Western American species can be started in the fall (around October) and given cool temperatures (about 40 to 50 F or 5 to 10 C) for the winter months. An unheated garage may be suitable. They are delayed hypogeal, so in the fall, they will germinate in cool, moist conditions and produce a small bulblet. After several months of cool temperatures, they will send up a shoot. There are two basic methods people use: starting in pots and starting in vermiculate in a plastic bag. I have used both methods with Western North American species with success. Darm Crook documented the details here: https://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… I recommend the plastic bag method for small amounts of seed, and the potting soil method for larger amounts of seed. For small batches and rare seeds, success can be improved with the controlled environment of a plastic bag. Keep the plastic bags an extra year to allow stragglers to germinate. Using pots reduces the germination percentage, but is less trouble and may be appropriate when quantity of seed is greater. If you have poor vision or unsteady hands, I would avoid the plastic bag method, since transplanting the tiny seedlings from the bags to soil requires good eyesight and eye-hand coordination. I would use a mix of 15% perlite and 85% potting soil, or for the dryland species, increase perlite to 25%. 3 to 4" pots are suitable, and they should be kept moist throughout the germination period. However, I have noticed some particulars for some species: The plastic bag method maybe should be modified with the dryland species bolanderi and rubescens. The seedlings of these two species grow very long roots, which form a tangled mass in plastic bug culture. I have been separating these manually, but I decided that next time I try these species, I will either pot into soil very soon after germination and bullet formation (before long root growth occurs - that would be sometime around November or December). Lilium parryi will sometimes skip the cold period and germinate as immediate hypogeal. If that happens, you'll have to have a suitable environment to grow it in for the first winter. Indoors under grow lights works. Kelloggii and washingtonianum will work well with the plastic bag method, since their roots are not as long as rubescens and bolanderi. What issues were you having with seed starting when you tried it before? On Mon, Feb 14, 2022 at 9:33 AM Eric via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > Hi all > I have grown many lilium species and hybrids from seed but I have had > little success with Western North American species. I’m trying again with > these two Lilium. > Any suggestions are appreciated. > Thanks > Eric Duma > Sent from my iPhone > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>