The best method I've found so far is to go to the bench grinder and just hold them between your fingers and buzz against the stone for a second. It gets through the shell in a flash and you don't have to file your finger tips off with a file. I get through about 100-150 in ten minutes that way. Then I soak them in water for a day or three and stick them in starting soil. I'm getting about 90-95% starts. If you use the peat pellet starters the roots will stick out the bottom within days of germination and you'll be potting them up within the second week. I'm currently starting about 3,000 seeds and expect flowers just before frost, or more likely next season.

Have a question. I have four large desert rose plants. Two of them produced two seed pods two years ago. Last year the same two produced three. This year I just discovered I have two pods on one and eleven (11) on one that has not produced pods before. They have all just started. Is it possible all eleven on the one plant will have viable seeds in each pod. And no I do not grow the for a nursery or anything like that. These are in my back yard. Thanks, Tanya

John F, regarding the chinese peppers my neighbour gave me you might be interested to know that they started off looking like this plant and developed pods very similar in size, shape (some are banana shaped), texture, and colour (without the purple) to these It seems there must be two types because some taste just like jalapenos while others are mild, but they all look like jalapenos in cross section. Any chance they are related? I didn't think jalapenos went yellow as these are. So far they haven't changed colour from the yellow. John, btw, on this page http://www.pbase.com/chiles400/plants_05 these photos http://www.pbase.com/chiles400/image/46806981 http://www.pbase.com/chiles400/image/46806984 http://www.pbase.com/chiles400/image/46806987 are being blocked by my Zone Alarm as ads, have you any idea why? It seems to me that it is a problem with my ZA, but I don't know for sure so I thought I'd mention it to you. I haven't had this problem with any other photos of yours on that site.

They can if grown in ideal conditions, I usually assume 2 years one to grow into a decent plant, then flower the next from the rhizome. You'll want the be vary carefull about any cannas you buy or rhizomes most commercial ones are virused look up images of what to look out for. Yellow strips and stripes along the leaf vein, white break in the petals. It is spread by sap sucking insects and dividing the rhizome, it's been my understanding that no viral, bacterial or fungal infection is spread via seed but I could be mistaken.