Dear Jamie; You wrote: "I find it interesting that, once again, the high ploidies prove a bit hardier." I don't think this would ever come to my mind that northern/ hardier species are triploid or tetraploid. In Lycoris, L. chinensis is much hardier than L aurea and both have 2n=16. L. squamigera, one of the hardiest with 3n=27 is a lot hardier than L. radiata radiata (3n = 33) and both are triploids. There are a few peony pairs such as P. obovata and P. japonica; and P. wittmanniana and P. mlokosewitschii. In both pairs the first is diploid (2n=10) and second tetraploid (2n = 20), but their distributions essentially overlap. Further there are both 2n=10 and 2n=20 wild collected Paeonia obovata. Paeonia anomala, the very hardiest of all peonies is a diploid, too (2n=10) Hardiness doesn't seem obvious as an attribute related to ploidy? Any other examples? Jim W. -- Dr. James W. Waddick 8871 NW Brostrom Rd. Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711 USA Ph. 816-746-1949 E-fax 419-781-8594 Zone 5 Record low -23F Summer 100F +