The sources I consulted said you could plant them without any special preparation, so I planted some seeds, set them on my heating coils and waited. I came here looking for advice on how to overwinter them since they’re slow growing and still so tiny, so was happy to see they can be overwintered in the house till at least next year. Hosta ‘El Niño’ Hosta ‘El Niño’ is a medium-sized hosta. Gardeners who don't have time to check on the progress of seed pods every day can cut the flower stalk when it looks like the pods are ripening and place it in a vase of water to finish ripening indoors. Originating in the Orient and brought to the Europe in the 1700s, today there are over 2,500 cultivars with such variety in leaf shape, size and texture, that an entire garden could be devoted to growing hostas alone. See this page on tagging, you’ll see … The best times for dividing plants are in early spring or late fall, about a month before the frost comes. Love the descriptions-truly helpful information. The best times for dividing plants are in early spring or late fall, about a month before the frost comes. Those are the seed pods. Use a small garden spade to dig a hole the size of the root ball. Dampen the soil thoroughly. Originating in the Orient and brought to the Europe in the 1700s, today there are over 2,500 cultivars with such variety in leaf shape, size and texture, that an entire garden could be devoted to growing hostas alone. The earliest I saw was just over two weeks and some were as late as 2-3 months. Hostas do not need to be divided, but you can divide them if you want to propagate more plants, or … I recommend stratification (refrigerating in water for a couple weeks). http://www.nhhostas.com - How to properly divide your hostas. We planted some black walnut “sticks” (mail order bare root plants) this year. Growing hosta from seed is fun to do and is a great hobby and it is very nice to be able to see some green growing when it is cold outdoors, so that is when I grow them. Learn which plants thrive in your Hardiness Zone with our new interactive map! Good timing! Back fill with soil and firm in place. If the soil dries out, the seeds will not germinate. Next up, seeds. It is good to know that they can be put under a grow light to gain some size, though. Hostas can be propagated by dividing a mature plant. To start Shasta Daisies from seed, you have two options: start them indoors or direct sow outdoors. Pat down lightly. you describe it very well, it is a amazing stuff, thanks for sharing …. Step 2 - Care for the Seeds. Amazing Inger!!! Slowly, but I still produced baby plants. They are so small I worry that they will be eaten or forgotten and hoping for a better chance of survival with a larger plant. I have a bag full of giant hosta seeds and was considering just sowing the seeds in a prepped bed this fall…based on all of the above, I think I will try the water/refrigerator method, and the moist paper towel method…I do have two cats and two dogs though…but I also have some brick pavers! I put them in water in a small pyrex cup lined with paper towel. I started hosta’s from seed this winter, I placed them in a zip lock bag with a wet paper towel and place on top of a forced air heat vent, your percentage of seeds that start is nearly all of them, and if a few don’t start with the rest, just keep them in the bag and wait. If you are committed to replicating the tropical look of the original that may be your best bet since hostas grown from seed do not always resemble the parents. I, too, am a suburban-nature-girl. I collected the seeds in mid-October then stored them until February which seemed a generally good seed starting month. I have some with wide leaves and some with narrow, but they are still small so I’ll have to get back to you on this. Transplant the seedlings into the garden when all danger of frost has passed. For soil, I use a bagged potting mix for seedlings because it has given me better results than any of the other starting mixes I have tried. Strange but true. Sexual propagation is used by hybridizers to develop new cultivars, but is not a commercially viable propagation method because seed propagation does not produce a plant identical to the parent. . Sometimes a person just needs to experiment! We ‘winter’ our seeds in the refrigerator to give them the cold period some seeds need. They both have pros and cons. They both have pros and cons. Above you can see black Hosta seeds which are about 1/4″ long. Growing Hostas From Seed I sow the hosta seeds in quart-sized plastic plant pots, hopefully labeled and one variety to a pot. Thank you so much for taking the time to record all this for us, and even with photos! Do you remember how many weeks you kept the seed in the fridge? In a process called apomixis, seeds are formed in an asexual way (does not require the mixing of pollen onto the pistil) that results in exact genetic copies of the mother plant. At an nearby office, I saw some beautiful hostas with ripe seed pods. Our youngest child was about five years old at that time. Much easier than having to start the seeds yourself (if you can even find the seeds). Had lots of little seedlings but they really do grow slow. They form seed pods along the flower stems. First of all, you need the original plant tag from the day that you purchased your hosta. I fill each pot nearly full with potting mix and press it down lightly. Their lush foliage and easy care make them ideal for a low maintenance garden. But it was a fun project and I’d never look a gift hosta in the mouth! I didn’t refrigerate them (didn’t read about that till later), just put a few in some peat pots in a plastic take out container with a clear lid like mentioned above and a few more in an uncovered 4″ plastic pot. Most seeds will not come true to the parent plant. Christine - try again, but don't expect little Empress Wus. Spritz the top of the soil with a squirt bottle on the soft setting several times a day. Amazing! By Joshua Spece Last revised February 6, 2008 Once Hosta seeds sprout, caring for them is pretty straight forward. How fun Andrena! Another thing to consider is seed quality or what the seed parents are. For anyone else who wants to try it, here’s advice from a couple of coop extension services: Hosta species can be propagated by seed. But if you are in for an adventure, you might try the seeds too! I will be back in touch. I took another bunch of seeds, placed them in water in the refrigerator for a few weeks, then planted them. I have them in fridge now….will let you know. One of my little hosta babies has decided to be tiny for life–it’s a perfect specimen about 6 or 8 inches across. Q: I have a number of mature hosta plants. This is extraordinarily helpful–and you helpfully included photos as well. Hosta taxa are commonly propagated by division or tissue culture. I didn’t try planting seeds immediately in the fall, which may different, but I had no germination at all on seeds that weren’t stratified in a number of trials. In the end I only got three plants, still small. Refrigerate the seed until January. Yes, you can root hosta leaf cuttings but you have to cut the leaf with a bit of the root it is growing from, preferable with a few small roots attached to the cutting. Enjoy! Peat absorbs and holds a lot of water, which is essential for germinating seeds. It’s now June! I think am going to keep them in the house over this winter, and plant them in May. I also like the picture of you sitting on the door stoop. My understanding is that they produce seeds somewhat sporadically. If a person is interested in growing new variegated plants you need to start with seed from streaked pod parent hostas, using a streaked pollen parent alone or a green plant will just produce more green plants, or blue plants if they are used. Thank you so much for all the information! Needless to say, it never did! Cut off some of the roots of a mature plant, shake off the old soil and replant at the same depth. Division (or tissue culture) has long been the primary ways of propagating hosta but as you and a few others demonstrate, seeds will grow. Hosta Seeds I collected the seeds in mid-October then stored them until February which seemed a generally good seed starting month. They can be grown from seed, but because of hybridization, hosta seed collected from mature plants most often does not grow to resemble the parent plant. Foliage colors range from pale yellow to the deepest of blue-greens, with many variegated forms also available. Continue to mist the plants daily to keep the soil moist. Thank you for this advice. If you can divide your hosta plants, you’ll probably get a lot more return for your effort investment than growing hostas from seed. I suspect they’ll be true to type because the parent plants came from a Virginia plantation with huge banks of hostas that were likely many years old, especially as the single start I brought home then really hasn’t increased all that much. Genetics also apparently play a role and seed from Hosta 'Dorothy Benedict' is said to take three weeks or more to germinate. (Note my seeds didn’t fall off but those left on the plants didn’t germinate either). Hosta plants are a perennial favorite among gardeners. 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