Sternbergia candida is blooming here in the Washington, D.C. area now, too. The plant in question is not in my garden but in the garden of a friend who gardens in Arlington, Virginia. She sent a picture the other day and when I opened the file, I didn't know what I was looking at. My first impression was that it was a white Rhodophiala, Zephyranthes or some other neotropical amaryllid. The flower was apparently big, at least big for a Sternbergia. The flower form confused me: it was evidently wide open, flat faced and not at all like the photos I had seen of Sternbergia candida. I had Sternbergia candida three or four years ago but lost the plants (literally; they disappeared when the bed they were in was remade) before they bloomed. Now I have a better idea of what I'm missing. Angelo, please tell us more about the large-flowered Sternbergia lutea. For instance, does it form seed? I have never had a plant of the big forms of Sternbergia lutea which would set seed (not counting the sicula forms which do form seed here). I've long wondered if these large plants are garden forms, maybe triploids or with irregular chromosome counts. Your comments seem to suggest that there are other big Sternbergia lutea other than the common commercial form. Please tell us more. Jim McKenney Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where the storm which John Lonsdale mentioned is predicted to dump as much as 12 inches of snow on us.