INTRODUCTION

One of the complaints often expressed by alpine enthusiasts, is that the plants they see and hear about, are rarely, if ever, available to them and one has to have the right connections to acquire them.

In some circumstances, this can be very true. It may be that the plant they desire is a new hybrid which has yet to develop into a size suitable for cutting material to be taken. It may be a new introduction to science, where a few seeds have been collected under license in some remote corner of the earth. Or it could be that the plant only yields one or two viable seeds..too few to distribute on a large scale. In these circumstances, unfortunately, the avid plantsperson is in the same boat as the person who has just acquired an interest in alpine plants and both must be patient in their needs.

Disconcerting as this may be, it should not discourage the beginner from trying to obtain the many, many thousands of other plants that are available to them via Seed Exchanges, private seed lists, commercial seed catalogues and shares in plant expeditions. All these are excellent sources for a diverse range of plants and are available, with the exception of the latter, at a very reasonable expense. In the very week of writing this, I have received seed of Trillium (N.America), Haastia (New Zealand), Campanula (Japan) and Orchis (Europe), none of which would have been available at a nursery or garden centre; and all of which are extremely desirable items. So the "excuse" that one has to be "in the know" to get the best plants, just doesn't hold true.

THE SEED REGISTER
It was my intention at this point to catalogue the names and addresses of Seed Exchanges, Seed Companies and Seed Expedition Shares for you to assess and enjoy. However, Harry Dewey of Alpine-L, informed me of his wishes to introduce a new listing to Alpine-L, dealing with this specific issue.
This new service, AlpenSeeds, will invite members of Alpine-L to recommend their favourite seed suppliers and both Harry and I have agreed to moderate this service and expand it for use on both The Alpine Garden and Alpine-L sites.
As a result of this joint venture, I have set up "The Seed Register" as an extension to The Seed Frame and you may link directly to it by clicking on the icon before proceeding with this article. A link in The Seed Register will bring you back to this page so that you can find out what to do with the seeds once you receive them.

So now you know where to get hold of those seeds you thought were impossible to obtain, what do you do with them when they arrive?
Well I'm glad you asked that question because this is what The Seed Frame will endeavour to tell you.

Firstly, a little about seeds and how they germinate. I will try not to be too technical but to know the seed's requirements, is to know how to transform it into the plant you so desperately want to grow and so it would be advisable to acquire as much information about your seed as you can. e.g. its natural habitat (scree, woodland, riverside, crevice), aspect (open ground, part shaded, full sun), type of soil (acid, alkaline,) and so on. In order to germinate, seeds need some basic requirements. Moisture, air and nutrients. The question of requiring light or darkness is peculiar to specific seeds, so again it is wise to learn about them prior to sowing. Given that these ideal conditions are inherent in the seed compost, your seeds should stand a good chance of germinating. Again, there are so many formulas for seed composts that most decisions will be based on your own personal choice. (See my preferences later in the article).

There have been many dissertations written about seed germination. Some of these are so complex as to be of little value to all but the few. I would however encourage you to read these, if only to make up your own mind about their usefullness.
At this juncture and I anticipate a certain amount of controversy, I feel I should put across my philosophy on seed germination rates. During your research, you will read of 80% germination success rates using Method A, as opposed to a 10% success rate using Method B. You will read of the need to use auxins and cytokinins to aid germination. You will be urged to use Gibberellic Acid and Coconut milk for better results with otherwise intractable seeds. All these issues will be dealt with later but the point I wish to make is this. "What do you require from your sowings?"

Take a typical packet of seed which may contain 30 to 40 seeds. If you only achieve 50% germination, you will have 15 to 20 seedlings to grow on into plants. Let's say that the seed in question is that of Aciphylla horrida, a 'Spaniard' from New Zealand, reaching a height of 2 metres or more, with the most lethal pointed leaves known to mankind. Now what would you do with 20 of those? OK, I hear you say but what if it's a Dionysia? Fine - so you now have 20 Dionysias which have to be potted up and stored in the alpine house or frame and then cossetted to the point of distraction, in order to keep them alive and in perfect condition. How many of these do you think you will get into the alpine house before it is full? and what about room for all those other alpine house treasures you have just potted on?

"So what's your point?", I hear you ask. Well the point is this. If you germinate say 5 of those 40 seeds, you will have 1 for the alpine house, 1 to experiment with, 1 for the frame and 2 to swap or give to friends. Not too bad and only 12½% percent success rate. Other considerations when achieving 100% success are the amount of room required, the extra labels that need to be made out, the additional records that have to be compiled etc., etc.
So forget all about the need for maximum germination. It may be fine for the nurseryman who makes a living from selling plants but for the average enthusiast, be content with raising a few choice plants.

