I have several night blooming plant seeds, and black blooming plant seeds. Night Blooming Datura the scent is intoxicating! 4 o'clocks night blooming plox I have several others that I can't think of right off the top of my head right now. Black: A couple of different types of nasturiums (you can eat these as well!) Scabiosa "Ace of spades" I will have to go through my stash and send you a full list. I also have a trade of Cherokee Trail Of Tears" beans. I would love to trade for the following from your list: Bean - Red Rice (Asian Bean) Bean - Chinese Red Noodle (Long Bean) Bean - Taiwan Black (Long Bean) Pepper - Orange Bell Pepper - Purple Beauty Bok Choi Please take a looka t my list as well. Thanks, Carrie

Briergardener When I dump the bucket and after shake out some of the soil, I usually take a pair of scissors, cut the crown of the plant loose from the bulk of the root mass, and then re-plant the crown. Kind of like giving them a big root hair cut. I don't leave them bald but they end up with a pretty short new hair-do instead of the long tangle they started with. The crown springs back nice and fast after it's planted back out and watered in. Mid fall is a good time to harvest because the plant is directing energy back toward it's roots anyway. In my zone harvesting in late September or early October works well. The mild fall weather at that time gives them gentle growing conditions for them to root in before winter. Generally the crown is big enough that you can divide it into several divisions for re-planting. Lynda

Here is a link to Tom Clothier's germination database. You can look up each kind of seeds to determine cold stratification requirements. Keep in mind you are not trying to create these conditions. Ma Nature is doing it for you. Just use it as a guideline for what to plant first. For example, if something says 12 weeks at 28 F, followed by 2 weeks at 70, you know that a)you need to plant it earlier, and b) the two weeks at seventy will not immediately follow the 12 weeks at 28. But it will happen when Ma Nature says so. Conversely, if something says 78F for 2 weeks, you know you don't need to sow it until much later, into the spring. Best wishes, Seedmama Here is a link that might be useful: Tom Clothier's germination database

one of the fascinating parts of hellebore culture is how you never know what you're getting until 3 or 4 years later, yet people are still willing to pay interesting rates for unconfirmed seed. so far the seedlings I've grown from E Town have been somewhat disappointing. I will be able to probably see the first pine knot seedlings bloom next year or so. I only bought the mixed since at that time it was the only option.... and since i did not thin and transplant them in their first two seasons they are a bit behind what they would have been. I am also growing ashwood seed and seed from other sources (such as from gisella schmiemann, etc...). it will be interesting to compare the results. many places now claim to offer hand-pollinated seed and to have great plants. i hope that others will post results here when their plants bloom so we can once and for all get an idea of whether it is really possible to mass produce hand-pollinated seed and have good results. at this point i am very skeptical but still hopeful. hellebore genetics are too mixed for me to pay a dollar per seed. i'd rather buy a blooming double plant and pollinate it myself under controlled conditions. still, it's interesting and encouraging to see so many people willing to pay for hellebore seed and grow it on for years. maybe we will learn something through the process. hopefully in the next year many will post their results.... for example many people ordered from elizabeth town a few years back and should be getting first results. yet, i'm only aware of a couple of people's results. so far it has not been very encouraging. many of the plants are typical at best, and many from the double batches have not produced doubles (certainly they are not "coming true" at 80-90%, etc...). and the ones that are double are extremely variable... some quite ugly really. :) it is fun to grow from seed and there are always pleasant and unpleasant surprises. i believe the best deal still may be the ashwood seed because from what i can tell, they likely produce the best hybrids in the world in terms of genetic stability and range of color patterns and saturations, etc (at least outside japan where much of the work is done in labs, and the genetic material is mostly from europe and australia and seed mostly inaccessible for now). i think E Town's best offerings are its doubles (e.g. mrs. betty ranicar is still hard to beat) but they clearly don't have the range or quality that ashwood has. pine knot uses ashwood material and has for years, so it is a good bet too. i've certainly been happy with the plants i purchased from pine knot, but having been there i know the majority are not plants that i would want... perhaps 30-40% are what i would call "good" or better. of course it's one of the only places in that part of the country to get high quality plants. still pays to buy a plant in bloom if possible and to know something about its provenance and lineage. for those who would be happy with any hybrid that is decent, i understand that these concerns are of little value, but in such cases it would of course not be necessary to pay such prices. i hope that other consumers will become interested for the sake of increasing transparency between producers and consumers. i believe there are quite a few ripoffs these days as hellebore popularity has grown so dramatically and many gardeners aren't aware of the difference between really elite plants and more typical ones. for anyone interested, an interesting discussion about the topic can be found below. Here is a link that might be useful: hellebore seed prices