This encompasses a whole host of different varities, tender, annuals
etc.

Mr Big wrote:
This encompasses a whole host of different varities, tender, annuals
etc.

I've never taken more care than simply putting them in paper in a
cardboard box in an unheated room. Better gardeners seal them in a
plastic box (making sure they're perfectly dry first, and maybe putting
in those little silica gel packets you get with cameras and such) in
the fridge or even the freezer.

--
Mike.

"Mr Big" wrote in message
news
This encompasses a whole host of different varities, tender, annuals
etc.


Unopened packets - in the fridge in an airtight plastic
container, at an temperature ideally under 40%

The idea is to maintain the moisture content, but not to add
any more.

With under 4% moisture content, seed can become unviable, and
it will probably be packed at an ideal 4-8%. If you keep it
in sealed packets then it will stay around that figure.

With opened packets stored as above, if you just quickly take
out what you need, fold the packet over and return it to the
fridge straightaway then this should be enough.

If you're saving your own seed, or have opened packets which
may have taken up moisture, then you can dry them out prior
to storage, with silica gel. Or a spell in the deep freeze.
However this will be mainly guesswork and you don't want to
go below 4%.


michael adams


..

On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 07:33:20 GMT, Mr Big wrote:

This encompasses a whole host of different varities, tender, annuals
etc.

I keep mine in paper packets, e.g. old envelopes, in the door of the
fridge. Seems to be OK, but I wouldn't claim it to be the _best_ way.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

Chris Hogg wrote:

I keep mine in paper packets, e.g. old envelopes, in the door of the
fridge. Seems to be OK, but I wouldn't claim it to be the _best_ way.

The RHS proclaim it to be the best way Chris! But I've never stored
mine in the fridge or freezer. Tiny one would burn, I always thought
and then if I want to scater them the following year, I defrost and
refrost?! I think it's not a good idea. Also I had a bad time once
freezing some capper seeds - they got too damp and moldy. I lost the
lot. I keep my seeds in paper envelopes, most of them I make myself or
use old seeds packets making sure I put the name on it. All are kept in
tins, one for flowers, the other vegs. I've done this for as long as I
can remember. This year I have grown 2 years old tomatoes seeds - all
came out and I managed to successfully grow proteas from seeds last
year, given to me by a friend who kept them in her shorts pocket for 3
weeks whilst visiting south africa )

On 2 Jun 2006 14:40:54 -0700, "La Puce" wrote:

I managed to successfully grow proteas from seeds last
year, given to me by a friend who kept them in her shorts pocket for 3
weeks whilst visiting south africa )

You may remember a while ago I mentioned that I planted about a dozen
proteas last year in the garden, many grown from seed, hoping for a
mild winter. I've got three left, despite my best efforts to protect
them, and we only had -2C at the lowest. :-(

But if you don't try these things......

I'm trying grevilleas now!


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from Chris Hogg contains these words:

On 2 Jun 2006 14:40:54 -0700, "La Puce" wrote:

I managed to successfully grow proteas from seeds last
year, given to me by a friend who kept them in her shorts pocket for 3
weeks whilst visiting south africa )

You may remember a while ago I mentioned that I planted about a dozen
proteas last year in the garden, many grown from seed, hoping for a
mild winter. I've got three left, despite my best efforts to protect
them, and we only had -2C at the lowest. :-(

But if you don't try these things......

I'm trying grevilleas now!

I don't think protea would survive outdoors here, but grevillea
rosmarinifolia is pretty tough; shrugs off -5 without a shiver. Mine had
raspberry coloured flowers open on Christmas day and is just coming
into full bloom now.

Janet

I like it too, good tough evergreen shrub with a very long season, but it
got itself banned, Liz backed into our bush wearing shorts once too many
times and said it had to go, I keep trying to persuade her several sorts
aren't prickly but they are now all tarred with the same brush.
Shirley Clemo at Pine Lodge has the National collection I would have thought
your climate even more suitable Chris (and you should think yourself lucky
to get away with a -2c, -8c here :~(

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)

On Sat, 3 Jun 2006 22:49:45 +0100, Janet Baraclough wrote
(in article ):

The message
from Chris Hogg contains these words:

On 2 Jun 2006 14:40:54 -0700, "La Puce" wrote:

I managed to successfully grow proteas from seeds last
year, given to me by a friend who kept them in her shorts pocket for 3
weeks whilst visiting south africa )

You may remember a while ago I mentioned that I planted about a dozen
proteas last year in the garden, many grown from seed, hoping for a
mild winter. I've got three left, despite my best efforts to protect
them, and we only had -2C at the lowest. :-(

But if you don't try these things......

I'm trying grevilleas now!

I don't think protea would survive outdoors here, but grevillea
rosmarinifolia is pretty tough; shrugs off -5 without a shiver. Mine had
raspberry coloured flowers open on Christmas day and is just coming
into full bloom now.


We have it in the garden here and I agree it's a good plant. We reckon ours
flowers 8 or 9 months in the year. But you have to be careful where you
plant it because it bites! Ours is in the wrong place, right on the corner
of a path, so it has to have a severe cutback every so often. Proteas grow
in Tresco but they wouldn't survive with us.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
email address on web site