I’ve been trying to grow these for a number of years, with increasing success, I think. Most of what follows pertains to pot culture, I succeeded with F. viridea, liliacea and a couple of affinis outside for 2 or 3 years but they dwindled and finally went away in a cold winter. On the contrary F. pudica is a stalwart in the garden. My first F. recurvas flowered in pots this spring from seed sown in 2001 and 2002 and were well worth the wait. A variety of F. affinis forms flowered also, and F. biflora. Without doubt the best commercial source of seeds is Ron Ratko, who has a great selection most years. I surface sow the seeds and find, if they are sown by mid- January they germinate rapidly and profusely and can get a reasonably long season under their belts. If I receive them later I tend to hold them until the following fall and sow and water them in September. Germination then is in similar proportions but in mid-winter, giving an even longer growing season. I leave seedlings in the pots untouched until after their 3rd season above ground, when they are repotted. Most have moved pretty deeply in the pots by this time and I repot at a similar depth. They definitely like the depth – at least ¾ of the way down the pot. Like the Rhinopetalum group, both seedlings and mature plants rise early (late December and January) and so need reasonable amounts of moisture through the winter, albeit with perfect drainage. They seem particularly thirsty in early spring and are very sensitive to even a little dryness at the root, especially as the late winter temperatures start to increase. If they flop a couple of times they decide that’s it for the year and go to sleep. As long as they are in active growth they get fed and watered, backing off only when the foliage shows signs of dormancy. They can get water for a while after flowering. They get no water from dormancy until mid-late September, usually around 4 months. They want to be dry but not hot and very dry – they will desiccate. I tried a new trick on them and other sensitive bulbs this year – in early July I covered the pots on the greenhouse benches with sheets of ½” Styrofoam insulation, just resting it on the labels. It worked a treat, allowing the pots to continue drying out but insulating them from extremes of heat in the shaded greenhouses. I’ll do this again next year. I grow them all in BioComp BC% with 50% sieved supercoarse perlite, in either 3 ½” or 4 ½” pots. It is a treat to see them coming through in mid-winter and the leaves can be incredibly attractive – F. ojaiensis for example has the most amazing brown mottled leaves until well into the season. The only real problem I’ve seen occasionally is an attack of botrytis on seedlings – it can progress quickly if not taken care of. I keep the greenhouses as ventilated as possible all the time, the times to watch out for are cold and damp days when it is too cold to open the vents. Last year I sprayed everything in the greenhouses, pots & structures, with ZeroTol and it seemed to reduce fungal problems to essentially none. I’ll do this again in a week or two when I finish the repot. Best, J. John T Lonsdale PhD 407 Edgewood Drive, Exton, Pennsylvania 19341, USA Home: 610 594 9232 Cell: 484 678 9856 Fax: 801 327 1266 Visit "Edgewood" - The Lonsdale Garden at <http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/> http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/ USDA Zone 6b