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From: "Jim McClements, Dover, DE z6" <JimMcClem at AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: those darn seeds
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In a message dated 82598 4:27:33 PM, you wrote:

<<Now that I'm almost close to turning attention to the seeds many of you=have
shared, I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what to do.  T.
grandiflorum is easy.  Plant it, water it, it grows.  The rest remain a
mystery.  Well not exactly.  I've figured out that any trillium south of
Atlanta can be planted now.   But it's those damn northern trilliums.  I
could make a regional joke but I'm trying to be nice today.

Do I plant them now;  do I set them on a shelf in the basement;  do I
stratify them in the fridge for 280 or so days.  I feel hopelessly lost i=n
making such an important decision.
And then there's T. undulatum.  I have a perfect bed of pine duff but sti=ll
the problem of timing.

Someone want to take the emails of the last 6 months or so and make sense=of
them <gr>

David
Atlanta, Zone 7

P.S.  The person who comes along and says each trillium needs special
treatment I'm going to hurt you.

>>

David

Not wanting to be injured, let me say that here in Delaware I handle all
trillium seeds the same. I plant them outside as fresh as possible, and t=ry to
keep them from drying out.

I've fiddled with the towels, the plastic bags, etc. and finally decided =that
it wasn't worth the trouble. You might be able to get them to germinate a=nd
produce the first leaf faster (notice I said "might"), but there's seriou=s
doubt as to whether that gets you a flowering plant any sooner than the "=old-
fashioned" way. I believe Carl Denton, who has "fiddled" even more than I=, has
come to the same conclusion.

Stephanie's work on the lengthy cold period apparently required by T. ere=ctum
does raise some questions, particularly for those who garden in warmer ar=eas.
There's still some question in my mind about what constitutes a "cold" pe=riod.
Does the cold have to be constant? How cold does it have to be? Deno has
demonstrated, in a lot of the different genera that he's worked with, tha=t
some seeds will respond to a temperature that fluctuates better than to a
constant refrigerator chilling. It may be that T. erectum might need over 0
days of constant cold, and yet respond to a shorter period of fluctuating
cold.

At any rate, I'm not about to change what I'm doing. If they won't germin=ate
outside for me, they probably won't like it here after they germinate!

Jim McClements, Dover, Delaware, Zone 7a