Hello Rick, Thank you so much for your post!. It has prompted in rethinking out my germination strategy. Yes I've followed Ian Young's indications with a E. grandiflorum batch. After seven months waiting, I have no results...yet. I suppose that these are long lived seeds that emerge naturally after natural environmental disturbances ( fires or landslides after snow melt downs. So I would also suspect that they would have no hurry in germinating in an immediate season. So they would have evolved to spread survival chances along many seasons. If my suppositions are correct then the cold stratification would be unnecessay because seeds would have no clue to which winter season they would react if they are spread out during many years.
I live in a montane mediterranean environment. In many ways simmilar to that of the western N.American Erythroniums. However one major difference is that our summers are cool and never go beyond 30ºC (86ºF) in the highs in late summer. Certain types of fruit trees develop fully here, but the fruit doesn't reach ripening stage ( i.e grapes, figs, apricots, peaches). I wonder if the lack of three digit summer temps would be a deterrent in the germination.
I have no doubt about Mr Young's expertise. However his garden which I drool over with so many treasures is placed in mild England, with a very different general growing conditions from mine. Yet he has managed to grow E's, from all over the world originated from very different environments than his, which proves that E's can adapt to other growing conditions. That's where I place my hope too!
The other question that arises is that he recommends to sow directly fresh seed as the best option. That option is beyond mine now since first I've got to get going a viable local population. So I rely on stored dry seed that I can purchase or get thru an exchange from the N. Hemisphere, where most of the rare plant gardeners are located.
I was hoping to find someone who has tried these gems from seed closer to their original home and perhaps share a tip that could help my own riddle. Challenges of rock gardening beyond the conventional....
I keep notes of what I do, so that if I succeed I will eventually share it here and elsewhere. Meanwhile I'll persevere in Ian's method.