Having elected to be satisfied with a lesser germination rate, how then do we guarantee that we can achieve even this?
This is where the dissertations come into their own. Researchers, God bless them, have done all the groundwork for us already. They know which seeds need to be stratified, vernalised, chitted, which seeds require to be treated with auxins and cytokinins, which have a double dormancy, which need to be sown fresh, etc; etc; etc. Confused? Yes, so was I.
So where do we turn now. Well, the enormity of literature on seed sowing is vast and many of the major societies have these techniques well documented in their archives. Alpine-L also has a number of "personal experience" archives related to seed sowing and germination and then there is the 'bible', Norm Deno's "Seed Germination: Theory and Practice" a monumental work used by beginners and experts alike. And what method do I use? Well I prefer to use the time-tested method of using a soilless compost (more moisture retentive) with 50% by volume of 2-4 mm grit added. (I should say at this point that it is critical to obtain (or make) a compost that has been sterilised. In fact everything you use should be sterilised, composts, pots, grit etc). This is then put into a size 8F plastic pot (approx 8cm diam.) and lightly firmed to within 6-10mm from the top of the pot. (At this stage, I would insert the plant label, so as not to disturb the seedlings later in the proceedings. More about labelling later). There should be a nice, even surface upon which the seeds can be sown but not too firmly compacted. The seeds are then sown thinly, directly onto the surface of the compost and a layer of fine silver sand is applied over the surface. As a rule of thumb, a seed should never be covered more than its own thickness, so for a seed that is say 5mm in diam, a 5mm layer of silver sand will suffice and for seeds that are like dust, I wouldn't cover them at all but I would mix them with silver sand before sowing onto the compost and leave them like that. Finally, a layer of very fine grit is applied to the surface, just enough to cover the silver sand. The pots are then stood in a bowl of water until the surface grit begins to glisten. When this happens, I remove the pots and allow them to drain before taking them outside to the frame where they are left uncovered and open to the elements. Wherever you choose to store your seed pots, do remember that they should not be subjected to extreme heat and neither should they be left to dry out at any tine. Careful monitoring and experience will tell you when you have it right.

Much has been said about 'when' to sow. I personally sow everything as soon as I receive it. Some I win, some I lose but on the whole, I have no evidence to suggest that I get better results by delaying my sowing until winter. As long as the resultant seedlings are cared for, you should not expect to lose too many through frost damage. In fact, some of my best results have come from seed sent from New Zealand which always seems to arrive in late spring/early summer. As you will have gathered from my cavalier approach to seed raising, I am a great believer in experimenting and doing what is right for you. There are no 100% guaranteed methods when it comes to sowing seed. But as I said earlier, if you manage to raise half a dozen plants then you will be just as elated as if you had raised ten. The disappointments come when you fail to raise any at all but even that may be beyond your control. Perhaps the seeds weren't viable when you received them, perhaps they did need gibberellic acid after all. Seed sowing is not a chore, it is a pleasure and should be enjoyed as such. Be satisfied with your new plants, you helped to bring them into the world. And as a bonus, just remember that from tiny seeds, great Farrer Medal plants do grow.

Keeping Records
Some growers will consider that putting a label in the pot is sufficient record keeping as far as they are concerned. I would like to think that a little more responsibility is required here. Let me explain.
When your seeds arrive from the exchange, the seed company, or the collector, they will undoubtedly have a reference number with them or a particular comment on the packet as to the area in which they were collected. This information is very important and needs to be recorded for posterity. When I talk about 'responsibility', it is possible that you may have received seed from an expedition and this will have an expedition code e.g. ACE1234. Now it may not seem important at the time, but you could be the only subscriber to actually germinate this particular collection. The resultant plants would then be identified as say, Primula sp ACE1234. This would help the botanists to identify the plant collected as ACE1234 as say Pm obliqua and any subsequent germination of ACE1234 seed would be known by that name.

What To Include
It is a fair assumption that as you are reading this on the Internet, you will either have your own computer, or at least access to a PC and a simple database can be produced to keep and maintain your records for posterity.
Date Of Sowing: At AGS Shows, there are classes for plants "GROWN FROM SEED" and the rules stipulate that the date of sowing must be shown.
Plant Name: Ranunculus semiverticillatus
Collector's Number: e.g. F&W 1234 would denote a Flores & Watson collection
Catalogue Number: e.g. AGS98/1234 would denote Seed No. 1234 from the Alpine Garden Society's 1998 seedlist.
Grower's Reference: Some seed raisers like to have their own record numbers for cross-referencing to their plants. It is not always possible to get vast amounts of information on a label and often, the labels and pots are marked with no more than a simple code e.g. AG/26/3/98 would denote that this was item number 26 of my database for March sowings of 1998.
Number Of Seeds Sown: If this is possible
Date Of Germination: This is not essential but does help for comparison with previous year's sowings.

I think it is important here to stress that any plants you are fortunate to grow on, should be named correctly. Collector's Numbers should only be appended to the plant name when these are known to be from wild collected seed. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should seed collected from these resultant plants be passed on with the same number. They are now second generation and could have been 'contaminated' by other garden inhabitants. Similarly, please do not append your own code number to any plants you may be passing amongst friends. This code number is relevant only to your specific records.