Thanks for the information. For right now I'm going to try them in pots but If I can grow them on to produce some offsets I'll try them in few places out doors. I'm close to Lake Erie, so I'm in usually about zone 5b. Maybe with the snow pack I may be able to find a spot in the garden for them in a few years. Thanks Again, Eric ---- Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net> wrote: > I have grown Tecophilaea cyanocrocus for many years in a climate > colder than Lee Poulsen's but not so cold as New York state. In > nature it is a snowmelt plant, flowering when the volcanic-derived > soil is quite moist; I think of it as having a similar cycle to > deciduous Lewisia species and indeed they look beautiful together in > bloom. I had in it pots for a long time but now it's in a raised bed > under a transparent roof. Each corm usually produces one to three > offsets each year, and seed is frequently set. Those I used to sell > were mostly seedlings about three years old. > > The main thing I can tell someone who has to grow it in a heated > greenhouse is that it will need as much light as you can give it, and > it must not be grown too warm. The plants I grew in a frost-free > solarium never flowered as well as those in my old bulb frames, where > the plants experienced winter temperatures in the 20s F. I think they > look most in character when grown as hard as they can stand, since in > the foothills of the Andes, within the snow zone, they would > experience cold night temperatures while in growth. > > According to the report of the botanists who rediscovered this > species in the wild some years ago, the white-centered forms are more > common in the populations they observed. I suspect the pure blue > forms have been selected by growers over a long period and have > become dominant in cultivation. The name "subsp. leichtlinii" for the > white-centered forms is probably not valid, since these are just a > common color variant. My seedlings show a range of color patterns. > > Jane McGary > Portland, Oregon, USA > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/