Dear All, Back in the early days when I first starting growing bulbs I grew Tigridia pavonia. In my central valley garden in Stockton (California) with its hot summers and lower amounts of winter rainfall, it did very well. I grew it in raised beds with my other perennials and it came back every year without much effort on my part delighting me with the gorgeous flowers. When I moved to the north coast it was less happy and never came back after our first wet winter. Two years ago I got seed of it from a seed exchange and decided to give it another go. The first sowing was in spring outside and although germination was good, the plants grew slowly. Last winter Tony Palmer started showing these gorgeous flowers on the IBS image list blooming in summer in New Zealand and I was compelled to pull out the old leftover seed on the chance it would still be viable. I planted the seed 2/15/02, but this time in my greenhouse. I also potted up the few pathetic seedlings from my attempt the year before. The seed started to germinate 4/20/02. This time I kept them in the greenhouse and as they were growing robustly moved the whole pot carefully up to a 8 inch pot. Last years seedlings were not as vigorous so I left them in a 4 inch pot where they have continued to grow but not flourish. To my surprise yesterday I saw a huge yellow flower on this year's crop. From 2/15/02 to 9/9/02 is very quick to bloom from seed. I think the warmer temperatures, deeper pot, and occasional dilute amounts of liquid feed made the difference. I'll add my report to Jim's and Peter's of seasonal bloom. My Oxalis have started to bloom (O. commutata, O. massoniana, O. zeekoevleyensis). Others blooming are Leucojum autumnale, L. roseum, Cyclamen hederifolium, C. purpurascens, and C. intaminatum (newly keyed out as this little flower couldn't be C. repandum). Calydora amabilis is still blooming almost every day in my greenhouse. The one that is giving me the most delight at the moment however is Gladiolus carminieus. I have little clumps all over my garden and each year there are more flowers in each clump. And since my local pollinators love it I keep seeing it in new places as some seed always gets away from me. It is such a sweet thing and absolutely carefree in the ground. I'll try to get my husband to take a picture to post on some of the images lists. There have been lots of great pictures lately with the spring flowers in Australia and some of the fall flowers in the USA. Mary Sue Mary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org> California's North Coast Wet mild winters with occasional frost Dry mild summers