Hi Marguerite, Sternbergia is still a genus in the Amaryllis family! What a strange "re-classification" that would be, to move it to the Iris family! That message was most certainly leading you astray. Speaking of Sternbergia and of TOW, when I first grew Sternbergia lutea, i was convinced it would not survive outdoors here. I grew it strictly in containers. It never bloomed in a pot, not once! Fin ally, I planted some outdoors, where they bloom every autumn now. They even survived last winter, which was very wet and very cold (a real USDA zone 5 winter for a change). I am not sure that they will bloom this year, but it is still too early to know. Jim Shields in central Indiana At 09:45 PM 9/14/2003 -0700, you wrote: >Not too long ago, a message on one of the plant lists to which I belong >identified Sternbergia lutea as Crocus sternbergia lutea. I thought >Sternbergia is an Amaryllid and not an Iridaceae. Was that message >leading me astray, or has Sternbergia really changed its information? > >Marguerite English - Gardening with bulbs and perennials at 3500 feet in >the mountains of southern California. ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA Member of INTERNATIONAL CLIVIA CO-OP