Hi All, I've been away, off in Madison WI at Olbrich Botanic Garden and at Chicago Botanic Garden (where Boyce and I had the most marvelous sunny morning strolling the grounds and talking non-stop.) Hence my somewhat tardy reply. I have almost 9 acres. It slopes, we're on a well, there are deer and woodchucks and other critters - naturalistic is the only way that really works for me. Planting large numbers of bulbs just to yank them out after they flower (says she, blithely ignoring all the cannas that will need to be dug and boxed for the winter), well, tulips for example, just not worth the effort in large numbers. Hyacinthoides hispanicus is a thug in smaller gardens, works well in mine where it has room to romp around the woodland. I like the plain old mauve-purple Corydalis solida that happily seeds about and combines so nicely with Helleborus orientals. Sure I'd like the cultivars, but at $10 each for 'George Baker' it isn't going to happen - can't make drifts with one. Fritillaria imperialis does well for me, on a slope in what passes for full sun, in rather heavy soil. They get touched with frost, slump to the ground, resurrects themselves, and bloom. Splitting up but still flowering. Difficulty is finding it a partner as there's not much else that size except shrubs. So I planted Spirea 'Gold Flame' in front, and the rusty new leaves on the shrub make a nice complement to the orange bells. I'm fond of arisaema and Arisarum probiscoideum and lots of others, like snowdrops and snowflakes, Guinea hen flower and more. But I just got home this afternoon, I need to finish unpacking, and I'll write more tomorrow or the next day. And the colchicum at C.B.G. were lovely. regards from Judy, back home in the Garden State