Andrew, When you say your seed sprouts readily, are referring to self sown seed. Or seed you stored indoors over the summer? I'm just curious what the mechanism is that would delay sprouting of imported seed (beyond the obvious extra season that one deals with when switching hemispheres). One thought is these seeds are harvested at the end of winter and stored indoors ( possibly refrigerated??) and never experience true summertime temps before being sown. Same would be true with locally grown plants if the seed weren't sown early enough. Perhaps heat exposure has something to do with it, not just the day night differential. Some of the seed I received from bx this fall has not sprouted either, not just the imported ones. All were planted rather late in the season and weren't exposed to any hot weather at all. Just a possibility with an excess of seed one could experiment with this. Tim C