Jamie, Start the seeds on the surface of the potting mix, and spray with a bit of water occasionally if they are slow to germinate. Most crinum seeds are all too eager to germinate, but some will wait a rather long time before sprouting. I grow mine in full sun in summer. They can take full sun here at latitude 40 degrees N. You are right, use a gritty, freely draining mix and keep potting them up into larger containers each year until you can just barely move the pot! I feed and water regularly in the growing season, and I actually have many of my big (5-gal and 7.5-gal.) pots of crinums on a drip irrigation system in summer when it gets hot and dry here. Crinum macowanii has a very extensive range in southern Africa. I have plants or seedlings from plants that grew in Zambia and Namibia, as well as in the Republic of South Africa. Thus, some may well be much more cold-tolerant than others. I'd proceed with caution on this score. I love the flowers of macowanii. I have pictures posted at URL = http://shieldsgardens.com/amaryllids/Crinum.html/ I also have seedling bulbs of Crinum [bulbispermum X macowanii] and of C. [bulbispermum X lugardiae] available this year at URL = http://shieldsgardens.com/Bulbs/… I don't know what the flowers of these hybrids will look like, so I'm awaiting their eventual bloom on pins and needles. They won't bloom yet this year, unfortunately. Regards, Jim Shields in central Indiana At 07:22 PM 5/21/03 +0200, Jamie wrote: >Jim, > >can you expand a bit on Crinum macowanii, I just received some seeds, yo!, >they are huge things, bigger than most bulbs I grow, and would like a bit of >advice. Any advice, actually. I take it a loose, moisture retentive mix >suites them. How about lighting? I've seen photos of C. macowanii in the >wild and they look pretty exposed. How cold can they go? First winter >better under shelter? > >I hope you are taking shots of these new hybrids, I'm very curious. > >Danke..... > >Jamie V. > Bitte schön! Es ist gern geschehen! ("Es isch gern g'scheh") Jim ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA Member of INTERNATIONAL CLIVIA CO-OP