How to grow Linden tree from seeds (Tilia) 椴樹種子孵法
Linden flowers (Tilia) are quite fragrant.
椴樹開花很香.
Linden seedling. (Tilia) 椴樹實生苗.
Linden seeds germination. (Tilia) 椴樹種子發芽.
1.Clean seeds, sanitize the growing soil or medium.
1.種子要先洗淨+殺菌+消毒.
2.Prepare pot or container fill with soil or medium. Moist the soil then place the seeds on top of soil, do not cover the seeds. Cover the pot or container with re-sealable bag or clear plastic bag and then store in the fridge.
2.準備點播用淺的苗盆,土壤用田土(沒有的話用培養土也可以)+排水佳介質+有機肥1比1比0.25點播於小苗盆上不覆土. 用夾鍊袋/塑膠袋封起後冰箱冷藏庫中冷層積,等發芽.
3.Check and open once a week for air circulation. About 3-6 months seeds will germinate.
3.一週檢查一次順便透氣. 約3-6個月發芽.
4.Pick the seeds out to pot them individually after once they are growing. Grow the seedlings partial shade location with good air flow and keep soil moist.
4.出芽後1個種子單獨一小盆為佳. 置於半日照通風處生長. 要保持一定濕度.
5.Apply light organic fertilizer after seedlings have 6 leaves. Change to full sun location.
5.等本葉長出6片後小盆換中盆. 施有機薄肥,改全日照.
*Because Linden tree do not produce lots of viable seed, under 8%. So there are not too many seedlings you can find under the tree. Many thought their seeds require 3-5 years of germination period.
*此種樹種子雖多,有胚的有效種子卻比率相當少,低於8%. 再加上自然環境下能發芽的很少. 所以有人誤以為要3-5年才會發芽.Once they are germinated, they grow fast without any special care! Small flowers but so many of them with strong nice fragrance. Linden trees flower in late spring to early summer. Great food source for bees. — My family and I have tasted Linden honey, nice flavour!但是一旦發芽後卻長得很快,容易栽種,不需怎樣特別的照顧. 花小而多有強香. 春末夏初開花,花開滿樹是很好的蜜源. –我嚐過的椴花蜜有很特別的滋味,家人都非常喜歡.
My Food And Flowers 
I love them… linden trees are common and popular in our region: 🙂
http://myvirtualplayground.wordpress.com/2014/06/20/les-tilleuls-sentent-bon-dans-les-soirs-de-juin-arthur-rimbaud/
Lovely! 🙂
Do you know what kind of linden is in your post? Thanks!
The flowers, picked and carefully dried, make a delightful tea with some medicinal uses. It was much made and drunk in Italy years ago. I do not know if this use still persists, but linden trees grow well in Northern Italy. The honey derived from the flowers is favored.
I like Linden Honey! I like useful plants! 🙂
Today I discovered that Amazon has dried Linden flowers for making tea ! memories of my childhood !! Rather costly, but I may try them after the holidays. In the meantime I ordered chamomile and beetroot crystals…
Have ever grown a houseplant from an avocado pit? (not with toothpicks, that is a mess) but similar to growing your Linden seed. Where do you find the linden seeds? are you in the US ?
I am in Canada! 🙂 We have lots of Linden trees in parks and city forestry have planted many for people’s front yard, such as Little-leaf Linden (Tilia cordata), American Linden (Tilia Americana) and Silver Linden (Tilia tomentosa) , of course also the hybrids. That is why I can collect seeds easily. 🙂
I always enjoy the fragrance from Linden flowers. Perhaps this year I can pick some flowers for tea –just pick enough to give it a try for the taste.
We have Tilia cordata in Chile and it is a very popular tea called tilo. My neighbor gave me a jarful of dried leaves and flowers when I was sick with pneumonia and told me to drink it with lots of lemon. I think it helped!
I never try the tea, we have a lot of Tilia in the park though. 🙂 Glad the tea helped your pneumonia!
I love the scent of linden tree flowers. I would grow one in the garden, but they get enormous, at least the ones I have known in various parts of Germany, where I grew up. I am sure there are one or two in the local park here, too, so climate wise it wouldn’t be a problem, but I don’t have that kind of space, it would take away a lot of light and the neighbours probably wouldn’t like it. Linden trees also produce some kind of sticky substance which you find all over your cars and windows, that can be annoying, too. Still, I would have one if I could. I had intended to see if there are maybe some smaller cultivars by now.
The sticky substance is the nectar of flowers which bees love! If you have honey bees they will make excellent Linden honey!! 🙂 Then it won’t be so much got wasted. 😦 Flowers (fresh or dried) can be for herb tea (not cheap), next time pick some from park in flowering season to see if you like it before you plant one. To grow one is easy, it can be from cutting as well. That way it will flower soon. Tilia cordata (Littleleaf Linden) is probably smallest linden tree I know, app. 20′-30′.
30′, that is still 9 metres, higher than our house 😦
I know about linden tea, I am sure I have used it as a teenager (my mum is into herbal teas, too), because we could buy it at the pharmacy back then. I have often wondered about picking the flowers, but they are never low enough to reach, and if the trees are near a main road, which most of the ones that I know of in town are, then it is not healthy to use the flowers for tea due to pollution anyway. I am certain that all the linden trees that you find here, have been planted, I don’t think they are native to the area.
In a previous place I lived in an avenue of linden, we were in a two storey house with a pitched roof attic and the trees where still higher than the houses!
I have often wondered whether I would get away with planting one secretly just outside our garden at the back where the council woodland is. But it would still grow large and throw big shadows into the garden, if the council let it be. This is doubtful because they like native trees in their woods such as oak, pine, rowan, holly and birch.
I may have to wait until they breed smaller ones still. I am guessing I could perhaps keep it small by pruning…but that isn’t easy or it costs money depending on the options you choose. I have to do this with some ornamental trees I have and it is annoying (and dangerous) enough not to want more where that is necessary.
Actually you can always trim them to size as desired, even in a large pot! Just cut the main root shorter and prune the tip off, every year you can control the side branches. It is doable but some work for sure!
It just occurred to me that we call them lime trees here in the UK. Linden seemed more natural because it is closer to the German name, so I hadn’t realised while I was writing 😉
You can keep them in pots? Hm, perhaps that is a possibility. What kind of roots do they have, is it a tap root like oak or more shallow like beech or birch?
See its root system after it fell in this link. http://www.bbg.org/news/bbg_weathers_hurricane_sandy
Tilia has many common names: lime tree, linden and basswood. To people who knows its genus name is easier to call Tilia.