I've never had any trouble with Nomocharis, several species of which have thrived here for years in part sun. All are in containers and overwinter in a cold (to mid 20's F) greenhouse. I grow them like lilies. I make my soil with a base of compost-derived commercial mix to which I add lots of pumice and my homemade organic fertilizer. I use my acid fertilizer recipe, which has no dolomite in it, just 3 pts cottonseed meal, .5 pts bone meal, and .5 pts kelp meal. (Lately I've begun making a bulb version, with less cottonseed meal, but I haven't repotted the Nomocharis since switching.) The original seeds came from NARGS, Chiltern, and especially the Archibalds. My site is cold by Seattle standards, routinely 5 - 10 degrees cooler than the city. I hope this helps. Pamela Harlow On Sun, Jul 30, 2017 at 8:10 AM, David Pilling <david@davidpilling.com> wrote: > Hi, > > On 30/07/2017 04:38, Diane Whitehead wrote: > >> I have tried for decades to grow nomocharis from seed, as bulbs have >> never been offered for sale >> here, and, though they do germinate, that's as far as it goes. >> I would really appreciate some instructions. >> > > I used to beg on the SRGC forum for the secret. I could never get a clear > answer. > > I have grown Nomocharis from seed to flower, twice. The plants did not > survive to flower again or set seed. > > I sowed a lot of seed. Most of it met with disaster. One has to keep > searching online, people often only sell seed for one year. A tip is to > apply for surplus seed in the seed ex - often you won't get much seed as > first choice, but will get plenty as surplus. > > The two pieces of typically vague horticultural advice I did find "shade" > and "peat", I believe hindered me. Here in the North of England it is > always shady, and peat becomes a rotting mess when over-watered. If I set > off again I would treat them as lilies. > > The wiki page: > > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… > > shows my plants and various bit of information. Seemingly it took four > years from seed to flower. > > They are wonderful flowers, and given the chance I would clothe the > countryside in a million of them. > > > -- > David Pilling > http://www.davidpilling.com/ > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…