Doug, Before I share my experience with S. nutans, let me note for anyone on the list interested in purchasing fresh seed of S. nutans, I've noticed that SeedHunt.com is offering it for sale at a reasonable price. I've been growing Scadoxus nutans for 5 or 6 years and in my experience plants can hold their fruit a year or more. Mature plants carry numerous old flower stalks with fruit at various stages. They eventually turn a bright orange-red, but the seed inside has matured much earlier and invariably has already germinated within the tough sac-like inner ovary wall by the time fruit are red, so S. nutans could be called "viviparous." No doubt the fruit are waiting for an animal to consume them and the tough inner ovary sac would get them through its gut intact. I have found it best to harvest seed before the fruit are red, at perhaps 4 or 5 months from flowering, or when the fruit is very hard, without any give when squeezed. Seed are viable once the endosperm is solid. By the time the fruit are red the embryo has become very convoluted within the ovary and is more difficult to extract without damage. Some time ago I contacted you regarding seed set in S. cinnabarina and it is my observation that the clones in cultivation are female sterile as styles never elongate into the "anther zone." If anyone has produced seed on this species, I would be very interested to hear of it. I have used the pollen in attempting hybrids with results pending. I have not been able to obtain/exchange pollen from owners of potentially different genetic individuals to see if self incompatibility is the problem. Martin