This will be a quick message because I'm going out to a talk by Janis Ruksans. I went to three talks by him on the weekend at a Winter Study Weekend in Vancouver - one on Junos, one on Corydalis, and one on increasing bulbs that don't do it themselves - mostly frits, and then he came over to Victoria to look at gardens and give another talk on Central Asian bulbs. The alliums that grow best for me and that I really appreciate are the culinary ones. The first to bloom are several colours of giant chives. I use the flowers in salads, but try to save some of the darkest ones to set seed. The bushy plants grow as a miniature hedge along the vegetable area. I could keep the neighbourhood in chives. They are dormant for a couple of months in winter, but are full-height now, though not yet in flower. Next are several nodding Allium cernuum which are decorative because they also keep their green leaves during the summer. Leeks that didn't get eaten during the winter send up their big balls of flowers during the summer. They are paler than the expensive ornamental giants sold by the Dutch companies, but the form of the plant is as good, and the flowers are just as exciting to the bees. And then come the white flowered Chinese chives, Allium tuberosum. I have garlic all over the garden. I've been told to cut off the head of bulbils so the underground cloves will grow larger. I do it with some, but the curved necks are cute, like long-necked birds, so I leave some. Then as I harvest garlic, the little bulbils launch themselves into flower beds all the way along the path, and I never know where till the next summer. -- Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada maritime zone 8 cool mediterranean climate (dry summer, rainy winter - 68 cm annually) sandy soil