Mary Sue wrote, >One thing really interests me. Lee Poulsen says that his plants always make a lot of offsets. Do >they have to be a certain size to do this? Or do some do this and not others. I have not seen any offsets from corms smaller than flowering size. Mine make a maximum of 2 offsets per large corm per year, and some years not that much. They are growing much colder than Lee Poulsen's would be, indeed experiencing frost every winter even though in a covered frame. However, I have other plants from the same general area in the same frames, and they handle the conditions well too. When I first got this plant, bulbs purchased from England, I read that it preferred growing in the "open ground" to being in a pot, so I planted it directly into the plunge medium in the frames, where it did not do so well. Once I moved the corms into pots they did better. I think that statement in the older literature reflected being grown in pots in English alpine houses, where the plants may have been dried out too much in summer or subjected to fluctuations in moisture during the growing season, or perhaps didn't get enough light. They will not flower in my cool greenhouse even though in full light -- I suppose temperature fluctuation helps stimulate them too. I don't think they strictly need an arid summer dormancy, because I have read of them flourishing in the open garden in Ireland (although that may have been an exaggeration). I just noticed a lot of aphids on my Tecophilaeas and applied systemic insecticide, so check yours too. They seem particularly attractive to these pests. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA