However, emergence time controlled the timing of reproduction. Most plants emerging before the second week of July in the garden experiment bolted the same year. Plants emerging later behaved as winter-annuals and started to flower in June the following year. A similar dichotomy was observed for populations of Geranium spp. at a number of burnt forest sites that differed in date of fire. This response is likely controlled by photoperiod. Nevertheless, at sites that burnt early some plants did not bolt in the same season; probably an effect of variable seedling emergence dates in the populations. In both the field and garden experiment, there were plants entering reproduction too late to produce mature seeds. Our results indicate that management fires should be conducted either very early, or during July and August to achieve a high seed production in these rare forest plants.