I'm following this discussion closely, because it related to some next steps I'll be taking. My Tecophilaea have by now died down for the year; the corms look fine size-wise, but there are no offsets. The attempts at hand-pollination were not successful, so my grand plans for Tecophilaeas-R-Us are on hold for a year and I'm keeping my resume updated. John L. answered one question I was about to ask: under eastern conditions, should they be dry during the summer - and for how long? They're drying out now. One of the problems or challenges those of us who grow from seed face continually is getting seed to germinate. One factor which contributes to the uncertainty here (i.e. the uncertainty about how to handle the seed to induce germination) is that we often don't know how the seed was handled before we got it. On Alpine-L this week Kristl Walek make the good point that she tries to save/hold seed in the phase it experiences immediately before the phase which induces germination. Do any of you have special seed-saving and germination routines which you practice? I'm not very sophisticated here about this: everything either goes into the refrigerator or the freezer until I'm ready to try it. That has given such generally good results that I have not been moved to try anything else. Jim McKenney Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where Allium caeruleum is blooming and doing a good imitation of Jasione laevis and the Calochortus are doing a good imitation of California poppies.