If you want to grow alot of these you need to start them in open flats. Get some plastic trays from the five and dime. You are looking for something that would double as the bottom of a cat litter box. With about a 1/2 inch wood drill bit put about 12 holes in it. Six of them on the curve of the bottom to side. This is so if sitting flat it won't fill with water. I use a compost soil with a little sand and mix 50% with miracle grow soil or peters which is sold in our area. Fill about an inch from the top and water thoroughly. Add more soil if needed to keep an inch from the top. Lay out seeds flat with about the same space as the seeds are wide. Cover with 1/4 inch of soil mix. Mist top of soil until real wet. Set in semi bright light or on porch but not full sun. After they have had three or four leaves come out strong you can gradually introduce them to more sun. Don't worry about thinning out after they start sprouting. Leave in the tray and fertilize as required. Donts soak and don't let dry out. Leave them in tray for first year, then plant them out or in pots. You will end up with over 50+ a tray and are great for starting a whole bed with one tray. Hoped that helped you some it has worked for us for years. Warning; cats love to lay in these flats of young Amaryllis. Here is a link that might be useful: Town Square

I lookup the stratification requirements when I am making up my plant tags. Then I write on the tag "ws" for wintersow and "ss" for spring sow. If it is something that may need multiple warm cold warm cycles I also write on it "slow" and the date sown. That way if it isn't sprouted by summer I know to keep watering it and move it to a shady spot over the summer so it won't completely dry out before next winter. I file my seed packets I plan to sow and prepared labels in a tub with sections for sowing early winter, late winter/spring, and tender-only sow after frost. This is just to make sure I get the things that NEED cold out first. Then I can take my time doing the things that might need a bit of cold or fluctuating temps or at last can handle cold. The tender things can wait, some of them get done in my "wintersowing containers" and some get direct sown. That decision depends on how many of the seed I have, where it is going, how quickly it germinates, and of course how much potting mix I have left! I always end up underestimating how much I am going to do each year. So, there are still reasons why some of us research the seed's needs, but it is definitely not required for a successful experience. If you like researching that info - do it, if not skip it altogether or maybe just do it for those very special seeds. You will also learn what works best for you over the years and tweak the routine to suit your needs.

I usually just ut off the dead leaves with a pair of scissors. I use them to sheet mulch around the base of the plants. Just use whatever mulch you want on top of the leaves. If you want to cut the stalk all the way to the ground, you can lay those under the mulch as well. They decompose nicely and serve to feed the plants next year.

Thanks for all the very helpful information, everyone! I learned a lot more from this than I did from trying to get it from Google searches! I was not really familiar with the Bialetti machine (although I had seen them, but not in use), and so the link I posted below was very surprising to me. I had no idea that it worked that way. I'm intrigued by the Toddy coffee maker, but it would require me to plan perhaps too far in advance, and I'm not good at that. However, it is very affordable, and if it will make coffee that will upset my stomach less, I think I should give it a try. I never drank coffee until I moved to San Francisco in early 1970s, and back then the Melitta drip was what everyone seemed to use. Coffee still upset my stomach back then, but I tolerated it better then than I do now! Peet's coffee is available at Bristol Farms, and the store is in my general neighborhood, but I will go back to the Venice coffee & tea shop where I used to buy my tea. I'll probably go back to buying tea there again as well, as they have the best selection, and I love their "Fancy Keemun" tea. Annie, it sounds like you have all bases covered, and I might eventually end up with multiple coffee makers! Lars Here is a link that might be useful: Bialetti cappuccino maker with video