Some erythroniums do well for me, and others don't, though I am going to keep trying. I am growing lots of seedlings from Ron Ratko. The earliest, which has been blooming for a couple of weeks, is E. dens-canis, from Europe. I had it in one spot and moved it years ago closer to a path since it is so short. I have just noticed that it is blooming again in its original place as well. I don't know whether it had dropped seeds there, or whether I left a wee piece of root that has now become big enough to flower. This is such an easy plant that last year I bought a lot of different forms from Janis Ruksans. They aren't going to bloom this first year, but the leaves are strong, and amply spotted. We have four species growing within an hour's drive of my home. Two are mountain species: the white montanum and the yellow grandiflorum. The grandiflorum occurs quite low on a south-facing slope in moss growing on bedrock. It is dwarf, but I suspect that is because of having only a few centimetres of soil to grow in. I should grow some seeds of it to see if that is the case. I have collected seeds, but sent all of them to seed exchanges. Two grow at low elevations. White oregonum is common and grows throughout woods, along sidewalks in suburbs, and in lawns as long as people don't cut the grass too early. (One wonderful lawn with a few thousand erythroniums was admired for about 50 years, but then new owners moved in and kept their lawn trimmed. Not a single erythronium is left.) I planted a few oregonum about 35 years ago, one at the base of each tree I was planting. For a few years I would gather the seeds and toss them a short distance. I have a pretty display each April. I would have had hundreds of plants if I had continued to do that instead of donating them to seed exchanges. The other low elevation species is pink revolutum which grows closer to the two mountain ones, and not close to Victoria. It grows along streams. About 30 years ago, I dug one and planted it away from my oregonums. It has seeded a lot, and the seedlings range from pink to white. I guess the original one I collected was a natural hybrid, as I took it from a roadside where oregonum was growing up in the woods and revolutum was growing across the road, down along a stream. In 1989 I bought bulbs of violet with a dark eye hendersonii and purdyi (really citrinum?) from Edgar Kline in Oregon. They grow in pinewoods in the Siskiyous, so I planted them under pine trees in an unwatered part of my yard. I think they flowered once. Since then, there have been wan single leaves that emerge briefly. I just went out to look, and there is a neat hole through the thick pine needles where each leaf had been just last week. Squirrels or rats, I guess. I have tried albidum and americanum from the Eastern U.S several times, but they die out quickly. I hope to grow umbilicatum successfully, (inspired by Molly Grothaus's photo in Bulbs of North America) and have planted it in an area that I can water in the summer. -- Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada maritime zone 8 cool mediterranean climate (dry summer, rainy winter - 68 cm annually) sandy soil