Thanks Jim, The glaucous twisted leaves you describe are exactly like those of my S. fischeriana (from several sources), and they are always emerging at the time the flowers emerge. There is another Sternbergia that Helmut Kerndorff told me about but which I never seen in leaf or flower, S. schubertii, does anyone know anything about this? Thanks, John John T Lonsdale PhD 407 Edgewood Drive, Exton, Pennsylvania 19341, USA Home: 610 594 9232 Cell: 484 678 9856 Fax: 801 327 1266 Visit "Edgewood" - The Lonsdale Garden at <http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/> http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/ USDA Zone 6b _____ From: Jim McKenney [mailto:jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com] Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 8:57 PM To: john@johnlonsdale.net; 'Pacific Bulb Society' Subject: RE: [pbs] Sternbergia John Lonsdale asked: "Does anyone on the east coast grow bone fide S. clusiana in the garden - if so when does it flower and does it flower before the leaves appear?" Although I no longer grow it, I did grow Sternbergia clusiana about twenty-five years ago when the bulbs were easily available form local garden centers mixed with the bulbs of Sternbergia lutea. The bulbs are easily distinguished. I found it difficult to keep because of bulb fly predation. The flowers came in the autumn, long before the foliage which came in mid-winter. As you mention, the leaves are distinctly green, not glaucous, and the ones I had did not have the wavy, twisted form seen in Jane's mystery Sternbergia. The flowers of my plants looked like the ones shown in the stereo pair images on the wiki - they are not at all like Sternbergia lutea. Stermbergia clusiana is the only Sternbergia I have ever known to set seed in my garden. My plants fruited yearly until they disappeared. I have photos from that time. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/