Dear All, This is the time of the year when our California wildflowers are in bloom and it is such a treat to be out hiking and discover them as we walk. The shorter Zigadenus fremontii started blooming months ago and now the taller ones are blooming too. The Trilliums are fading, but I have seen my first Brodiaea terrestris and expect to see more and more as we are having a wet spring. And I have seen Calochortus in bud as well. The ones in pots are always earlier than those in the ground. I was amused at Brian Whyer's comments about killing the Alliums. On my hike Thursday we passed a small patch of Allium unifolium. Where I live it is almost always found in very wet spots where it can be quite numerous, but you don't see it expanding to other areas. In fact it barely grows and doesn't expand in my much dryer garden when I plant it in the ground. I once asked Jim Robinett why some of these California Alliums known for there expansive qualities like Allium hyalinum which doubles for me in pots and never does anything in the ground don't do better for me in the ground. He speculated that they weren't getting water long enough, but who knows. On the other hand Allium triquetrum is an ever expanding pest in coastal northern California. I notice it these days up and down the road on Highway One. I'm not sure anyone has tried to kill it. Where I live people frown on using herbicides to kill the weedy things so mostly Cal Trans (the highway folks) just mows. Blooming now in the wild and viewed on the Thursday hike was Camassia quamash growing right next to the Bluff Trail in a wet depression. All but one were purple. In the middle was a sole white one. As I was putting a picture on the wiki I had to make a Camassia page and pondered what family to give it. In the latest journal of the California Native Plant Society there is an article by Dean G. Kelch entitled "Consider the Lilies." In it he reports the families all the genera that were considered to be in Liliaceae by The Jepson Manual are now assigned to by the taxonomists based on dna. Camassia is now partnered with Agave, Chlorogalum, Hastingsia, Hesperocallis, Hesperoyuucca, and Yucca in the Agavaceae family. He states that it is possible the desert-adapted plants like agaves evolved from woodland herbs like Hosta via Hesperocallis or Polianthes. He points out that until we have a field lens powerful enough to count chromosomes this family will be hard to identify by common characteristics in the field. From desert to woodland is quite a range of habitats. Anyone who wants to see the two colors of Camassia we saw can see them on the Wiki page: http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Alan Meerow recently wrote that the latest proposal is to have one family for Alliaceae, Amaryllidaceae and Agapanthaceae. So now that Liliaceae has been nicely divided, others are going to be combined. Alliaceae has really made the rounds. For us gardeners it is challenging to keep up, much less understand. All of the books that arrange plants by families are soon out of date these days so I am always happy to see genera listed alphabetically. Mary Sue Mary Sue Ittner California's North Coast Wet mild winters with occasional frost Dry mild summers