Thanks Jim for your input on this topic. You raise several interesting points as well as bringing a few new species into the arena. (Images of all plants discussed have been posted on the wiki page http://ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/pcwiki/… ) Crocus ancyrensis does badly in the open garden here. Flowers in year one but usually midwinter in response to an unseasonal warm spell. The flowers usually keel over immediately and it rarely survives to repeat the performance the next year! Why does it do better for you? Well at a guess you have a more consistent cold winter. This is a plant that flowers near melting snow in the wild, such plants are often difficult to please in relatively mild lowland gardens. You may find that the three gems you mention at the end of your note (CC. baytopiorum, cvijicii (pronounced svee-each-e-i) and gargaricus) will do quite well for you, they occupy a similar wild habitat to Crocus ancyrensis. All three are readily raised from seed (likely to be quicker than waiting for the price to come down!) The Archibalds might offer one or more of these. The colder winters may also account for disappointments with Crocus sieberi cvs Bowles White and Hubert Edelsten. You seem to hint that they have been eaten by rodents but as both are hybrids with Crocus sieberi subspecies sieberi in their genes excess cold might harm them. Subspecies sieberi is recorded as being somewhat less cold tolerant than the other subspecies, it is certainly less suited to open cultivation here. The move from city to sub-suburbs may account for recent failures with Crocus goulimyi and Crocus sativus. Both of these thrive under glass here, Crocus goulimyi increasing quite fast. However Crocus sativus rarely flowers in the open garden, it simply is not hot and dry enough in summer. Crocus goulimyi grows OK in the open but only increases slowly if at all. Again it is likely that it needs warmth and probably does not appreciate a really cold winter. One of the few things I recall from my University studies is that there is a significant temperature differential between city and suburbs in winter. Your city garden probably had warmer niches than where you are now. Unusually we have had enough cold weather in January here for the first garden spring crocuses (CC tommasinianus and sieberi atticus) to be at the same stage as your C ancyrensis. Tony Goode. Norwich UK. Mintemp -8C