Diane Whitehead's data on the time it takes certain lily seeds to germinate are interesting. Most of the seed of west coast lilies which I've had over the years has come from the seed exchange of the North American Lily Society. This seed arrives at a very inconvenient time for west coast lilies: March or April. In our climate we are already having 80+ºF days in April on occasion. As a result, the dry seed has always gone into the refrigerator until the following autumn. Then sometime in the autumn I bag it up in a moist medium and put it in the refrigerator – and then forget about it until sometime after the holidays. When I’m bored during the winter, I check the seed in the refrigerator. By then it is usually showing obvious signs of germination – typically a little bulb but for some species also a first leaf will also be developing. It's not unusual for all of the seeds to germinate, and for all of them to germinate apparently at once (based on sporadic observations during which they all seem to be at about the same stage of development). The germinated seed will survive for months in this condition in the refrigerator. Once they are brought out into the light and warmth, they grow readily. The challenge here is to keep the resulting seedlings alive once they enter their summer dormancy. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/