Hi Diane, I occasionally get my own purpurascens seeds, but not many or often. Most of my plants are in the garden. Seeds have also come from a variety of sources in Europe - Jan Bravenboer especially, also the CS and a couple of good friends who know their cyclamen very well and how to take care of seeds. I don't see much difference between them, other than some batches of CS purpurascens seed never germinate at all. You have hit the nail on the head - however controlled your experiments are, it is impossible to control what happened before you got the seed and this may be a major factor impacting your results. Seed set on many species has been pretty good this last season and some, like intaminatum under glass, are already ripe. Best, J. John T Lonsdale PhD 407 Edgewood Drive, Exton, Pennsylvania 19341, USA Home: 610 594 9232 Cell: 484 678 9856 Fax: 315 571 9232 Visit "Edgewood" - The Lonsdale Garden at http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/ USDA Zone 6b -----Original Message----- From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Diane Whitehead Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2010 4:16 PM To: Pacific Bulb Society Subject: Re: [pbs] Storing cyclamen seeds John reports no difference in germination time for all his cyclamen species, including purpurascens, and I wonder whether he is sowing his own purpurascens seeds and has developed a strain that germinates quickly. My Cyclamen Society purpurascens seeds sown in mid-October under the four different conditions germinated from November 8 to January 9. The CS seeds from all the donors are put together, so it is difficult to know how they have been treated prior to my receiving them. I have not had any seeds from my own plants, so haven't been able to germinate fresh seeds. Christopher Grey-Wilson wrote that purpurascens does not set seeds readily, particularly if grown in pots. Do you get many seeds, John? Diane On 22-May-10, at 12:15 PM, John T Lonsdale wrote: > Diane wrote "The species of cyclamen makes a great difference; > purpurascens > requires soaking and darkness unless you don't mind how long it > takes to > germinate." > > That is the case for Diane, but not here. Treated in exactly the same > manner as all the other cyclamen seeds (no soaking), purpurascens > seeds sown > in late August and kept moist in a greenhouse that is allowed to get > to > around 26F on the floor give very high germination rates the > following late > spring.