Kenneth Hixson's notes on red-flowered bulbs demonstrate the intricacies of plant "hardiness" in western North America. Ken lives near where I do in northwestern Oregon, but at a lower elevation and, I'm guessing, with much more retentive soil (more silt, less rock). He wrote: > Rodger mentioned Crocosmia Lucifer. It is almost a glaring red, >but here seems to be only borderline hardy. In contrast, in my colder garden, 'Lucifer' has flourished for many years, surviving temperatures around 0 F (-16 C) and increasing to huge clumps. I discovered, however, that when you divide it, you need to keep the whole "stack" of corms together, or the plants will be weak for a few years. Then Ken wrote, >Alstroemeria psittacina/pulchella is a weed This species does not survive the winter in my garden, although I do grow several other Alstro species in the open. Finally, >Fritillaria recurva or F. gentneri can't be on my favorites list as >I've never gotten beyond the seedling stage. F. gentneri should probably be considered a subspecies of F. recurva, but keeping it separate is helpful in protecting its habitat, since it is a listed "species." It is quite variable and crosses readily with more typical F. recurva. I've also obtained seedlings by crossing F. gentneri (which I got through a seed collector's mistake!) with F. eastwoodiae, since I had only one gentneri in flower and they are probably self-sterile. All three are generally red (the only instance of this color in the genus) with yellow checkering, or yellow with red checkering (I think the latter is strictly correct), but orange and even yellow are more common in the small-flowered eastwoodiae. All three are easy to grow in the bulb frame, but young bulbs probably would not survive the extra-long wet season of northern Oregon in the open. They are among the mid-season bloomers in the genus. Another red-bulb hardiness note: Jim McKenney in the Mid-Atlantic region wondered if Dichelostemma ida-maia would be winter-hardy for him. I'm pretty sure it would be, though the catalog rating he cites (Zone 5) seems exaggerated to me, unless other climatic conditions were just right; the foliage is present in late winter. They do well outdoors here. Anyway, it isn't much of an investment to experiment, since they are very cheap bulbs. Easy from seed, too. D. ida-maia surprises me by standing upright in the garden even where it has no surrounding plants to lean on. It also infests the bulb frames, having pulled down below the wire underlying the plunge medium, where I can't get at it. The hummingbirds were buzzing me yesterday evening as I collected seed from the frames -- they wanted me away from their buffet. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA