Viewing post #1171902 by dellac

Leftwood said:Oops! I'm too late to influence you, Della, but useful information, anyway:



If you're afraid the imbibed seed will internally "explode" from freezing water, there should be no worries there. Many seeds in the wild, including Lilium, must absorb water before cold and freezing in the winter. (Think DE germination and normal cold stratification in cold climates.) The problem I see is that it's way too cold to keep them in the freezer, and may be too warm to keep them in the fridge. It's very satisfying growing things in the winter, but if you want less hassle and space allows, I would opt for the fridge. You will need to periodically check for growth through the winter; depending on parentage, some may sprout in the fridge (but much later), at which time you will have to grow them inside with light until spring.

I am thinking more about how broadly I can apply this recommendation to the Lilium genus. I wondered how many examples I have of Lilium spp. seed normally from warmer (than me - zone 4) climates corroborate. To do this exemplifies how good record keeping is necessary, and comes in handily.

So not to mention the dozens of closely related Fritillaria, Cardiocrinum and Nomocharis spp., these are the imbibed Lilium spp. seed I personally have had go through at least one zone 4 winter and then sprout:
lancifolium (diploid)
leichtlinii
lijiangense
mackliniae
maculatum
oxypetalum
philadelphicum
pomponium
pyrenaicum
taliense
xanthellum

except for leichtlinii, pomponium and pyrenaicum, all of these emerged in both the first and second year.

Incidentally, from the beginning with my record keeping, when seed comes up the following year or later, the record is highlighted in red. That made the above list very simple to compile. Believe me, anything you can do now to make things more easily searchable later, will really pay off!

Great information!

So I could have kept these guys in the fridge in damp peat with a good chance of holding off their germination till spring? And they might even be fine subjected to freezing conditions as long as it isn't too cold. (Such as the deep freeze might be...). Basically I need to keep their seed box as cold as possible now (but not frozen solid) to hold off germination until growing conditions are warming again.

Unfortunately our winters don't get that cold, so I'm can't think of anywhere that would have been as good as the fridge! Oh well... definitely filed for next time. Or experimentation, because it's intriguing and hopefully I won't be dropping seed pods too often!