Yes, count me in as being interested, Adam. Hardiness is not just for cold places. It is also for gloomy wet places as Brent mentioned. There are winter-growing bulbs that do just fine in our cold wet winters though: Arums like italicum and nigrum, Narcissus, Cyclamen. Antifreeze in their leaves? Though Arum nigrum looks as vulnerable as lettuce. I have plans to hybridize gladiolus. I am interested in unusual flower shapes and scent. I have some seedlings coming of Gladiolus callianthus x papilio (the reverse cross produced no seeds). I tried uysiae pollen I collected in South Africa this year on papilio but got no seeds. There was a talk about hybridizing gladiolus at the IBSA Symposium last September by John Pilbeam and Anthony Hamilton from the U.K. They are building on the breeding done by Tom Barnard who used tristis, carinatus and virescens. He hadn't used orchidiflorus, and Anthony thought it would help give a good blue. He has scented blues from blue carinatus x green orchidiflorus, and one of them "The Blue Orchid" was launched last year. He handed out a few cormlets but I don't know whether any of us from North America got one. He has wonderful blue and whites from further generations from Barnard's tristis x carinatus. Last fall he introduced Midnight Sun, which starts yellow and turns orange, with a purple edge. He has a red one that remains scented all day. He doesn't like ones he calls "artsy" - like watermeyeri. He has claret coloured flowers from dark blue x papilio. There are quite a few breeders of primulinus hybrids in the U.K.'s Gladiolus Society. Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada maritime zone 8, cool Mediterranean climate mild rainy winters, mild dry summers