Hallson Gardens

I have a seed stalk from my Jack in the pulpit. I want to try to grow these in my woods in Tennessee. What should I do to get the seeds ready to plant? Refrigerator for a couple months? Any other suggestions?

This is a baby from a plant acquired when my now 35-year-old son was in second grade. He pulled one up in the woods of a friend and presented it proudly to me. Next: lecture from Mom about how it wouldn't grow after being pulled up, it's not legal to do that, it didn't belong to us so we had to apologize to Mrs. A., yadda yadda. "Let's plant it anyway," he said. So we did, and of course it promptly wilted dramatically and faded away. Next spring he took me that spot in the garden and said, "See! It DID grow!" That plant ended up taller than the birdbath, and this is a descendant . . . I'd love to take it with me!

Hi, Arlene
I just looked this topic up. Marlys sent me some seeds from hers, and I wanted to make sure I did it right! I found this on a University of Minnesota Extension website.

"Remove the red flesh and plant the seeds immediately; don't let them dry out. Sow the seed outdoors where you want the plants to grow, covering the seeds with ¼ to ½ inch of soil. Seedlings should come up in early spring. Another method is to refrigerate freshly cleaned seeds in a plastic bag with some moist sand or potting soil for six weeks, then sow the seed in pots. In spring, plant the seedlings outdoors. Once plants become established in a favorable site, they are likely to self-seed."

Good luck!
Linda P

Thanks, Linda!

That's exactly what I needed to know . . . I'd done a Google search without turning up very much useful help, so I appreciate your tracking it down for me!

Arisaema seeds are pretty easy to grow, I've propagated them for years. The red pulp can be an irritant to your skin, so I put them into a ziplock baggie with some warm water and mash them around in the warm water to try to get as much of the pulp off as I can. Sometimes it's hard to get off. If that happens, I use a wire kitchen strainer and rub the seeds and pulp against the strainer with warm running water (gloves on).

Arisaema seeds need to be planted as fresh as they can be, the longer they wait and get dried out, the less germination rate you get with them. The babies are usually pretty small, sometimes only 1" or so tall, they stay up for a couple of months, then go dormant again pretty quickly. Don't think you've lost them, just keep the soil barely moist, not soaked, and be patient. They'll show up again next year.

I usually sow several dozen in a 6" pot because they're pretty small when they germinate. The following year, you can carefully separate out each individual bulb and plant into individual pots. Takes 3-4 years for them to be bloom size.

I'll try to post a photo later today, need to charge my digicam.

Andi

Here are a two varieties of my arisaema babies... they decided to come up late this year and waited till late summer. I'll let them go dormant again this winter, then will carefully pot them up into individual pots next spring.





Andi

Thanks, Andi, for that added information. I'm going to tackle this little job tomorrow . . . Since I'll be moving them (and us!!) to Tennessee in late April, I'll keep them in the starter flat till we move. Should they be in the fridge over winter? Or is an unheated garage okay?

Unheated garage should be fine, as long as they get a bit cold out there. Good luck!

andi

Winter in northern Indiana? Oh, yeah, they'll get "a little cold" out there!! Thanks again, Andi!