When I first bought seeds from Silverhill, I sowed the ones said to like smooke in aluminum foil baking pans of peat-based compost. I lit a tiny smoky fire in my woodstove and put the pans in for a little while. The peat in one of them started to smoulder, but I put it out before any damage was done. Here are the results- germination only. (As a couple of other list members have written, growing the plants on is another level of learning.) Erica sphaeroidea and Syncarpha sphaeroidea germinated in about 60 days Protea laurifolia in 30 days P.neriifolia and P. punctata in about 3 weeks, but some unsmoked seeds germinated 4 days later than the smoked ones. I haven't tried since, though I do have a package of Kirstenbosch smoke papers. -- Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada maritime zone 8 cool mediterranean climate (dry summer, rainy winter - 68 cm annually) sandy soil