On Feb 10, 2004, at 1:45 PM, Hamish Sloan wrote: > Now, I need some help. Any suggestions on how to germinate Tecophilea > cyanocrocus. Two lots of seed ex PBX so far going no where! Need cool > period? need total dark? I had the same experience you have had. I paid good money two or three years in a row to several different British seed sellers (trustworthy ones, the ones many of you, myself included, have obtained many different species if seeds from over the years). I never got a single germination from the Tecophilaea seeds. Finally, a couple of years ago I had seeds from my own plants, and some packets of seeds from a couple of these same sources (Archibalds and Pottertons)--that I had saved in the refrigerator from orders the previous autumn. Based on some discussions that Mary Sue initiated (possibly a TOW?), I planted them all out in late September/very early October while the weather here in Southern California was still quite warm during the day (80s F./30 C., 50s at night) and about a month before the first rain fell. I left them outside fully exposed to the changing autumn seasonal weather here. Sometime in December after the winter rains had begun in November, all the little pots of seeds started sprouting. So I think they really need that warm daytime weather with the gradually increasingly chilly nights to start with, before being exposed to the cool days and rain of the beginning of the mediterranean style rainy season in order to initiate germination. In my previous attempts, by the time I got the seeds from the autumn orders it was already November or later and the days were no longer warm. It didn't occur to me to try holding them until the following early autumn. --Lee Poulsen Pasadena area, California, USDA Zone 9-10