On Mon, 23 Jan 2017 19:19:20 -0000, Chris Hogg wrote:

On Mon, 23 Jan 2017 18:26:06 -0000, "James Wilkinson Sword"
wrote:

I bought a pack of 100 Royal Empress seeds on Ebay, and not one will germinate. Am I doing something wrong? I sprinkled the seeds on some fresh compost in some pots, and kept them warm (20C) and in lots of light (some on a windowledge and some under a growlamp). Absolutely nothing happened. Duff seeds or difficult plant? I did think it odd the seeds should go on top of the soil, but that's what it says online. I've always put seeds a cm under the soil (tried that too and that failed aswell).

Royal Empress, aka Foxglove tree, botanical name Paulownia Tomentosa.
From what I read, you did all the right things. Some seeds need light
to germinate, the classic example being Flanders poppies, which lay
dormant in the soil until the trench warfare of WW1 brought them to
the surface.

My only thought is have you waited long enough, as germination can be
slow? But I also read that the temperature should be kept below 15C
otherwise germination is inhibited, so maybe you had them too warm. So
try them a bit cooler and be patient.

http://tinyurl.com/zw638kw and http://tinyurl.com/hta9b29

Ok, I'll wait longer.

But the two sites you linked to disagree on the temperature. One says under 15C, the other says 18-20C.

I have some of them in a room at about 18-20C on a windowledge (only gets direct sun in the late afternoon, but the room lights are on almost all the time), and the others under a grow lamp on a timer for 15 hours a day, temperature 17C at night 22C during the day.

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