Mary, I am sure they will be fine and grow more next summer. Your winters are mild and springs are nice, no extremes. I wanted my seedlings to get a couples of leaves before I plant them in the garden. We'll see how it goes. At least a few should make it till spring

CarolineScott said:I have a bunch in zip locks too.
I use damp vermiculite with the seeds.
Two seedlings have come along so far.
One is a species : potanini
The other was labelled as May Lilac.

Good luck.

Anya. +28C where do you keep them
Mine are at +20C maybe a little too cold? Do you think so?

Oscar, I have a thermostat at work It helps a lot. The best temperature is 75-85 degrees Fahrenheit (see sticky thread "How to germinate peony seeds indoors").

When I grew my first 2 batches of seeds I did not move the seeds to cooler place (45-60 degrees Fahrenheit as Tracey wrote), I watched every seed individually and moved to 35-40 degrees Fahrenheit after they grew roots 2" or more. This time I decided to find a place with 45-60 degrees Fahrenheit, so far no success Any ideas?

I have 3 ziplock bags of wet potting soil with about 100 pawpaw tree seeds in a spare refrigerator set for a nominal temp of 37°F. In the Spring I plan to place them outside when the temps stay above freezing in order for them to sprout. Last year I just tossed a bag of them under a rose bush all winter and Spring. When I checked them later, about a dozen had sprouted and begun their tap root. I think peony seeds are similar in that they need a lengthy chilling period of from 35° to 40° then a long warming cycle. Some nurseries just plant them outside in a sandy medium and sit back and wait for results. I gave up on nursing my previous fern leaf seeds and just dumped them in a flower bed which was later tilled.

Mine are in small pots in flats with holes for drainage. Sitting out in the yard, subject to all weather including snow and rain. Should be interesting.

Somewhere I have come across the idea that if the peony seeds are treated with gibberellic acid or GA-3 , the cooling period required is cut back ??? Sorry I don't remember where I saw that. I know that it works for Glaucidium palmatum which is a distant cousin to peony.

It would not work for me now as we are having a spell of warmer weather. When I needed cooler conditions for bulbs, I would open the window and close the door and heat register to one bedroom so I had a room slightly above freezing.

Just a word of caution on the use of GA-3 .
While I was able to germinate the Glaucidium palmatum quickly using it-- I think the seedlings are somewhat weak ?
One year I did Glaucidium palmatum by winter sowing and the seedlings were stronger---but the mice or squirrels got them ! ?

I assume the GA-3 is an agent to soften the card seed shell chemically. The warm cold warm cycle does the same thing - takes a loooottt longer. lol Interesting that it produces somewhat weaker plants. Does that weakness persist to maturity?

I have one of those inquiring minds which forces me to look into the background of new information. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I am not sure of the mechanism of how it works.
The Glaucidium seeds are not hard balls like peony seeds, but more like lily seeds.

Posting here since it is Oscar's thread. I received a nice gift card and catalog today from Bluestone Perennials passed down to me by Oscar. Apparently, he won the gift but the nursery did not ship to Canada so he arranged for it to be transferred to me. Many thanks for the consideration. It supports my theory of what goes around comes around. Free peonies = free gift card. I will certainly put it to good use next Spring.

That's so wonderful, Jerry! Oscar, what a generous and lovely gesture! So nice to witness the sharing and generosity of members on here.

Great!! Renews my belief in people - or at least gardeners.... Really nice gesture Oscar. And Jerry is the perfect recipient.

This is the photo that won first place in the bulbs category and third place overall.


Sorry it's not a peony photo.

Is that a natural scene from a forest? It has a lot of flowers to have been planted that way. It would have taken many years for a naturalized area like that to have developed. In any case, it is beautiful.

I have seen photos like this of spring blubs blooming. Gorgeous like a river of flowers. Either it took a gazillion bulbs or like Jerry said, it took a loongggg time to naturalize.

I don't think it's natural. And I won't dare to walk this trail