I was finishing up some things outside today and noticed my clematis 'Niobe' still had some seed heads on it. I brought them in, and here's what there was. Are there any actual seeds there? The blue arrows are pointing to the part of the seed head that the fuzzy stuff was attached to. The red arrow is pointing to what I think might be a seed? These are all really tiny.
From what little I know of Clematis seeds it is so hard to determin the seeds so just keep all of it and plant, sometimes the seeds are so tiney thay hide in that fuzz.
The seed heads were really small, too, so that makes sense. I've got them all in a little bag! I'm surprised they were still attached to the plant, what with the horrendous winds we've had lately and given that they quit blooming several months ago. But it is on the east side of a building, so it's pretty protected from the wind.
Plant everything! The chaff or "fluff" can be planted as well. It won't hurt anything.
Your realize that any of the seed that germinates from Niobe will not be identifical to the host plant. There will be a slight difference or you might get lucky and grow something totally new! Only by grafting or layering will you get an identical plant like the host.
This website will help you with germinating your Clematis seeds. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bcollingwood/index.htm
Good luck!
This message was edited Nov 22, 2005 6:17 PM
Oh, I don't care if it's like the 'Niobe,' and yes, I'd read that in the Plant Files that it doesn't come true to seed. I would just be excited if I can grow it PERIOD, from seed. I'll check out the link you posted. THANKS!! :-)
REAL seeds on clematis are easy to spot and handle. Most of the time you get a bunch of feathery fluff. If there are any seeds (can't really tell from your picture), the end of the feather will have a seed attached that is about 1/2 the size of a pencil eraser. You will definitely know it to be a seed. It will be big, round and flat, and brown. It will be a little smaller than a hollyhock seed. Most of the fluff just has a little hardened spot that could have been a seed had it been pollinated
From your picture, it looks like where you have arrows, you might have seeds. But I can't really tell from here.
Look here at a picture of some fluff and a seed. The seed is quite noticeable and unmistakable. And in one seedhead, you may get lots of seeds, only one or two, or none. But when you find a seed, you'll definitely know it, no guessing at all.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/htop_1066414299_524.jpg&imgrefurl=http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/29026/&h=480&w=640&sz=53&tbnid=83623SAxziMJ:&tbnh=101&tbnw=135&hl=en&start=43&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpicture%2Bof%2Bclematis%2Bseed%26start%3D40%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLG,GGLG:2005-26,GGLG:en%26sa%3DN
Sweet autumn clematis, which is very fragrant, makes tons of seeds because it attracts lots of pollinators.
Hope you find seeds. But they can take a year to germinate. Your plant will keep spreading by roots so you'll eventually be able to divide the roots.
BC
Ooops, the link didn't work. Try this:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/29026/
This message was edited Nov 23, 2005 5:48 PM
