I am interested in planting seeds I gathered from a beautiful wild azalea. I also have hardwood cuttings. Google Creel-Way propagation.
Martha

I did read through the post suggesting live moss, while I haven't seen that myself, the poster was fairly specific about type, calling it hair cap. Googling hair cap moss will show you photos of that moss, but as with most common names I don't know how sure you might be of looking at the same type he used.

My first thought as to sowing on many common mosses - they can choke out and overwhelm less than optimum lawn grass.

Conventional method for sowing indoors without a greenhouse:
Screened milled sphagnum moss has natural anti fungal properties beneficial to preventing damp off. Soaked, then squeezed as dry as possible and packed into a container, it stays the correct moisture level - a clear plastic lidded box like shoe box can be used (or anything that allows 1 1/2" headspace for seedlings), drainage holes aren't necessary.

Mist the seed to settle it into good contact with the moss, cover and put it into indirect light at approx 70F. Germination should begin in 1 - 4 weeks.

When it appears no more seedlings will germinate, move the box into more light but not direct sun, and a cooler area.
(i.e. north window in room that stays mid 60s)

The seedlings can stay in the closed box for an amazing length of time - you will want to transplant them when they have two sets of leaves. A few weeks before transplanting, begin ventilating with toothpick or match stick, gradually increasing the opening over about a three week period. Mist if needed during this time to keep the seedlings from drying out.

Google Creels-Way.on the web site there are hand out materials. His work can also be found on American Azalea Society. He (Mike Creel) has developed a method of growing Azaleas from cuttings and from seed with out a green house.

I haven't tried live moss. I have 17 covered tubs of seeds planted with a 50/50 mix of perlite and peat moss, a little hollytone and topped with milled sphagnum. I have seedlings just up in about half the pots but am already fighting fungus, a fine, white cobwebby growth. The milled sphagnum doesn't seem to give much protection. I tried spraying with an anti-microbial/antifungal spray, (same ingredients as Physan but different trade name). It didn't seem to help so I reluctantly bought some Mancozeb, mixed it to the minimum strength and drenched the pots. It seems to have killed off the fungus and so far doesn't seem to have harmed the seedlings.

Thanks everyone. I've tried the systems people have noted, sometimes with OK results although with few plants surviving to adolescence, sometimes with real problems just like susanwoods has. I've felt that to avoid the fungus, I have to open the flat as soon as I've got germination, which goes pretty well, and then sometimes to use antifungal. In the past I may have erred in not using distilled water, but when I did last year it didn't help because, for the first time I got a really bad fungal infection.

I am intrigued by morz8's system, which apparently relies on a completely closed (and completely clean?) system with only milled sphagnum moss as a medium. I'm concerned because although I've tried to keep stuff clean before, I tend to get some kind of fungus and in a closed system without drainage I worry about keeping the moisture level right if I have to open the package in which they're growing.

Still interested in trying the moss, which no one here seems to have done.

Well, just wanted to report my experiment undertaken and "progress" to date. Last Saturday (1/27), I sowed a few seed of R. cumberlandense, R. calendulaceum, and R. prinophyllum using morz8's system. I sowed another set on a thin layer of fine milled sphagnum moss on top of promix, in closed container with drainage holes. And I did two (cumberlandense and prinophyllum) in closed containers on a layer of real moss (chopped out of my frozen yard and warmed up) with some fairly dense dirt attached on top of a thin layer of promix for drainage. All moist but not soggy. At beginning, I had cleaned containers with soap and water and used an anti-fungal (Physan 20) on them; I then misted top of the "soil" mixture in the containers with the anti-fungal, and again to wet the seed in. Placed all near a warm radiator at a north window. All containers look fine and uncontaminated so far.

I am happy to report that yesterday, 1/31, the first seed germinated on the live moss, and the little seedling looks strong and happy. Eagerly awaiting more births.

The ARS (American Rhododendron Society) seed exchange has many people who grow thousands of seedlings each year. The link below explains what they do.

Remember to always use sterile media. If in doubt you can sterilize it by:

1) heating in a kitchen range at 250F or
2) use bleach and water mix (apply one cup of household bleach to ten cups of water) or
3) microwave it or
4) pour boiling water through it several times and allow to cool

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Grow Rhododendrons from Seed

Rhodyman,

Thanks. I do wet the mix with boiling water and then drain so not soggy, and generally follow the ARS directions, but I still get problems not at the germination stage so much (which is usually good), but later on, about the time some of them develop their second set of leaves. Maybe I'll try one of the other sterilization methods another time. (The moss bit, of course, was not sterilized; we'll see).