Hi all,

Whilst I hesitate to disagree with a plantsman as able as Iain, I
feel that I should put up some slightly different experience. Last
July I collected a number of Juno's in central Asia, including I.
orchioides, I. willmottiana and I. kuschakewiczii, as well as a wide
range of other types of Iris, Tulipa, Eremurus and Allium. All of
these were sown in September and put out in covered cold frames for
the winter. Whilst we had low temperatures by our standards, they
did not fall below minus seven Celsius and, these pots were probably
protected from the worst of that. In any event, around 95% of the
species sown, i.e. around 150, have germinated with great success,
mainly over the past two months. The only issue now is how to handle
the thousands of seedlings!

For the record, the sowing was done in a fifty-fifty mix of soil
based compost with vermiculite, with a covering of course gravel, in
the kind of pots normally used for pond plants. The bottom half of
the pot was filled with a mix of soil based compost and fine gravel.

Best regards,
David Victor,
Bedfordshire, UK

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