Nerine seeds
Mary Sue Ittner (Sat, 01 May 2010 11:37:28 PDT)

Hi,

Over the years we have been told that there are some fleshy Amaryllid
(as in the smaller definition of this family instead of the wider
one) seeds that need to be planted immediately or at least when you
see them start to send down a radicle. These are usually plants that
in the wild would start into growth to take advantage of rainfall. So
fall blooming species in winter rainfall South Africa would form
seeds after they bloom and then drop to the ground, root and start
growing. If they had adequate rainfall, they would live and if not,
they would shrivel and die.

This past fall I sent seeds of some of my fall blooming Nerines to
the BX. I later harvested seeds on another pot and put them in a
small glass dish. I can't remember whether I intended to wait for
some more seeds before I sent them, decided it was too few to go to
the trouble, or just forgot them, but a few weeks ago I found the
dish. All of the seeds had formed a small bulb and a couple had short
green shoots. Impressed with their desire to grow (this is how
someone who promises herself she will grow less does not make
progress) I potted them up and they all have healthy strong green
leaves now. So I'll put them in a cool spot and try to keep them
going until the mother plant would normally appear in September.
We've talked about putting fleshy Amaryllid seed into the
refrigerator if it arrives from another hemisphere at the wrong time
hoping to delay when you start it to a better time weather wise and I
guess it was cool enough where I had the seeds to have the same
effect. But in this case they were not protected in any way and still
did not shrivel and die and without any soil still formed a bulb.

Mary Sue