Geoffrey Barnier wrote about poor germination with seed from the Archibalds this year. I had not brought this up but had been wondering if I should. I always buy a lot of seeds from them, and until this year it germinated about as well as I would expect of "difficult" species. This year, however, the germination was very poor. I planted all the seeds at the same time as some home-saved bulb seeds, which germinated at a rate I would think of as normal. I wondered if the Archibalds had sent out older seeds this year because of the disorganized state of their business during their rebuilding project, or if perhaps the seeds had been mistreated by the US mail. The fact that Geoffrey is in Australia seems evidence against my suspicions of the Department of Homeland Security -- though certainly Australia is suspicious about seeds too. That said, I don't think we should give up on this premier source of bulb seeds. Indeed, I don't plan to give up on the ones I planted last fall. Sometimes when seeds are stored in a certain condition or for a longer time, it triggers a deep dormancy that takes more than one season to break after planting. I know that the seeds I get from one source which arrive around February take an extra year or two, even though February planting here offers what should be adequate moist chilling. The seeds in this year's Archibald shipment that did germinate quite well were mostly in the Hyacinthaceae (e.g., Bellevalia). When we have a list such as that of the Archibalds, with its hundreds of choice items obtained in very small quantities, it doesn't seem reasonable to expect the kind of viability testing performed on annual and vegetable seeds by, say, Jelitto. It would be reasonable, however, to lower the price of older seeds, as Ron Ratko does. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA