Dear Lee, Mary Sue, Diane, Bill, Thanks for your hints on germination of this one. Several people have extolled the PBX seed offerings and I can only add that my experience in my first year has been great. All the seeds I have had have given over 50% germination, and often 90 to 100%, except the T.c. referred to and the Crinum americanum which was mentioned as another possibly long wait in the list recently. Keep 'em rolling in please!! Some of my Clivia miniata are just throwing the first flowers. Still in the cool house, heater set to "frost-free" only, so that the scapes get a chance to elongate above the foliage. I have noticed before that there are a few of my hybrids (these are just from the usual range of orange shades) that always come into flower well ahead of the rest. I must remember to note dates more carefully and see if there are persistent late ones too. Mary Sue, I find hard to understand why Veltheimia not germinating well. Try the wet paper towel method. As soon as the radical is about the same length as the seed diameter, I pot on in 2.5" pots in what is my standard nerine compost, putting the germinated seed about 0.5" down. Then kept in my warm house, not less than 55F. Although I've lost a few plants using this technique, e.g., one out of the 10 Clvia nobilis I mentioned, at this potting on stage, I've not lost any of the germinated Veltheimia seeds at this later stage. Incidentally, with some of the C. nobilis, the seed shrivelled at what seemed to be an early stage of growth and I thought I was losing more, but I found that the plants had developed a "root" that was the same diameter as the seed started at (about 3mm - it's easier to type than the imperial measure this time - while I think in metric for my science, I usually flip back to imperial in the garden!) and a full inch long before any attempt at a green leaf shows above soil level. Note how my plants suffer from what I call that dread disease of Pulloveria woollyitis - there is this appropriately dressed fellow who keeps on poking around below soil level! I've not checked out C. miniata in this respect. Many thanks your help, Regards Hamish Wettish Zone 9 in central south England - we have not been so cold this winter as the Crinum x powellii has not been cut down to the ground as it usually is. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mary Sue Ittner" <msittner@mcn.org> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 1:19 AM Subject: Re: [pbs] Tecophilea seed > Bill Dijk was selling seed of Tecophilaea when he was in Pasadena at the > IBS Symposium in May 2002. Even though I had yet to get any of the seeds I > had germinated from him before to bloom I wanted to try more so bought some > of all three he was selling. I planted them in October 2002 and they > germinated in great numbers in late December and January about the time > plants show up every year naturally where I live. They have come back > strongly and maybe a few more have germinated this year as well. This is > the second year I have had a Tecophilaea bloom from my original sowing. My > first seeds were sown in December 1999, again from Bill. They didn't > germinate until late March and more germinated the following January. > Perhaps it just takes awhile from when you start them before they come up, > but starting early as Lee suggested means they come up when their normal > cycle should be.