Dear Susan, If your seed is Moraea villosa, my experience has been that it is best started in the fall when it will get a change between day and night temperatures and then come up and be growing when it normally would be (winter to spring). You can refrigerate the seed in a jar until then. I've grown a fair number of IBSA Irid seeds that arrive in spring. I just hold then until the proper time for planting. As Alberto points out, there are summer growing Moraeas and they should be started in spring. If you are interested in growing South African bulbs that are mostly from winter rainfall areas I highly recommend The Color Encyclopedia of Cape Bulbs by John Manning, Peter Goldblatt, and Dee Snijman. Mary Sue