Jim mentioned his Asphodelus acaulis, apparently an offset of a plant I sent to someone else in his area. I don't think I had enough seed of this plant to donate to an exchange until 2007. This is a very pretty winter-flowering plant from Morocco, producing peach-pink flowers on very short stems and with a lax basal rosette of leaves. It makes slowly increasing crowns, and the one that blooms seems to die afterward. I grow it in a frame that is dry in summer, in a large mesh basket. It is not a bulb but rather a growing point with a number of storage roots, similar to a small Eremurus. There are a number of species of Asphodelus around the Mediterranean, where they are often the dominant flowering herbs in the landscape because they are not eaten by goats. I also grow A. albus in a border and have young plants of a couple of other species. The large species have lush foliage that withers by midsummer, and they are easily divided when dormant. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA still snowed in