On 19/8/07 09:59, in article ,
"Chris Hogg" wrote:

On Sat, 18 Aug 2007 23:01:01 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 18/8/07 18:31, in article ,
"Chris Hogg" wrote:

On Sat, 18 Aug 2007 13:54:03 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 17/8/07 20:16, in article ,
"Geoff" wrote:

One of our camelias has several seed "pods" on it.

Can anybody advise on growing some from the seeds which are not yet ripe
of
course.


Geoff, my husband waits for the seeds to ripen then he sows them in seed
compost with a 25% mixture of horticultural sand.

AIUI, most camellia 'apples' in this country don't contain viable
seed. Does Ray do anything in particular with the parent plants to
encourage viability?


No. He just takes what comes along. Quite a few of ours produce viable
seed but the south west is Camellia country, so perhaps that makes a
difference.

I think a lot depends on the ambient temperature at time of
pollination. It needs to be warm for success. The OP may be lucky, as
April was quite good this year, and with the apparent trend to milder
winters etc., more camellias may set viable seed. Have any of Ray's
seedlings been special, or haven't they flowered yet? AIUI it takes a
good few years for seedlings to reach flowering age.


He's only had one or two flower so far and he says they looked pretty true
to the original. Of course, half the fun of doing it from seed is to
discover precisely what cross pollination has done!

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'