David. You didn't chance to collect Tulipa wilsonii did you? I've been trying to find it for for about 35 years now, since I moved and lost my central Asian stuff. It had come from the botanic garden in Soviet Turkmenistan. Or, if anybody knows of a source ? It's a "sinker" and ordinarily lives about a foot below the surface of the ground. . ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Victor" <davidxvictor@btinternet.com> To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 2:38 AM Subject: Re: [pbs] Iris magnifica > Hi all, > > Whilst I hesitate to disagree with a plantsman as able as Iain, I > feel that I should put up some slightly different experience. Last > July I collected a number of Juno's in central Asia, including I. > orchioides, I. willmottiana and I. kuschakewiczii, as well as a wide > range of other types of Iris, Tulipa, Eremurus and Allium. All of > these were sown in September and put out in covered cold frames for > the winter. Whilst we had low temperatures by our standards, they > did not fall below minus seven Celsius and, these pots were probably > protected from the worst of that. In any event, around 95% of the > species sown, i.e. around 150, have germinated with great success, > mainly over the past two months. The only issue now is how to handle > the thousands of seedlings! > > For the record, the sowing was done in a fifty-fifty mix of soil > based compost with vermiculite, with a covering of course gravel, in > the kind of pots normally used for pond plants. The bottom half of > the pot was filled with a mix of soil based compost and fine gravel. > > Best regards, > David Victor, > Bedfordshire, UK > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/