Rodger wrote, >Don Elick addressed the 1991 Western Winter Study Weekend here in >Victoria and >spoke on bulbs. >Among the many wise things he had to say was advice NOT to plant >ground covers >over Mediterranean bulbs, as they kept the soil cool and interfered with the >bulbs' summer ripening. As well, he felt that ground covers impoverished the >soil. If he had ever BEEN to the Mediterranean, he would have known that many of its bulbs grow in a dense cover of herbs, especially annuals, and small woody plants. Indeed, some survive only by growing within very thorny dwarf shrubs, where the goats and sheep can't get at them. As for "keeping the soil cool," dryland bulbs usually grow so deep in the soil that the temperature there varies little. Many bulbs in California and other areas rich in geophytes grow in grassland. It is nonsense that bulbs need to "bake" in summer, although you will read this in many older books. There are, of course, bulbs that grow in scree or sand, but if you dig down to where they are (I have), you'll find the soil is rather cool there. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon