My apologies to everyone on the PBS list - as you can probably tell, I had meant to address my previous email to Audrey Cain rather than the whole group. Sorry for the mistake, however, I am really pleased that people seem to be interested in discussing Cyrtanthus since I have very limited experience with the genus and I'm very keen to learn more. My previous experience of growing Cyrtanthus from seed was a few C. breviflorus seed I got from the AGS, which did quite well initially only to die a short while later (damping off?). This happened a few years ago, when I'd first started growing bulbs and had no idea what sort of conditions South African bulbs needed. I'm planning to use a mixture of equal parts compost, perlite and sand for the seed that I'm getting from Silverhill, although I'm wondering whether species like C. helictus and C. smithiae might need even better drainage as seedlings? Best wishes, Matthew matthewgale@btopenworld.com