Jane McGary wrote: >C. cupanii... is a very good grower in the bulb frame but has not survived >in the open rock garden. Jane, you've mentioned this circumstance ( "has not survived in the open rock garden")in a number of postings about other bulbs in the past. This intrigues me. It helps to know when bulbs die (when it can be determined). Here on the east coast, many bulbs don't make it through the summers in the garden. Some don't make it through the winters. It helps to know when they run into trouble. Last year, I was unpleasantly surprised to find some tulips in a raised bed rotting in early June. Many colchicum do the same thing. Because so many of us grow bulbs from you, your experiences are particularly significant. It's a mystery to me, for instance, why Crocus goulimyi is an easy garden plant here but will not do for you as a garden plant. I'm tempted to offer you corms ripened here in Maryland to see if those would survive at least the first Oregon winter. But I can understand why you might eschew corms from a notorious botrytis sump and do your own experimentation. Can you tell us more about why you think Colchicum cupanii fails in the open rock garden? And maybe tell us a bit more in general about the problems peculiar to your climate? Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where the roses on the pergola are beginning to bloom freely.