Dear Brian and Jim, Thanks for responding. It is ironic that Diana and I can't grow this living in areas close to the native habitat and you both can. I'm very impressed. Maybe there is hope. First off, I'm not willing to accept the spelling of the name in the RHS Plant Finder. I'm inclined to go with a North American source for a North American plant. I list my resource: http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_cpn.pl/… The Jepson Herbarium website is really a first rate resource for plants from California. In the areas where I have seen Scoliopus bigelovii growing in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties it doesn't get very cold in winter (a number of light freezes a year) and it would in most cases be somewhat protected by the trees as well. All of the floras I have describe it as growing in moist coastal Redwood forests and that's where I've seen it. It rarely occurs very far inland so the summers would be dry except for coastal fogs with moderate day time temperatures and cool nights. My plants never had roots as you describe. Perhaps I needed to keep the seedlings growing longer, to fertilize them more, or maybe when they are young they need summer water. How much do you water yours Brian when they are dormant? Be sure and report Jim how yours in the cold frame under snow do. It will be interesting to learn how hardy they are. When I looked in the Mendocino County flora one of the authors had written that this plant had done well in her sandy San Francisco garden requiring no care except winter rain and shade and had survived and spread over a 20 year period. I wish I could say the same. I have grown Clintonia from seed. One I planted out when it was only a couple of years old has thrived and spread, each year getting broader and flowering nicely. On the other hand others I had in containers (waiting for them to get bigger before I transplanted them) in the third year didn't come back and when I dumped the pot out nothing was there. Where I planted the successful one out (under a Redwood grove) I don't water at all during the summer. I think I have a lot to learn about exactly what these plants want to thrive. Mary Sue