I thoroughly enjoyed reading this Miguel. I find it very interesting but I don't know that I have the patience to grow Clematis from seeds. The ones that have sprouted seem to be growing very well. I am anxious to see what these look like once they bloom. I know it took you a lot of time to put this together and I do appreciate it. I'm going to save it in case I develop some patience someday :-).

I am excited about your Mary Rose. A little jealous, but mostly excited. LOL.

Carol

Miguel,

I have been thinking about cross pollinating some of the clem varieties that I have to see what I end up with.

My question to you is - do you use regular tap water or are you using distilled water?

Thanks
Carolyn

Carol, the thin walled seeds germinate very easily and would be a great place to start if you want to grow something that would germinate very easily. Brian's link above includes a description of those that are easiest to start.

Carolyn, if you mean do I used tap vs. distilled water when I set up my seed starting baggies or pots, I just have used regular water so far.

Miguel, I'm in the same boat as you. Some of the bagged seeds have germinated and been potted up, mostly Intergrefolia's; and the larger seeds, both in pots and in baggies have not germinated yet.
Joan

Joan, I must admit however that I didn't try all the seeds both ways. The ones that germinated in the bags were the type that are quick to germinate and I didn't do any of them the traditional way in soil. Let me know when some of the seeds that I sent you germinate!

You're way more patient than I am! I can't let something sit around for a year to wait and see if it will germinate!

That's very exciting! Wish I could do that!

Deanna

How fantastic and interesting! Thanks Miguel!

Maybe when I have more room for more clematis I'd try growing on my own. It is something that I love doing with all my other plants! At this stage of the game, though, I probably shouldn't try it - just on the off chance that I wound up being successful!

Besides, my propagation bug is being satisfied quite nicely by the 40+ african violets leaves I'm growing babies from right now. ;0)

We will see how patient I am Deanna as I have been known to toss pots of seeds in the past when I got frustrated waiting for germinations. My biggest concern is what to do with the pots where nothing has germinated by summer. The garage where they are stored right now gets awfully hot in the summer time. If I bring them in the house, the cats will surely get into them unless I place them in a closet. I have thought that the crawl space would be a good cool place but I am not overly enthusiatically about going under there once a week to check for germinations. The baggies will definitely be easier to find a place for inside the house than the pots!

You are welcome Violetta. Glad to provide useful information. I can always send you seed when you decide to give it a whirl.

I have a few volunteer seedlings. Last year one had flowers like Venosa Violacea, but with the color of Perle d'Azur instead of the purple, then the center of the sepals was white. It was really pretty. I hope it gets a little bigger this year. It was fun to get one for free.

Wow, Hoovb, that is really great. The only thing that reliably reseeded itself in my garden was clematis terniflora and that was before I started shearing the developing seedheads off to prevent it from reseeding. Make sure and post pictures of your seedling when it blooms this year because its sounds enchanting.

Miguel, would you like to come shear the seed heads off my terniflora, not that it has ever re-seeded?
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My garden menace is Radar Love.

here is the method I used to germinate Gazelle.
Put 1/4 cup dry vermiculite in a snack size reclosable baggie (I've been using the noname ones from Superstore as they're cheap and come in boxes of 75)
Add 1 1/2 tsp boiling water, shake to distribute moisture then let cool. Add seeds.
Put in warm place in diffuse light (not direct sun) about 20C for 4 weeks
Put in fridge (4C) 4 weeks.
Put in warm place in diffuse light where they will germinate in about 2 weeks usually. I transplant when they have germinated. Poke a hole in the potting soil with your finger and gently tickle the root down into the hole then carefully push the soil back around the root gently. I leave the seed leaves above ground for these types (for the bigger seeds like texensis and the Large Flowered Hybrids etc. I plant when the root is about 1/2" or longer and leave the seed right at or just below the soil surface. Often they will eventually send up a tiny shoot without the seed leaves showing above ground.)(these instructins came from Alison in zone 3 Alberta!)

I have 12 baggies waiting in the wings right now.

Dana

Dana, I tend to use an electric hedge clipper to trim my developing seeds off but if you have never had any seedlings then you are safe. Glad to see that others have had the same issue with some of the tanguticas that I have concerning their seediness. I really hate it too since I love the coconut fragrance of Helios and the coloration on My Angel.

Yep, your method does sound like the one Alison and some other Canadians use. Personally I don't think that you need to go through all that for Gazelle since it is an integrifolia. I usually have no problems with them just potting them up and they germinate in a month or so with no special treatment.

Dana, a couple of questions came to mind so here goes. What size of vermiculite do you use in your baggies? The question I ask is that the only thing I can find around here is what is called horticultural grade vermiculite and it is rather small in size. What I seem to see others using looks somewhat coarser in size. I wonder if there is a size difference, if the amount of water required would be different. I trialed the amounts you specified and found the vermiculite to be essentially dry. Since moist conditions are required for germination (since the seed has to imbibe water to swell and begin the germination process) I am wondering if the finer sized vermiculite might require more water. I have been using more in my baggies due to my observations.

Another question is why use boiling water? I am sure the baggies aren't sterile and the vermiculite isn't so why boil and then allow the stuff to cool prior to adding the seeds? I know in the past I have put seeds in warm water and allowed them to soak overnight to hasten the imbibition process but don't understand the need for adding hot water to the vermiculite and then allowing it to cool prior to seed introduction.

