Bekutenko - Berkutenko
Diane Whitehead (Wed, 05 Jul 2006 11:40:13 PDT)

I just ordered once from Dr Berkutenko, and one third of her seeds
germinated. I think some of the seeds may have been old. I ordered
in the fall, thinking I would be receiving current seeds, so my order
included seeds that require to be sown fresh. Then her new list came
out, I think in January, so I thought that perhaps I had received
seed from the previous year.

She is in an area where seed collectors go only rarely (I can think
of one Czech expedition to Kamchatka), and Russian botanic gardens
and universities have had to scramble for operating funds so I don't
mind that all the seeds don't germinate - the money goes to a
worthwhile cause. However, I would not order any more ephemerals
except for ones that are labelled as newly collected.

Seeds that germinated: Atragene (Clematis), Dracocephalum, Erigeron,
Gentiana (only 1 of 5 ordered, though) and Rhododendron.

Seeds that did not germinate: Anemone, Angelica, Cimicifuga, Dryas,
Erythronium

I did not try any of her iris seeds, but they might not germinate
easily either, if my lack of success with a lot of iris seeds from
SIGNA (Species Iris Group of North America) is indicative .

Diane Whitehead

who still has some bags of uncleaned seeds sitting on her kitchen
counter since last October, so I know how it can be.