around for another 3months, then I decided to sow them all last week. today, they're in their plastic pots sitting outside in the cold winter snow. It's -8C outside today with lots of sun... but everything is buried under a foot and a half of beautiful snow.

When the snow melts, i'll photograph the seed pots and hope to document their germination progress for all to view.