Diane is correct to point out that the Crocus Group seed exchange cannot at present deal with US members. Hopefully there will be some movement by the authorities to allow us to trade again. I usually send some seed to the NARGS seedex and will continue to do so. Jim S "wants crocuses that bloom and grow like weeds!" - Hmm ... Could you ask me another question?! :) I guess the first answer is to buy lots of the cheap ones, at least your expenses will be low and they are cheap because they increase quickly for someone else! The clumping of that one small corm of C tommasinianus is encouraging - deffinately worth trying more of those. Several cheap cultivars are forms or hybrids of this species. Whitwell Purple is one that comes to mind. The dutch hybrid crocus should be possible (?) but are perahps too gaudy? Crocus kotschyanus is often cheaply available in the UK from Dutch stocks. This is known by the cognescenti as the "Non-flowering clone" It carries a virus and although growing quite vigorously from large rather irregularly shaped corms it never produces a flower. Perhaps this is what you have Jim? I have seen it in prolific self seeding good form in a local garden but that was before the local squirrels discovered a new delicacy. The large Dutch group referred to are all selected forms or hybrids of Crocus vernus with the exception of 'Yellow Mammoth' which has its origins as an ancient selection of Crocus flavus. Crocus flavus, not mentioned before in our discussion, is recorded as seeding around to form extensive colonies in a few UK gardens. Interested in the mixed Crocus and Daffodil planting mentioned by Jim W. Here in the UK we suffer from Carrot fly and as an alternative to chemical treatments amateur vegetable growers plant interplant with onions which are supposed to confuse the pest! The problem of rodents is probably best overcome by putting the corms out of their reach. One possible option for the rarer species which are unlikely to be grown in large numbers is to grow them in a trough with a sheet of fine grade wire mesh set just under the soil surface. The same mesh can be used to prevent predators form entering through the drainage holes too. The siting of troughs is important as they will warm up much more than the open garden. This is especially relevant as the summer heat will come when the crocus are not above ground to remind you of their presence. The same mechanical barrier approach can be used on a larger scale in raised beds. In this case the bed has a layer of mesh below the corms as well as above. There is a picture of such a bed during construction on p8 of Bulbs by Rix and Phillips (see earlier posting for the ISBN) although I would question whether the mesh used there is fine enough. Such a lot of trouble for a fleeting, frail flowered thing but I guess it is the intense ephemeral beauty of these little wonders of the natural world that draws us. Tony Tony Goode. Norwich UK Mintemp -8C http://www.thealpinehouse.fsnet.co.uk/