On Tue, 24 Jan 2017 08:02:30 -0000, Chris Hogg wrote:

On Mon, 23 Jan 2017 22:28:54 -0000, "James Wilkinson Sword"
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Jan 2017 22:08:25 -0000, Charlie Pridham wrote:

On 23/01/2017 18:26, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
I bought a pack of 100 Royal Empress seeds on Ebay, and not one will
germinate. Am I doing something wrong? I sprinkled the seeds on some
fresh compost in some pots, and kept them warm (20C) and in lots of
light (some on a windowledge and some under a growlamp). Absolutely
nothing happened. Duff seeds or difficult plant? I did think it odd
the seeds should go on top of the soil, but that's what it says online.
I've always put seeds a cm under the soil (tried that too and that
failed aswell).

I often grow these from seed, it is quite correct that they need to be
literally sprinkled on the top of the compost with no covering and I
never use heat but let nature take its course, normally sowing 1st Feb,
seeds needs to be fresh, when I have tried to use the previous seasons
seed I got nothing.

They take a few years to start flowering 5-7 in our case, try and put
the tree where there will be a dark back drop, we didn't and ours
flowers well but against the blue sky and we can only see the flowers
properly from a bedroom window

Where would you recommend I start them in Scotland? Current outdoor temperature is 0-10C. I thought indoors would be nicer for them to get going.

You say the previous season's seed doesn't work, so perhaps the ones I bought from Ebay were expired?

I wish I could just buy a sapling from somewhere, but I can only find one company that sells them, at £50 each!!!

51 suppliers in the UK here http://tinyurl.com/jotylts . I haven't
checked prices, postage or availability, but one of my local nurseries
does a small plant for £12.50, plus £13.50 for P&P
http://www.burncoose.co.uk/site/plants.cfm?pl_id=3136

Ok that's better than £50, I'll take a look.