Well, it is Alison's method, she is in northern Alberta and perhaps has a problem with well water?
Here I can smell the chlorine in the drinking water and swear sometimes in the summer that I can taste algea. I just used water that had already been boiled for tea.

The vermiculite I used (and I meant to include that in the other post but forgot) was industrial grade vermiculite insulation (trade name Micafil). Therefore very large pieces. I used a 5/8" o-ring for comparison (retail offering on the right). So, having said all that I do not know if industrial grade vermiculite is still for sale. The bag I have is quite old.
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I didn't measure the water (see I can follow instructions!) but if there was a little too much just poured it out. I wrote in permanent marker on the bag but it has faded out on some and I had to re-do them.
Yes I have read Brian's comments on marking his seedlings and that was in the back of my mind. I guess we all have to find out for ourselves! :) I have added my home-made signage to the baggies. That would be plastic blinds that I get at the Salvation Army stores for 15 cents, cut them to length and write with lead pencil that won't wear or wash off, just use an eraser.

So far only Gazelle has germinated. I have tried Durandi, Terniflora (although I picked the seeds from the plant just last week and bagged them), Daniel Deronda, Ken Donson, Gillian Blades, Texensis (I beleive I sent some of those seeds to you), Etoile Voilet, Ernest Markham, Wada'a Primrose and a few more.

I went to England last September and toured some gardens. I collected some seeds with permission from a few of the gardens and many private homes. These I put outside in pots, covered them with chain link fencing (over 80 pots) to keep the squirrels out and left these out for the winter. Here are a few that I am trying: Jacquline du Pre, Christine, Alpina White Moth, montana Vera, Koreana Blue Eclipse, Cezanne, Beth Currie, Stephanie, Madame Eduoard Andre, Gravayette Beauty, Liberation, Alba Luxurians, tetra Rose, Frances Rivas, Koreana Dark Secret, Chinook, Laura Denny, Pink pearl, Vince Denny, Asao, Early Sensation (not hardy here but...), Special Occasion, Crispa, lincoln Star, koreana Candle Glow, Elizabeth, Sunset, Mrs Spencer Castle, Broughton Star, Pamela Jackman, Koreana Brunette, Viorna, Piilu Pink, Columbine, Haku Ookan, Ice Queen, Vivienne Lawson, Broughton Bride, Koreana Betina, Alpina Helsingborg, Jacqui, Albino Pride, Tage Lundell, Buckland Beauty, for the clematis. I did send back (by mail) seeds as well from various grasses and other interesting plants just to give them a try. I will have to move the pots in the spring as they are in the way for the summer shows and sales but we shall deal with that when I come to it. I am in trouble should even half of them germinate but I will deal with that devil when the time comes.
Interesting enough out of all those, the two I wanted the most I did not find. Freckles and seiboldi.
Yes all of those seeds were open pollinated. I don't necessarily have to have those varieties it is more to have the ones that are not available to us here. We generally get the same ones offered year after year yet there are hundreds available.

Sorry, got a little off topic there. Must be the above freezing temps yesterday and some snow melt got me in the mood. Not that I can see any ground yet for snow still. We have at least another foot to melt before I can see all the things that got buried before they got put away for the winter.

Wow, what a collection of seed you managed to get there Dana. Let us know how your germinations turn out and what you get from them!

The vermiculite you are using is what I have seen others use--much more coarse than what is commercially available around here. Back when I was doing organic chemistry and ordering tons of chemicals, quite a few of the suppliers would ship the bottles in metal cans filled with the coarser looking stuff as insulation and protection for the glass bottles. Don't have a source of anything like that now--just what is commercially available.

Good point about the water. Makes me wonder if chlorine might be some sort of inhibitor as far as seed germination goes. I do know that most chlorine will easily evaporate out of standing water and don't right off the top of my head know about its transmission through various mil thicknesses of ziplock baggies.

I did worry a bit about the amount of water to use in the baggies. Not to much to cause rot but enough so that the seeds would enough to imbibe and swell for germination purposes. Then when they germinate, they need some until they are removed and repotted--I must admit that the baggies tend to get ignored by me-one advantage for the traditional pot method since the seeds are in the moist soil and can continue to grow. I typically just check the pots once a week or so.

As for marking the baggies, don't know if you can order from them or not, but for quite a few years now I have been using a professional nursery marking pen from Parks Seed. It has lasted at least 5 years outside without fading on markers I have outside so imagine it would do wonderfully well on your baggies. I will link to it on the Park Seed Website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Parks Pen

Miguel, the vermiculite I've ordered from www.groworganic.com is a bit coarser than the usual. One large bag lasts forever if you make your own potting soil and/or seed starting mix. There are some possible issues with asbestos and industrial grade vermiculite, as a quick Google search will show, so be careful of that.

Thanks Michael. I know a while back there was a scare about asbestos in vermiculite but I thought that was a one time thing and wasn't an issue any more. Or at least I hope so!!! YIKES!! Hopefully commercially available horticultural grade vermiculite doesn't have that issue.

Thanks for the link!

I have had babies!! Welll..... 10 Macropetala purple spider seedlings have germinated with the method I posted above. Also three or four more Gazelle have sprouted. Can't wait for the larger seed varieties to come along as well.
dana

Congrats Dana. Purple Spider and another of the same type were the first clematis I ever grew from seed. Unfortunately, they don't like summer in the south and both croaked after having a few blooms the first year after they were planted. ;(