Identifying Colchicum

[gastil]

Are Colchicum seeds recalcitrant? One of the seeds has a white thread which might be a radicle. I did not even see it while photographing, only now when I cropped the photo. Those seeds are sown now so I cannot put it under a microscope. I'd never seen Colchicum seed before. 

[Diane Whitehead]

I have only tried germinating colchicum twice - C. bornmuelleri - in 2000.  One seed germinated in 2008.  It continues to put up a leaf every year but has not flowered yet.

In 2007 I sowed C. boissieri which did not germinate at all.

I decided never to grow any from seed again.

[gastil]

I am realizing Colchicum germinate differently than most everything else I grow from seed. If this information source is correct, from Strictly Medicinal Seeds, then I'll set the seed pots in a shady, cool spot with less daytime light and heat. That agrees with the 1 to 2 cm of grit over the seeds that the PBS wiki Colchicum page says. Night temperatures are regularly below 40 F lately so they'll get plenty of chill.

I chose C. corsicum in hopes my climate is like Corsica so this species might do well here.

[janemcgary]

I've grown many species of Colchicum from seed, and their germination is very hard to predict. Few or none germinate the year when sown. They may germinate 1, 2, or 3 years later, and curiously, several species from different years of sowing can germinate within a week or two. I assume some temperature variation is responsible. I keep my seed pots in a shed where the temperatures are close to ambient. So keep the seed pots  for 3 years. After that I dump the whole pot, seeds and all, in among the plunged pots in my bulb house, and various things have germinated there, species to be identified.