Dear All, The topic of the week for our PBS list is favorite red flowered bulbs. This discussion is in addition to anything else people would like to talk about. Please tell us about your favorite five red flowered bulbs you grow. Be sure to list where you live in your message or your signature so people will know where these plants are successful. I hope we have a lot of people taking time from their gardens to give us their choices even if they only have time to list the names of the plants. It's o.k. if someone else mentions it. We'll just know that it is loved by more than one person in more than one place. Once again we may find that there is overlap between orange-red and red and red and red with pink tones. Sometimes the digital camera picks up tints that I don't see when I look at the plant and I'm never sure whether that has to do with the camera or the way pigments get translated to the human eye. For our discussion we won't quibble. If your favorite seems red to you it's fine to discuss it. As usual when I first thought of this I wondered if I could think of five and then of course found it hard to limit it to five. So here goes, but not in any order of preference since at the moment any of these bloom I love them. 1. I guess this is a way to get an extra one, but I'd find it hard to choose between Romulea sabulosa and Romulea monadelpha which are two of my favorite plants. These red beauties from South Africa usually are in bloom about a week apart and so sometimes bloom at the same time. The most glorious all time image in my memory bank of mass displays of bulbs in the wild was Romulea sabulosa in Nieuwoudtville. Pictures are on the wiki. 2. Lilium maritimum -- I have a special fondness for this plant which grows where I live and is rare. We monitor it in our local destinations every year. This was not a good year for it since it has been dryer than usual and in our favorite wild population the deer got them all this year, but we've had good blooms in some of the spots it is planted in my garden. 3. Tulipa linifoia -- There are a lot of nice red tulips, but this one which I grow in a pot is not only charming, but dependable and brings me great pleasure every year. 4. Dichelostemma ida-maia -- Another California native, this one, known as firecracker flower, is quite striking and looks so different from all the other Dichelostemmas. I have it planted in containers and in the ground and this year with drier warmer temperatures when I returned from my trip I had blooms in 4 or 5 places in my garden. 5. My last choice was a tie between two South African irids, Geissorhiza inflexa, and Babiana villosa. Both of these species have flowers in other colors than red, but it is the red ones I am nominating. Babiana villosa has a long period of bloom. Where I have it planted in my garden it is not becoming overbearing, but is making a nice statement every year (unlike some of my other Babianas which increase rapidly or sulk.) Geissorhiza inflexa I am not having quite the success with that I would like. But when it blooms, it really dazzles. Pictures of all of these are on the wiki pages for those genera. Mary Sue Mary Sue Ittner California's North Coast Wet mild winters with occasional frost Dry mild summers