I had a nice surprise in the crocus department today. A distinctive and beautiful self-sown seedling has appeared among the tommies which grow under some Magnolia stellata. This seedling has the silver and amethyst tommy colors, but it's much bigger. The open flower has a wide chalice shape which is very elegant. It's not quite as big as the Dutch crocuses. I suspect that it resulted from a cross between the abundant tommies which surround it and some plants of the very handsome old hybrid 'Vanguard' which grow nearby, although another possibility would be the abundant white-flowered Dutch crocuses which grow here. After writing the above, I went back to Bowles and some other sources to see what might have been available in the past in this style. Several old cultivars which I have never seen such as Margot, Haarlem Gem, and Maximilian might have been similar to my plant. I also read the comments of Bowles with respect to the superabundance of cultivars in the vernus group, and the tendency of raisers to see swans among their own seedlings and mere geese in the seedlings of others. Then I decided that perhaps I had been guilty of a swan sighting. Here's a link where you can see and decide for yourself: http://jimmckenney.com/self_sown_crocus_seedling.h… Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where while waiting for some files to upload, I picked up the Plants Delight catalog and learned a new word: Tony, is my crocus a honker? My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/