I did a video a while back on Youtube about collecting oak leaf hydrangeas from seed. I thought since now is the ideal time to start collecting those seeds again I would go ahead and direct sow some oak leaf hydrangeas from seed. Below you can watch a short video of the flat I put together but it is a really simple process.
How to Grow Oak Leaf Hydrangeas from Seed
For growing the oak leaf hydrangeas from seed I used a pair of 1020 flats (Bootstrap Farmer. Aff.) but any container will work. One has holes in it and the other does not. I nested the flat with holes inside the solid 1020 flat and filled the flat with soil. The reason I nest the two trays is so initially I keep them fairly moist while germinating and don’t have to water often. Once the seeds have germinated I’ll can move them to a shady location and begin watering normally with only the flat with holes.
I took the flat over to my oak leaf hydrangea plant and pull the dried seed heads off of the plant. I used about 3 to 4 different seed heads and sprinkled them into the flat. Afterwards I watered the flat and covered with a clear plastic lid and put under lights in my garage.
One note on the seeds: The seeds for oak leaf hydrangeas are extremely tiny and can easily be mistaken as debris from the flower.
Hopefully we’ll see some good germination!
I’ll keep the seeds moist until germination then I’ll remove the lid. The lid is there to keep the humidity high for good germination and I’ll remove that once I have seedlings started.
I think the biggest challenge with sowing these seeds will be overwintering them which is why I’ll save some more oak leaf hydrangea seeds and plant them again in the spring.
I’ll update you on the seeds as they come along.
