Diane Whitehead wrote: > DEADHEAD > Snap off the dead flowers of any bulbs you don't want to set seed. >> I've never understood the urge to deadhead bulbs except where obvious tidiness is required (in formal garden settings) or where seeding is a positive menace (e.g. some Allium, some Muscari, some Scilla/Hyacinthoides). The majority of commercial bulbs are really or effectively sterile in the garden, so removing spent flowers is merely a quest for tidiness: I have more useful things to do. If seed is set I can see no earthly reason for not allowing it to mature. Even if there is no friend or society to donate it to, then a scattering in the garden may just produce results worth having. Even more tangibly, the presence on the stem of a fruit is an incentive, controlled by hormones, for the plant to remain in growth and therefore build up a much bigger bulb for next year. The 'drain' of photosynthates to the seeds is more than matched by their accumulation in the bulb and the resultant performance next season. John Grimshaw Dr John M. Grimshaw Garden Manager, Colesbourne Gardens Gardens Cottage Colesbourne Nr Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 9NP Website: http://www.colesbournegardens.org.uk/ >