Nerine flower from seed

Years ago my daughter came home from pre-school with a flower bulb.  It had one leaf.  I didn't know what type of flower bulb this was.  We planted this bulb, and the leaf died.  It didn't re-sprout that season, and I worried that I had killed it.  I felt really guilty.  

The following year it grew leaves, it sent up a flower stalk that was eaten by snails, then it died back.  Again I worried I had killed it. 

Over the next few years it grew leaves.  It flowered a few times, but I never took much notice of it.  

This last year the bulb flowered, and I paid attention, it is a nerine.  The flowers were pink, and rather beautiful.

Nerine flowering

Nerine

Nerines are dormant over summer, when the leaf died it was doing what it is meant to do.  I just didn't know that at the time because I didn't know what type of flower bulb it was.  All that worry about having killed the bulb and feeling guilty was for nothing. 

The flowers look nice.  I considered cutting them to bring them in and putting them in a vase, but left them in the garden because I wanted to see if they would set seed. 

After a while the flowers started to fade.  It was obvious that some were developing seeds.  I had never grown nerine from seed before, or even seen nerine seeds before, so hoped I could save some seeds and give this a go.

Nerine flowers fading and developing seeds

I forgot about this, and when I remembered most of the seeds were gone but there were still a few seeds left.  I collected these and brought them inside for safety.  

Nerine seeds are large and fleshy.  I am not sure if they are seeds, or if they are fruits each with a single seed inside.  I am guessing that similar to choko, these are probably fruits with a single seed inside them.  

Nerine seed collected

Presumably these are nerine fruits, each with one seed inside

These seeds were left on the kitchen window sill, and ignored.  

I read that Nerine seeds germinate better on the bench than they do in the soil.  I don't know how true this is, but it seems to make sense.  I am told that nerine seeds tend to rot if planted deep in soil, and I'm told they need light to germinate.  Again, I'm not sure if this is true, but from my very limited experience this appears to be true.

I left these seeds on the window sill.  One day I noticed that two of the seeds had sprouted.  This was my signal to plant them. 

Nerine seeds germinating

Nerine seed left on bench started to germinate

I pushed the seeds gently into soil in a pot, and watered them.  I didn't want to bury the seeds, as I wanted them to have some sunlight.  

After this I placed the pot in my greenhouse where it would be protected from strong frosts.  

I was not certain what the little sprout coming out of the seeds was.  I didn't know if it was a leaf shoot and should face up, or a root and should face down.  If I had it upside down this could be bad.  

For this reason I planted the seeds on their side, the sprout could easily do what it needed to do, and go up or down as needed.  The seeds that had not yet sprouted I put with the germinating dot (not sure what this is called) on the soil surface so root or leaf could go whichever direction it needed.

It quickly became evident that the little sprout from the nerine seeds is a root.  It searched out the soil and pushed its way down.  

Nerine seeds germinating 

That little root hit the soil, then the part that was above ground began to swell.  This swelling grew and turned into a tiny bulb.  The tiny bulb then grew some tiny leaves.  

I have grown spring flowering bulbs from seed before, and all of those produced a bulb under the soil.  Watching nerines grow a bulb above the soil line was new to me.  

  

Nerine seedlings producing fat little bulbs

Nerine seedlings 

Nerine seedlings forming tiny bulbs above soil

Tiny nerine seedling bulbs starting to produce leaves

Now I have a few little nerine seedlings growing.  From here I need to grow them out, divide them when the time is right, and wait.  

I am told the seedlings can grow through the dormant season the first year to give them a head start.  Each week the little bulbs are slightly fatter, and the leaves are slightly larger, so they are doing what they should be doing.  Even so, growing nerine from seed to flower takes time.  

Nerine seedlings getting fatter bulbs and longer leaves

If all goes well they should flower in about 3 or 4 years.  I look forward to seeing what colour blooms they produce.  Presumably they will all be some shade of pink, but some may be darker and others lighter, all of them should be slightly different as they are genetically unique plants.  

To help me remember later, I recorded some important dates below:

Nerine flowering April/May 2025

Nerine seed collected 19/06/2025

Nerine seed planted when I noticed the first seeds had germinated 10/09/2025