:-) You're the anti-me! My answer to your question is... it depends. Most species and varieties of Iris do well with a cold stratification before germinating. Usually I plant all mine in the fall, and set them in the unheated addition off the back of my house where temps can get to about 20 deg F...but usually stay above freezing. Pacific Coast irises, though, would probably suffer if treated that way. At the moment I only have a few batches of Louisiana irises that I'm trying to germinate. They're on a cold windowsill where temps get down to the 30's at night, and up to 70's in the day. (That swing in temps really seems to trigger germination... especially after a cold stratification of a month or two.) I got 20 seeds of D. robinsoniana and I planted 5, and waiting to see what they do. I'll try again with another batch if these fail to germinate. There's other iris experts on the forum. I'm eager to hear what they say. Dennis in Cincinnati (tonight's forecasted low is 1 deg F. LOL) On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 7:57 PM, David Ehrlich <idavide@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > Hi Dennis > > Here in Coastal California, Dietes (two or three species) grow freely and > easily, but are not weedy. I've just put the seed in a pot of commercial > potting mix and voilà! a new seedling. They take a few years to get to > blooming > size. > > Now tell me -- I've grown many irids from seed, but never Iris. I just got > some > Iris seed -- is there anything special I need to know about germinating > Iris? > > David E. > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >