I am not sure this fits this TOW, "can be" being replaced by "are" maybe. Ornithogalum arabicum I used to see each year at the Chelsea flower show on the Avon bulbs stand in late May, with large heads of approximately 3cm./1 1/4" diameter flowers with a dramatic black centre. Stock I think originating from Holland, and not appreciably forced if I remember correctly. Every time I have bought it since from various sources it has usually sulked and only occasionally flowered, but never in spring, and always with smaller flowers around 2cm./ 3/4" diameter. At present I have had one bulb in flower for at least 6 weeks in my frost free greenhouse, in a 5" pot, and it has many weeks to go still, and it looks me in the eye at 6' tall, complete with attendant menacing spider. Other times when it has bothered to grow or flower it is never in a spring cycle. Is there more than one form of this plant with completely differing seasons of growth? I am told that cyclamen persicum, the species that is not the florist's hybrids, can be flowered in the autumn if it is started into growth early enough in late summer. Am I seeing a similar effect? I grow the ornithogalum under whatever goes for natural conditions in my greenhouse each year. Mainly neglect for this bulb, needless to say at this height it sits on the floor on gravel. Brian Whyer, zone 8'ish, Buckinghamshire, England