Ordered a selection of seeds today from Vlado at www.cactus-seeds.com:
Denmoza rhodacantha
Echinocactus grusonii
Echinopsis atacamensis
Ferocactus diguetii
Neobuxbaumia polylopha
Pachycereus marginatus
Pilosocereus leucocephalus
Agave americana
Aloe dichotoma
20 seeds of each for approx $23. Paid with Paypal. Very easy.
He mailed me at lunch time to say the seeds would be posted tonight.
Excellent service so far. Now I just need to get my seed raising set up completed

Good luck with them Roger, keep us posted on how you go.

Growing cacti from seed is very rewarding and I feel the best way to really enjoy your cacti. Good luck and keep at it. Growing from seed can be challenging but as you learn the life cycle of the specis it becomes easier.....well a bit easier.

The species you have picked are great for starting out. Read up on the species native habitat and you will get an understanding of what they will like....and dislike.

HN

EDIT: Also Vlado is a great bloke and has some very rare and interesting seed. Highly recommended and a good choice.

Yep,
I agree with HN, Vlado is good, excellent range of seed and some quite hard to get.

Oh hang about - no he's not... if I say he is, then everyone will buy up his seed and there will be none for me...joking. If he doesn't have it - normally he can get it after a while.

Roger - not much Mexican on your list?? I think you need to place another order.

LOL - yeah he's rubbish
I will be ordering more - including some more Mexicans. One that springs to mind is Opuntia tunicata. Anyone have experience of those?
Thanks for the advice HN.

OK, I noticed this weekend that leaves are springing up on all my frangipanis and lots of other green shoots all over the place, so that was enough for me - spring must have started!
I planted all the seeds that I bought from Vlad

I have them all in a 900x600 planter box (made from rough cut hardwood fence palings - very cheap) devided up into 170 tubes, filled up with a Searles cactus mix. Sewed the seeds on top and then covered with a little grit. Followed with several fine water mistings.

I bought a green translucent fibreglass corregated panel (see through colourbond) and made a lid out of that to keep the little blighters humid. I added some pull out legs so I can lift it up once the seeds have germinated.

I'll keep you all abreast of developments...

Good luck Roger

Roger how did you contact him? I emailed him over 3 weeks ago and havent received a reply yet. Good luck with the little ones, hope they grow well 4 ya.

Vicki try emailing him again...........there have been a few problems with his computer.

Any little cacti coming up yet Roger? The weather is warming up quite a bit now Oh I love spring time.

Oh and...that's unlike Vlado, as Betty said try and contact him again. Usually he is very keen to communicate.

I mailed him with no problems.

Well I got home tonight to be greeted with the aftermath of a heavy storm. The kids trampoline stuck on the roof.

My wife had rescued the top from my seed bed but I don't yet know whether the wind/rain has had any effect on the seeds.
I'll have a look in the morning...

Thx 4 the info. Oh no Roger I hope its not disastrous

To continue...
After the stom I had a look through. There were a couple of agaves that had germinated and had been knocked over. I stood them up but they died by the next day.
I left everything to dry out after that.
I'll give it all a good watering again this weekend and perhaps there's some seeds that may still come up...

Ok, so my strike rate isn't good.
Out of 170 seeds sewn I got 1 germination.
Not great but I can blame it on the storm this time.
The pots were all knocked about so much that I don't even know yet which species it is :-)
I will be doing my darndest to keep it alive.

I'll be rethinking the approach for the next batch, perhaps bringing the propegation operation inside.
At least it should be easy to improve my average....