>Dear Jim W., > >Wow, you've raised some interesting questions. Calendar Year/versus Growing season. I think this is a zonal problem. Here everything is basically calendar as winter stops most foliage. In Medit areas, the summer stops a lot of foliage and the season goes from fall to spring. Since this is the PACIFIC BULB SOC. -I'll bow to 'growing season' considerations. Even so Lycoris can be a bit of a problem as some mentioned with spec. such as L. radiata. One of the few to bloom in late summer/fall and then puts up foliage from late fall to early spring. Is this foliage first (spring) or flowers first -Fall? More common species produce foliage for a few months in spring, but bloom in fall. That's foliage first. > > >As some of the posts already indicate there may be a fine line >between plants in A and B as some produce flowers and very quickly >the leaves follow. > I think your idea was to concentrate on bulbs where there is a fairly major gap between foliage and bloom. And the grower needs to decide which come first seasonally or chronologically. I always think of Lycoris having foliage first and fall blooming. This is based on all species basically going dormant in spring when foliage fades. But I can see where those with fall foliage might appear to have flowers preceding foliage. Still there is a major gap and there is no remnant of foliage when the flowers bloom and that should be the key character. So the topic is: "Flowers that bloom at least a month before or after foliage". Right? Jim W. -- Dr. James W. Waddick 8871 NW Brostrom Rd. Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711 USA Ph. 816-746-1949 E-fax 419-781-8594 Zone 5 Record low -23F Summer 100F +