Jim Waddick asked about Ornithogalum ponticum. This plant, which I think most who grow it have in the selection 'Sochi', closely resembles O. narbonense (a very easy, commercially available species), but is less easy to establish. My best success with it is in rather retentive soil, on the flat, where it gets some summer water; its companions include herbaceous peonies and a hardy yellow Kniphofia hybrid selected here. O. pyrenaicum also grows well in this spot. I always try anything named 'ponticum' (from the Black Sea coast of Turkey) because our climate here is very similar to that region. Another Pontic plant that loves western Oregon is Iris lazica. I've seen O. umbellatum behaving aggressively in fields in the Pacific Northwest, but here I planted it in rough grass in a rather shady area where it gets no summer water, and it has never offered to spread, perhaps because it gets mown before ripening its seed (the mowing of the area is controlled by the growth cycle of some daffodils that also grow in the grass). There are several very short-growing ornithogalums (I think in England they sometimes call them "thogs," which strikes me as an ugly word) that can be very attractive in flower, but they all seem to increase very fast vegetatively so probably should not be placed in the small rock garden. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA