In a message dated 8/15/04 8:35:43 AM Pacific Daylight Time, janemcgary@earthlink.net writes: > What plants -- ornamental or edible -- do others sow over their bulb beds? Well, Jane, let's face it! Most of us are not so tidy as to determine just what to sow over a bulb bed! Usually, 'ol Ma Nature pretty much dictates that one will have a luxuriant crop of weeds -- and totally without trying -- no fertilizer, no irrigation, no planning, no preparation, no choice, etc.! I have the very devil of a time with some particularly pernicious composites. I can usually knock the majority of them back in very late Fall with herbicide but late germinators always seem to make it about the time the daffodil foliage is in full growth. In other words, no sprays. It's the old hands and knees process in a partial attempt to keep things under control until things dry out with the advance of Summer! All kidding aside (and to provide an answer to the question raised!) back in Minnesota (when I actually had "bulb beds" instead of bulb acres, moss rose (Portulaca) was usually the annual of choice. There was enough moisture early in the summer to promote germination and the occasional summer thunderstorm dropped enough moisture to keep them going. Each morning, as that day's crop of blooms opened, the beds looked like an oriental carpet. From time to time I would sow a packet of the mixed double form and each season enough seed from the offspring would survive to renew the carpet and in the mostly double form. Easy and colorful and requiring no maintenance (other than removing the dried bulb foliage and occasional few weeds); what more could one ask? Although, at this point, I think I need to interject the fact that, as a bulb grower, dealing with "untidy dying foliage" and having bare beds (rows/field) is all accepted as part and parcel of the process and certainly causes no great concern about hiding anything! Best, Dave Karnstedt Silverton, Oregon, USA After weeks of hot and dry with daily temperatures in the mid-nineties, so far, today has been blessedly cool -- for a much welcomed change!