I returned home yesterday to be greeted by the first measurable rain in my garden since August 15th, others nearby had received heavy showers but mine had become a virtual desert. This morning the rock bed was studded with several of the small Mediterranean colchicum sp, scillas, cyclamen, large clumps of brilliant yellow sternbergias.and zeypheranthes candida the only one which persists outside here. Exciting for me was one flower of merendera filifolia, a Balearic endemic which only rarely performs for me bulbs are wonderful! Peter.Maynard@btinternet.com