Dear All: Arnold's comments and questions are thought provoking. While in Normandy earlier this year, I noted Ipheion uniflorum in flower. On my return a few days later to California, I noted the same species in flower in my garden. There is a great deal of difference between the climate in Normandy and California, in temperature, rainfall, and California is far south of Normandy. Just what controls the flowering in such a case is an enigma. Could it be the needed chemical changes in the bulb to trigger flowering is a question simply of time needed for such to take place? I can not think of any other logical reason. While in Normandy earlier in the year, there were very hard frosts, the ground was frozen, while in California we had no frost. The only climatical factor which might have been more or less the same was the amount of rainfall enjoyed. But such would not have warmed the soils to the same temperatures. So much to learn, so little time! Cheers, John E. Bryan