Nhu wrote, >I find that >Calochortus are very difficult to grow in Berkeley. Our winters are >just a bit too cold (-2 to -3C) for them and they get too wet. The >combination of cold and wet causes a lot of fungal disease. Rotting of >the leaves typically slow down the bulb's health and eventually even >the bulbs themselves rot away. I'm sure he's right that the combination of wet and cold is the culprit, rather than just cold, since I have long grown many species in far colder conditions than occur in Berkeley (where I've also lived). Foliage of these and many other bulbs can recover from a lot of freezing as long as the leaves aren't wet when they freeze. That said, though, I now have a lot of Californian and Mediterranean bulbs, though not Calochortus, growing in the open and experiencing wet freezing without dying of it. Also Nhu's switching to a pumice planting mix should be a big help, though it must be expensive in an area without the pumice quarries we enjoy here in Oregon. >they all eventually dwindled >and rotted away, except for a few very tough ones like C. catalinae >and C. venustus. I also found that Calochortus venustus is a great grower even far from its home, and Calochortus catalinae surprised me as well. I direct sowed a lot of C. venustus seed last year and noticed considerable germination in a sand and gravel berm, so am curious to see if they develop over the years. I try to catch all the seed for exchanges, but inevitably a lot of it falls in the bulb house beds and seedlings came up like grass this winter. I've just finished tagging all the Calochortus stems so I can identify the plants when the seeds are ready; I mark the color forms of C. venustus, but of course they are crossing and "red" won't necessarily produce all reds. The latest subspecies of Calochortus clavatus, subsp. clavatus, is opening its huge, well-marked flowers now. Calochortus howellii is in full bloom, as is Calochortus obispoensis, and yesterday I saw the first flower open on Calochortus plummerae. Seed has ripened on the earliest species already; some of them have pendent capsules and it's tricky to catch them just before they open, so I leave the envelopes right by the plants to remind me to look every day. The most productive so far has been Calochortus monophyllus. Cool weather seems to be delaying seed ripening on some plants, especially Fritillaria species. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA