Late last summer as we were walking through the local park gardens i noticed all the little blue dianella berries. Dianella is a very popular plant used by councils here in Australia.
Most likely because it’s a native and is really tough and hardy. Dianella isn’t a plant we grow in the nursery but it ticks a lot of boxes for a plant i like to grow.
- Its really tough
- Generally planted in mass
- Easy to care for
So seeing as there were all these berries available i thought i’d sow some seed and see how they went. Well the results were really great, so here’s what i did.
Collecting the seed
The seed is ready for harvest when the berries have turned blue and the flesh is soft and squishy. Here in Victoria that seems to be in late summer/ early autumn.
Within the berries are the seeds. These are hard and won’t squish. I removed the seeds from the berries however i suspect that this is probably unnecessary (I will sow some more this season with flesh and all to test the results).
I filled a small pot with some good quality potting mix and placed the seed on top. Then i very lightly covered the seed with some more potting mix.
Remember seeds only need to be lightly covered, if you cover them too much they can rot before they get a chance to germinate.
After lightly covering the seeds i watered them and placed them in our igloo (greenhouse). They don’t need to be stored in a greenhouse, but they will need to be kept out of the wind and direct sunlight as this will quickly dry the potting mix out.
seeds in the berries 
after 2 weeks 
after 3 months
How long till the seeds germinate?
It only took 2 weeks for the first shoots to emerge. During the two weeks i didn’t need to water the potting mix it had stayed nice and moist.
I left them for a further 3 months, watering them as needed.
After the 3 months i counted over 20 individual dianella plants. Not too bad considering i only collected about 7 berries for the experiment.
All up it only took me 2 minutes to squish the seed out of the berries and sow the seed. Then it was just keeping an eye to make sure they never fully dried out.
Of course thats easy for me, everything in our igloo (greenhouse) is checked almost everyday.
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Thanks for reading. Happy planting 🙂
Cultural notes
Botanical name: Dianella
Common name: Blueberry lily, blue flax-lily, flax lily
Family: Asphodelaceae
Native to: Asia and Australasia (including pacific islands)
Flowers: Summer
Position: Full sun- part shade
Height: 0.5-1m
Width: 0.5-1m