At 09:58 AM 6/27/2004 -0700, Mary Sue Ittner wrote: >Ian does not subscribe to the theory that letting plants go to seed >diminishes the bulbs. He has run some tests on some of the genera he grows >and finds that plants continue to grow as they are forming seed pods. Once >the seed pods are gone, they go dormant. It's an old, established trick among some growers of martagon lilies (i.e. Lilium martagon and the species closely related to it, not all of which have the martagon flower shape) to allow a seed pod to develop in order to keep the plant green longer. In our climate, martagons typically die down early - sometimes in July, and a seed pod will prolong the life of the annual stem. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where we are on the fringe of martagon country.