Well, that is a relief -- the absence of summer rains in the Siskyous, I mean. I guess I imagined that elevation and latitute would supply more moisture earlier in the year. I guess I need to scrutinize Lee's rainfall maps. For the record, Oakland is across the bay from SF, is usually a few degrees warmer than SF in the summer, and a few degrees colder in the winter, and Mark Twain wasn't here last week, when it was significantly colder than our (cold) summers. But it almost never drops below 35 degrees fahrenheit. We get an avg. of 25 inches or so of rain, almost all between October and April. Based on everyone's advice, I will stratify half my seed in the fridge now, and put the other half in flats outside in late summer per McRae. If I get bulbs, I'll put them in a raised bed that's not quite scree, but is pretty sandy, and dry in summer. And I will report back if anything interesting happens. Thanks all, Max And thanks to Jay and everyone for their hard work on the wiki.