Hi Josh, I'm guessing if you got seed they came from the southern hemisphere this time of year. I have never tried to germinate them, but I hear it is easy.....I never float seeds....never heard of a seed floating in nature so I just do it the old fashioned way....you know, in soil ;o) I have bulbs from what I assume are two different sources (I will e-mail you where I got them from as I would not want them to be pestered), but you never actually know!! One I just got this summer and it has not woken up yet...the other I have had for 3-4 years now and it has spiked the last 2 years although last year the spike was broken off so that was a bummer. My flowering bulb has an offset, but I will not be ready to trade offsets until I have a few more obviously. I'm looking forward to seeing it bloom and I may be sending pollen to OZ as I have a request from there :o) Dan

Well, I went with a solid brick raised terrace rather than piered decking so there wouldn't be a drainage problem against the house foundation. I suppose the latticing you plan can be backed by screening but if they're determined, they'll hang their nests under your deck stairs. Houses have landscaping and lights that attract bugs and spiders which are handy food for wasp larva. The bug bomb under the deck sounds like the easiest solution. On the deck at my other house I had the guys install a collar of two boards wide, parallel to the foundation and attached with easy to remove screws. This way, when it's time for termite treatments it is easy to get that treatment right there at the foundation in an area that seems always moist and shaded..a termite favorite.

Seeds from Jackmanii, or most any other hybrid clematis for that matter, won't give you more plants of Jackmanii, although the results could be similar; but equally they could be very different, or anywhere between! But that's the beauty of it - you get to raise original, new plants more or less every time, and you are the first person to see the new flowers. If you raise seeds over a reasonable period of time, if something particularly good eventually comes along you can give the plant a name, and, you never know, with luck and persistence you might even be able to earn something from it commercially, in time. But that's not the main aim - the fact is, most clematis (I am not saying this because I am biased!) produce beautiful plants with beautiful flowers that you will get a lot of pleasure out of - that is the main aim. Whichever, once the seed is germinated you are past the biggest hurdle and with a little more work you can soon have brand new plants producing brand new flowers, and I don't need to tell you, that's terribly exciting! Seeds of most of the jackmanii-types, and the other larger flowered hybrids, take between 180 (conservative) and about 400 days to germinate. You occasionally get some coming relatively quickly - about 200 days, but I would say the average is about 300 or so days, and most (but by no means all) will have germinated by 400 days. But you don't know in advance how long a given batch will take, so it is prudent to plant them in a manner that will ensure they are kept in good condition until they do germinate. So sow them in small pots with a dozen each pot, water, allow to drain, and once sown, cover the soil surface with a layer of grit-type material to a depth of one quarter inch or so - this helps preserve the moist, and helps suppress the growth of some mosses, liverwort etc. Enclose each pot in a top-sealing plastic bag and store the pots in trays for easy handling. For certain, keep them away from direct exposure to the sun's rays. Best to keep them covered and out of the way. (Personally I do this even for the quicker-germinating seeds too, but you could decide these specific ones perhaps don't need quite the same preparation). Yes, it's a little more effort, but these measures alone will ensure your seeds will keep in excellent condition for two or more years - plenty of time to germinate most types of seed. Once the pots are stored you can commence checking for germinations after 6 months, then weekly thereafter, until you notice the sprouts. There is then a critical period of three months while you bring the germinations from tiny sprouts to small plants. After this, the plants will largely look after themselves in terms of survival, but of course you will need (and want) to tend them throughout, otherwise, as with any other plants or young seedlings, neglect will lead to problems and losses. If they germinate in spring so much the better, because you will have all the coming season, with agreeable weather, to follow, while they are establishing. If they germinate during, or just before, winter, that makes things more difficult since you have to keep them going during the cold period - this is slightly harder, but that doesn't mean it is too difficult - it just demands a little more care. Once they are established, even young seedlings are tough, and in due course they will do their level best to flower for you as soon as they physically can. You just have to give them a little regular TLC and attention. When seedlings begin to produce flower buds for the first time the anticipation becomes massive, and as the flowers form you'll find yourself speculating on the possible outcomes!!! Not only are they brand new flowers, they are YOUR OWN new flowers! Never seen by anyone, ever, before! Remember that species seeds, as long as they have not cross-pollinated ("hybridised") with other clematis growing nearby, will produce daughters which are quite similar to the parents - they "come true"; whereas seed from hybrids will produce offspring that CAN be similar to, but, much much more likely, will show marked differences to, the parent = they usually WON'T "come true". So, seeds gathered from wild populations where clematis exist as discrete populations of plants, will more often than not "come true", whereas plants, even species plants, grown in garden environments, where other clematis may be growing in the neighbourhood, probably won't come true, because the bees and other insects introduce pollens from other sources to the flowers (clematis are insect pollinated). So, even if you receive seed from somewhere where the known pure species proper is grown, be aware that the seed may still produce some hybrids, if the plants from which the seeds are gathered are growing near other, different (but compatible) clematis plants. You'll find the smaller, thinner-walled clematis seeds are easy to germinate and raise on. So, any of the "orientalis" group species (C. tangutica, C. serratifolia, C. tibetana etc), and hybrids ("Golden Tiara" etc); and many of the alpinas and macropetalas, and so on, will germinate after 30 - 90 days and be up before you know it. And you can have (with best care) flowering plants sometimes even within a season, or at most, two seasons, from then. The viorna group - C. texensis, C. viorna, C. crispa, and so on, and their hybrids, are more like the large-flowered hybrids in that their seeds tend to be thicker-walled, tougher and take longer to germinate. Some might require periods of cold to help them germinate, but that's no problem - store your trays of seed pots where they feel the outside temperatures -I keep mine under the staging in the cold greenhouse - during the colder months they freeze and thaw with the natural cycle. That leaves a large batch of species, and hybrids of species etc which take, on average, roughly 100-200 days or so to germinate - in other words 3 to 6 months or slightly more. No matter what type you raise, treat them all the same in the first year after germination. There is no need to complicate anything more than needs be. And just because some need shorter periods to germinate, it doesn't follow that they are any less enjoyable or beautiful than those which take longer - they are just different types of plants. Some of the orientalis-group plants (the small-yellow-flowered group) will give seedlings which will fill a two litre pot with roots, and flower beautifully, even in the very first season after germination, even for the first-time raiser. So ideally you could start with a mix of several types of seeds, some of which will come relatively quickly, along with some that will take longer - that way you can be seeing germinations quickly, and then tending young plants, and bringing them to flower, even while you are waiting for the others to germinate. However much effort you put into it I can promise you that the results will always more than outweigh the work. This is just a quick reply so I have not thought every word through to the nth degree - so if anything seems ambiguous or unclear there is much more detailed info on the web site mentioned above. If you have access to seeds, have a look at the germination data (on the Germination page!), and just get an idea of what GROUP your seeds fall into - that will be sufficient for you to get a reasonable idea of how long they might take. Most of us start with seeds of large flowered hybrids from our own garden plants, and they are certainly a great way to start. You can look out for species seed sources as you go along; but do also try the orientalis group, the alpinas, the macropetals, you will be rewarded much more quickly and soon get bitten by "the bug".

