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I am hoping some mite might be able to give me some advice.

In our main street of town there is a beautiful Cape Chestnut tree. It is a real feature in the town centre when it is flowering with its magnificent clustered pink flowers.

If I swivel in my chair where I sit in my shop, and look out the window, I look directly at it. Often visitors from other states and regions ask me what species the tree is as they are so taken with it.

Just now I collected several seeds that have fallen.

Now.......who can tell me the best way to coax these very large, hard seeds into germinating?

Thanks for any help.

LOL I would love to help Threedogs but I was not lucky enough to have been born with a green thumb LOL thus far in my life I have managed to grow 1 thing yes you heard it only 1 thing everything else has died on me either I watered it too much or too little and too much sun or too little so I gave it up as a bad job and now I preserve the only plant that has ever grown for me with my life lol

Hi threedogs!,

I've got this from the plantzafrica website:

"Calodendrum capense (Cape chestnut) is propagated by seed or cuttings. Seed can be sown as soon as it drops in late summer to autumn, or kept refrigerated and sown the following spring or summer. Sow in deep trays in well-drained soil. Germination should take 10-40 days but may be erratic with older seed. In colder climates, bottom heat should be used. This tree has a relatively long juvenile phase and will rarely flower until it is 7 or 8 years old.

Cuttings should be taken from new growth in spring to early summer, treated with a rooting hormone and rooted under mist using bottom heat. Trees propagated by cuttings should flower in 4 to 5 years.
Young trees transplant easily and under ideal conditions can grow nearly 1 m in a year."

To aide germination , swallow seeds in evening. In morning deposit seeds on lawn. Use neighbour's braai tongs to extract seeds. Then follow Dabchicks advice.


Okay for everyones safety please do not swallow seeds !!

Thank you very much Dabchick!

I think I will germinate in our hothouse as the weather is starting to change. Then decide on the best time to plant out (IF they germinate) - here's hoping! I would love 2 or 3 around our place. I had to give up on my Jacaranda dream although there are some good specimens around the town, it is a feat to get the young ones through our winters and frost.

SL don't worry about not having a green thumb I am sure you have other talents LOL!

forestgump now there's a plan! Oh, bother I don't have any neighbours.

Hahahahahaha forest that is a plan LOL

well threedogs if youve got any tips especially to planting of orchids well Id like to hear it I hear they like cold temperatures maybe they will grow here as its freezing for most of the year

SL - hope you don't mind the abbreviation - you would pick something difficult! Orchids! I grow about 75% of our total food but I don't think I have ever actually kept an orchid alive for more than a year.

LOL well maybe if I try and grow the most difficult plant then theirs still hope for me
I will never try to grow an amarilla thats pushing limits but I am game to try the orchids and roses

Go for it!

LOL when I do threedogs Ill let you know of the success rate

Hi 3D,

I wonder if you shouldn't try planting half as is and lightly sand papering the other half. You sandpaper them on the opposite side of the seed from the growth point. Also, maybe remember that the climate (esp seasons) are the same in Aus as here, so I'm not sure you will need the hot house? - they may need the cold to germinate. Not sure on your temps in Naracoote, but I have seen them grow in the KZN midlands where it gets Cold in winter (-5 to teens). Hope you haev success! They are wonderful trees!