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Growing Rain Lily (Autumn Crocus)
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Posted by danann NSW Aust (My Page) on Wed, Mar 17, 04 at 22:02
I was recently comparing prices of buying bulbs vs plants at some nurseries and got talking to the owner of the shop. The gentleman mentioned that it is possible to collect the seeds from the plants and grow the plants that way. Has anyone had any experience in this? What do the seeds look like? At what stage should I start collecting them?
Any knowledge would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks and Happy Easter. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Growing Rain Lily (Autumn Crocus)
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| The Rain Lily is not the Autumn Crocus. It's Zephyranthes and yes, it is easy to grow from seed. I put mine into water and when sprouted used tweezers to drop them into the potting mix. I am waiting for them to grow on now, but I have also just put some more in. I tried just planting them last year and had no luck. Try the Australian Bulb Organisation for seed, that's where I bought some, and some free which were fresh. ABA have lots of seeds cheap, after you join, and I don't mind waiting. It's giving me time to get the garden organised. |
RE: Growing Rain Lily (Autumn Crocus)
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| Wait till the seed pods start to split. you can put a little bit of pantyhose round them and pin on if you don;t want to miss the moment. The seeds are black tissue-like and are best sown reasonably fresh. You can get flowering plants in 2 years, sometimes less if you really push them along. They need light to germinate so barely surface sow or as annabel says, try the flotation method. |
RE: Growing Rain Lily (Autumn Crocus)
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- Posted by sooze z10 NSW Aust (My Page) on
Wed, Mar 24, 04 at 1:55
After growing the zephranthes (white) candida for years I never ever got seeds. However this year I grew yellow zephranthes and have just harvested some seeds, but they are not like the tissue paper seeds of habranthus that you sent me Alison, they are like hard little black cheese wedges.
A pic below,(which I hope will stay in the post- sorry I have missed the 1st 2mm of the ruler- lack of glasses:-) Presumably both the tissue-like habranthus and these "hard cheeses" zephranthes are soaked till sprouted, as per Annabel's post? 
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