Whitegarden, send me an email about winter sowing anytime. All those seedlings, including the tomato seedlings, you've brought home from my plant swap, the past 2 years are all wintersown seedlings. Just think about all those containers, inside my fenced in yard in the back and those are all wintersown seedlings. Though, the term winter sowing implies that you "must do" this during the winter months, it really is a misnomer to think that. Unless you are sowing seeds that truly need a long cold stratification, you don't really have to start sowing seeds, even perennials until April, if you don't want to. I've been wintersowing for 8 years, year 9 is coming up this year and I've found that the overall germination of the seeds doesn't change much. That is to say, depending on the seeds, they will germinate at the same time each year, regardless of when you sow them. Seeds sown in January, February, March, even starting in early April, will germinate when the time is right for them and the conditions are right for them to germinate. So if the seeds would normally germinate around the second week in April, getting them out in January vs April 1st will not make a difference, they will germinate around the same time each year. Some seeds germinate earlier than others, and nothing but mother nature will change that. All of the seedlings that I had for the swap, the ones in my back yard that where not for the swap, all where sown from April 8th on. Just lots and lots of things well out of my control prevented me from doing any Winter sowing before April 8th, and the results where no different than if I had started in January or February. ONe other thing, the containers for WS must be outside in the open to get the snow/rain, etc directly on them. inside will not work, such as a barn, covered porch etc. Fran