Brian wrote about bulbs flowering down in the ground: Try to flower on "very" short stems if they are kept >too dry over winter, presumably they have not formed a proper root system >and cannot get enough water. I wonder if something like this is going on with one particular bulb of Fritillaria eduardii I have. Even though it's planted right with 3 or 4 sibling bulbs, this one always tries to flower a month earlier than the others and doesn't emerge properly. Maybe it has some genetic error that lowers its vigor, but it doesn't die because of being coddled in cultivation? Jane McGary Northwestern oregon, USA