I am curious as to why Roy is having success chilling Alstroemeria seed as his first treatment. Does he live in a very warm place where the seeds are warm for a while before he sows them? He mentions soaking them for a day and then chilling them. Chilling is relative, though. I consider 18 C (~ 65 F) to be warm, but someone in Texas or Australia might consider it cool. I follow the temperature and timing that Deno recommends for Alstroemeria: 4 weeks warm (i.e. about 18 C in the daytime), followed by cold (outside, so between 5 and 10 C). It has worked for all the seeds I have sown, though germination times vary a lot. I recently bought 12 packets from Flores and Watson. Two lots of the seeds are from the current collecting season, and the rest are old seeds being sold off at a bargain. I sowed them as usual, in plastic ziplock bags of soilless mix, and put them in the dining room which is kept at a daytime temperature warm enough not to need a heavy sweater. Normally I wouldn't have looked at them until a month was up, at which point I would put them outside in a coldframe to germinate. Fortunately we had guests for dinner which meant I had to move the seed bags. I was surprised by active germination. Both the old seed and this year's seed germinated, all between 10 and 15 days, except for the two lots of A. crispata and one of pseudospathulata which haven't germinated yet in 30 days. I don't understand what has happened. I have always sown alstroemeria seeds at the same time, midwinter, (December and January) when exchange seed arrives. Perhaps the storage technique of John Watson's English partner, Martyn Cheese, has made the difference. Seed freshness does not seem to be an issue, as both his old and new seed germinated quickly, and both old and new haven't germinated yet. I've calculated days to germination of seed from other sources (each number represents one package of species seed). Archibald: 16, 18 Flores and Watson (in 2001): 43, 74 Alpine Garden Society: 18, 35, 64, 96, 120, 165, 183 North American Rock Garden Society: 50, 50, 50, 73, 301 Scottish Rock Garden Club: 21, 56, 56 It seems that, in general, seed from the big seed exchanges takes longer to germinate. The species I recently bought from Flores and Watson are mostly ones I do not already have, so I can't compare them with seed exchange seed. Just one duplicate: AGS 2001 A. pseudospathulata germinated in 35 days, and F & W this year's seed hasn't germinated yet in 30. -- Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada maritime zone 8 cool mediterranean climate (dry summer, rainy winter - 68 cm annually) sandy soil