saltmarsh

Many times I tried to germinate M. Velutina seeds and was consistently unsuccessful. I am an experienced gardener who rarely has a complete failure like I did with these. I shared the seeds with other experienced gardeners and they too failed after trying a number of different methods. The winter of 13/14/ was the coldest winter in history here with a number of days below freezing. This spring hundreds of baby velutinas popped up in the mulch under the mother plants. We have never had little ones before and several others in my community have mentioned the same phenomena in their gardens.

Could it have been the cold?

In any case, they have made great little plants for various plant sales and presentations.

tony palmer

Hi,
And congratulations on your success with germinating Velutina… can you tell me how long it takes the fruit to develop!

Thanks,
Tony

saltmarsh

Thanks for your interest. I live in the SC Lowcountry and the M. Velutinas grow quickly here. MY mature plants, which had frozen to the ground this year, have already bloomed twice even though they started growing much later than normal. The first bunches of fruit were fully ripe at least a month ago. They are speedy.

Wish I knew for certain if it was the cold that helped to germinate the seeds. I suspect that may be it as several others had had the same thing happen. I may try chilling some seeds this year and see what happens.

Wanted to add, these little plants will not bloom this year but I fully expect them to bloom next summer, they grow quickly.

Dplaza

Nice work! It's strange that they would germinate so well after an unusually cold winter for us, I'm curious as well. Glad to see a fellow South Carolinian on here! Where did you get your plants/seeds to start? If your ever in MB sometime feel free to message me I have plenty of namwah pups coming up to share - need to start a network!

austinl01

I had year old velutina seed sitting in my garage. I sowed it in my flower bed this spring and all the seed germinated! Mother Nature is amazing. Much better than I could do!

__________________
Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches