On Jul 5, 2006, at 1:26 PM, Sheri Ann Richerson wrote: > The post on the gladiolus with the chocolate scent makes me want > to enquire if there are other bulbs that have chocolate scented > foliage or flowers. On 5 Jul 06, at 14:00, Lee Poulsen replied: > Well, there is the famous Cosmos atrosanguineus which has tubers and > really does smell like a rich dark chocolate. But I have never ever > been able to get them to come back from winter dormancy whether I keep > them dry or wet or barely moist over the winter. I have not tried > bringing them in from outside. Maybe they require warm winters as well > as warm summers? I've successfully overwintered C.a. by simply shoving the pot into a cold but frost-free storage room and letting it go dry. I wonder if your Pasadena winters are too mild. Try drying the pot off and putting it in the vegetable section of your kitchen refrigerator. Complaints from the distaff side of the household "what the devil is that dirty pot doing in the fridge?" are best ignored. > Also, it is supposedly the case that all of them in existence in the > entire world are all the same clone and they are extinct in the wild. > So no seeds are ever formed. I've seen said this elsewhere and wonder what the truth is. The same situation is supposed to also appertain to /Lotus berthelottii/ from the Canary Islands - extinct in wild, only one clone in cultivation, self-sterile. Can anybody offer a reference that has credibility above "urban myth"? Chocolate scented plants: Berlandiera lyrata also. Not a bulb; rather, a small annual something like the yellow annual cosmos. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island