@maxx2 - I think it was about 48 hours for that first one. Two more are emerging tonight (one from a large seed and one from a small seed, both are ones that had their seed coats removed). I started keeping score above.

Lisa - Based on the information you received about the large, puffy-squishy seeds not being viable, I won't be surprised if those ones take a long time to germinate in my artificial conditions.

I haven't actually ever grown Calendula before, so before posting my Calendula seed photos I was trying to do a bit of research about them. Seems the whole world is as confused as we are. There are no experts on it. Everyone who's posted their opinion on which bits to save are just bloggers or vloggers that happen to have gardens and grow them. So we're in good company! I did find a BBC garden site where someone asked the same question there as we've been debating. Same results as we've got!

so here goes:


This is mot of my collection, as I said I've not yet grown any. You can see that I have the whole gamut including what is obviously part of the seed pod.



All of these came from the same source - non commercial so I'm assuming from the same plant if not the same flower.



Dissected one of the large spikey bits, I don't know about you but that sure looks like a seed inside.




Dissected one of the sm coiled bits. Hmmm that looks like a seed tooo.

I'm pretty sure that @mrsbinwy has already proved that both of these pieces will sprout.

I'll start a longer term experiment - hopefully tomorrow, but may have to re-do it when we get closer to warm weather. Like I said I have both 'kinds' of seeds that are labeled as the same variety. I'll plant some of each from several varieties and we'll see how the plants and hopefully maybe the flowers differ between the spikey or coiled seeds.

Maybe when we are collecting seeds for next year someone can remember to take note if a single flower is producing both types of seeds - or does someone already know?

Anyone have any theories on why a plant would produce two different types of seeds? How many other plants do that? Inquiring minds want to know!

Sorry I'm a bit of a geek about these kinds of things, I love to experiment!

rockpile1369 said:This is mot of my collection, as I said I've not yet grown any. You can see that I have the whole gamut including what is obviously part of the seed pod.

@rockpile1369 Karen - When you get a minute, could you check to see if the one you've pointed out as a seed pod also has a kernel in it also? (Unless you already did that and I misunderstood.)

rockpile1369 said:I'm pretty sure that @mrsbinwy has already proved that both of these pieces will sprout.

As of this evening, at least one seedling from all three seed sizes in my collection has emerged. All seedlings so far are from "naked" seeds (the ones from which I removed the outer seed coat/pericarp). (See the "score keeping" post above.)

rockpile1369 said:I'll start a longer term experiment - hopefully tomorrow, but may have to re-do it when we get closer to warm weather. Like I said I have both 'kinds' of seeds that are labeled as the same variety. I'll plant some of each from several varieties and we'll see how the plants and hopefully maybe the flowers differ between the spikey or coiled seeds.

I'll be very interested in seeing the results of this one!

@rockpile1369 - the thick light big ones are the outer most pieces and the smaller darker ones the inner most. I get all sizes from one bud going to seed. You can see how the big bits look on the outside of the seed head.

@ishareflowers

MrsBinWY said:Lisa - Based on the information you received about the large, puffy-squishy seeds not being viable, I won't be surprised if those ones take a long time to germinate in my artificial conditions.

Well, color me astonished -- and COMPLETELY wrong ! This morning the first seedlings from seeds that didn't have their seed coats removed are emerging. Three of them!

@mrsbinwy. How embarrassing for me

The reason I went online to research was because I always had such lousy germination with calendula.

I guess it was just me 😂

.going to have to post in the groups that I told only the dark brown discs are viable.

Please don't feel badly Lisa There's obviously no shortage of confusion on the topic. The only thing we have at the moment is seeds of the various shapes and sizes from Michelle's 2019 garden can germinate in Michelle's house (recognizing we only have a small, half-finished experiment that hasn't been replicated yet).

Perhaps viability differs between the shapes and sizes? Maybe the puffy seeds don't last as well in storage Karen may find there's a variation in the plants or blooms. Oh, to have the time, space, curiosity, attention span and moolah to ask all the questions and learn all the answers

I'm just glad to have you all here sorting all the confusion!

Yeah I've been following this one with my breath held a little because I have never seen any difference in germination before so I was one of those people splitting up the remainder of a packet I wasn't going to use completely. My rule was always if it looked whole and was relatively heavy, it counted. Anything that didn't have a full curl or seemed suspiciously light usually gets tossed but I just assumed the difference was amount of husk still on the seed and was horrified to think I might have been sending out duds! 😱

What an interesting discussion! I got calendula seeds in the 2019 Valentines Day trade and 9 plants germinated I my milk jugs. I collected a lot of seeds(I think, but now must check) from these in the fall. They were from flowers of mixed colors, though, so I was hesitant to trade them because I never grew them before and haven't seen if what I collected will grow or could promise what color I was trading.
for sharing your experiments and websites!

Hiya Samlav I missed trading with you this year. I'm glad we all had this discussion, too. I learned a lot and now feel good about donating this year's calendula seeds to our county seed library.

BTW - The germination score is 29 out of 30. I keep checking to see if that one, last seed will germinate

🙋‍♀️@Samlav!

wildflowers said: I'm just glad to have you all here sorting all the confusion!