Mary Sue, smoke water has been avaialble here in Australia for quite a few years now. It was developed at Kings Park in Western Australia after much research and is available in all the good Indigenous nurseries here. They suggest that some Australian natives need fire and smoke to germinate easily. Earlier this year there was a large bush fire got out of control at Wilsons Promontory here in Victoria and they have been astounded by the regrowth and the appearance of species that haven't been seen for a few years, after the fire. I've also tried the smoke pads available from Kirstenbosch in South Africa and these are very easy to use. My experiments found no difference in germination with or without, although I don't think that any of the species I tried with really needed smoke treatment. There are some very informative articles on setting up a smoke house in some of the old issues of the South African I.B.S.A. newsletters and well worth reading if you are interested. It's much like using a bee smoker but you could set up a pretty easy system with a bit of enterprise. The other interesting fact that I have read is that burning some particular types of branches of trees gives a better result but I can't remember which ones off the top of my head. One of the species which germinates better with smoke I believe is the Protea. The smoke water to buy bottled was pretty expensive but I guess there is no reason why you couldn't make your own if you had the need? regards, Bill Richardson Ixia King - ixia@dcsi.net.au Ixia Website: http://www.angelfire.com/ri/ixia/ Suite 101: http://suite101.com/welcome.cfm/bulbs_and_plants/ Writers Suite: http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/strange_tales