Dear John et al, Many plants have evolved to require special conditions to bloom, set seed, and especially to sprout the seeds. Smoke exposure techniques were developed, I believe, in Australia a number of years ago due to the fact that many outback plant seeds were reluctant to sprout under normal circumstances. I found that Billardiera seeds if not fresh will grow with this method. It is a standard practice to treat seeds of Proteas this way. A good site that explains fire and smoke requirements for some north American plants is at http://nativeplants.for.uidaho.edu/Content/… Gary in Hilo, HI Note: To protect against computer viruses, e-mail programs may prevent sending or receiving certain types of file attachments. Check your e-mail security settings to determine how attachments are handled.