Jim McKenney's happy results after he dug the cold frames out of the snow do not surprise me. Snow is an effective insulator, and some light gets through it. That's good that his Chilean tropaeolums have survived. Mine have also, and T. tricolor is in flower at present, although they didn't have the benefit of snow cover when it was very cold here in December. The large plants of T. brachyceras that were up on supports at that time froze to the ground, but small volunteer seedlings near them, which were either not yet emerged or lying on the soil, appear normal. I suppose the tubers of T. brachyceras will survive without the top growth until next year. They can pass a year or even two without emerging, an adaptation to severe drought. Most of the damage here seems to have been to Arum and Biarum species that had their foliage up at the time of the cold snap, but a few of them are putting up new growth. Most of the color in the frames now comes from early Narcissus species, mostly in the Bulbocodium section though there are a few little trumpet species that flower early as well. Fritillaria stenanthera and F. gibbosa (Rhinopetalum section) are in bloom, F. raddeana, and F. striata. The last has a reputation for being tender but I think it's tougher than the British writers believe. Its claim to fame, besides being beautiful, is its very sweet fragrance. I'm trying to figure out how to transport a particularly nice pot of it to the NARGS chapter meeting tonight -- it is a tall, slender plant. Unfortunately, the rabbits have come back, and I'm losing the top growth of plants every night. They eat the new growth of crocuses (not the mature foliage, however) and the flowering stems of fritillarias (but not the basal leaves). Apparently they are attracted to the most nutrient-rich growth. They also eat the foliage of Ornithogalum. They taste some other things but apparently reject them. Narcissus and other amaryllids seem safe, as do colchicums. Don't start telling me how to keep them out. I cannot keep cats because of the coyotes, and in any case there would be no way to confine the cats in the frames; I refuse to keep little terriers, too. I can't shut the frames every night because some of them are permanently vented. And as far as I know, there is no "rabbit repellent" that actually works. As for screening off the frames, we are not talking about a few 4x8-foot objects -- the frame yard is about 40 by 40 feet, with five two-sided ranges of frames. Putting screens over them would be prohibitively expensive at this point, and would also prevent me from working in them easily. I look forward to moving next summer to a rabbit-free area; there will be squirrels (imported from the east coast by some moron years ago), but I'm planning a screen-sided bulb house instead of frames. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA