From March / April, the bright yellow cowslips herald the approach of spring from afar. Incidentally, the spring flowers, which are easy to cultivate in the home garden, do particularly well in a colorful bed with other early-flowering bulbous plants, such as tulips, daffodils or hyacinths. Propagation via seeds is particularly easy if you simply leave the plants to themselves: cowslips sow themselves very reliably. However, you can also sow them with seeds you have collected yourself or bought, but you should follow a few guidelines.
After flowering, cowslip forms seeds to propagate
Sow the seeds right away
This also includes the fact that seeds that you collect yourself usually do not last long and lose their ability to germinate. For this reason, it is best to apply them immediately after the seeds have ripened. You can sow the seeds either in pots or seed trays or directly outdoors. Please note, however, that the soil or substrate is well prepared and loosened before sowing. The seeds are only very thinly covered with soil and are always kept slightly moist.
Do not keep seeds too warm
But now you have to be careful, because in contrast to other seedlings, sown cowslip seeds must not be too warm. So do not necessarily place the seed trays or the indoor greenhouse on a window sill over a switched on heater, but in a rather cool, little or no heated room. Temperatures between 10 and 15 °C are optimal here.
Prefer cowslips from January
Young cowslips can be grown from existing seeds from January, provided they have not already been sown in autumn. However, cowslips are cold germs and must therefore be stratified before the actual sowing, i. H. be exposed to a cold period for a longer period of time. This simulates the natural conditions and breaks through the germination inhibition of the seeds. Stratification is best done at temperatures around freezing in the crisper of the refrigerator for about four to six weeks.
tips
Cowslips growing in the wild may not be dug up or picked in whole or in part. This also applies to their seeds, because the wild perennial is a protected species due to its classification as an endangered species.