Congrats on your babies Millie. Japanese Maples are supposed to be somewhat difficult to grow from seed. I got two Japanese Maple seeds to germinate this year. One had red leaves and the other had green. Guess which one a squirrel dug up out of its pot so he could plant a walnut...The red leafed one of course. grrrrrr I replanted it but it died anyway. I really had a lot of trouble with squirrels digging out my seedlings this year. I wouldn't have thought they would bother pots sitting on my patio next to the house but I guess it's a soft place to dig. I was so disappointed about my little Japanese Maple but I've got way too many red/burgundy leafed things in my yard anyway so I guess it's just as well.

I have several flowering dogwood seedlings this year. This was my first time to grow them from seed. They're very small. I don't see how they're going to be big enough to get through the winter but maybe they'll surprise me. I need to get them in the ground so they'll have a chance. I don't have very good luck leaving plants in pots over the winter. If I remember right, you have a greenhouse right Millie? Are you going to keep them there or plant them?
I don't know whether Noxtra has been reading the forums lately but I think he had pretty good luck with his Japanese Maple seedlings. Maybe he can give you some growing tips.

Christie, I read an article by someone from the MO Conservation Department about raising oaks for re-forestation. He said to make tree pots by cutting the bottoms off 1/2 gallon milk cartons, tie newspaper over the bottom to fill with potting soil and set them on hardware cloth to root prune them as they try to grow long tap root. I have purchased young trees grown that way and they have huge feeder root systems. That is what I tried with the dogwoods, but they are not happy. Also, seem to be infested with fungus gnats. I have lost the first 4, but have another batch of seed that was treated to 120 days room temp + 120 days in refrigerator that are coming on. I just need to know what I did wrong the first time, so I can get some of these babies to make it. I wanted to play with using them for rootstock for grafting on pinks.

Don't know on the dogwoods. My dad used to always say to never fertilize them so maybe they are sensitive to that.

I saw a group of pink ones in a wooded area awhile back and I was tempted to go back and get seeds when they are ready. It's not WAY out in the boonies but it's not in someone's yard either, so it seemed like an odd place for someone to have PLANTED pink dogwoods so I thought maybe by chance they had come up from seed, but pink dogwood seeds would normally make white dogwoods right? I haven't researched it. Do pink dogwoods occur in the wild?

I think there may be a tendency to have some come out "pinkish" looking. I used to know where there were some down here that looked pinky in the spring. I would think it had to be there for the hybridizers to have anything to work with in the first place. Hybridizing may have caused a weakened condition that allowed disease to get hold though. Have you heard that the pinks are more susceptable to some sort of disease than the old white wild ones? Have seen it on some that belong to neighbors. Seems like it was a mildew, but not sure if it was powdery or downy. I need to pay attention.

I kind of suspect that it may have been fungus gnats that got overly ambitious and ate more than the potting mix on mine.

In case anyone else is having the problem with fungus gnats... I learned that they do eat on tender new roots and that they can be controlled by soaking a moisquito dunk for 24 hours (at least) in the water you will use on the plants. Keep doing that until they have all hatched and been killed. I am only guessing here, but since it is a form of bt, it will only kill the larva, but that is probably what is feeding on roots anyway.

Millie, Christie,
Some of those JM seeds may take several years to germinate. I've got a pot with some I germinated two years ago, and some new seedlings popped up this spring.

Lucky, I got as many as I wanted the first go round and dumped the germination container into a mix that went into something out there...would be funny to find them coming up, but unlikely...probably buried too deep. What concerns me most is managing to grow them off. I don't know if I should have prepared a shady bed for them or just keep in containers. I've been wondering if they would grow off well in a bottomless pot on hardware cloth... anyone??