Steve Burger and I are at opposite ends of what can be seen as essentially the same growing zone. He's at the far southern end where summers are hotter and bitter cold in the winter is briefer, but otherwise I'll bet our growing conditions have a lot in common. Undisturbed, un-amended soils here are often red clay, and during the summer they eat bulbs voraciously. It's worth noting that there are very few true bulbs in the native flora. I'll bet if Steve amends his soil to keep it porous and open he'll have better luck with many bulbs. Raised beds can help, too, as can covering the beds during the period when the bulbs are dormant. And there is also the odious option of digging the bulbs for the summer, and while this certainly prevents summer rotting, it also sometimes results in severely desiccated bulbs. Mark McDonough has reported (search the archives - maybe Mark will have time to comment himself) success with mounds of amended soil around trees and shrubs - the idea being that the trees and shrubs draw out excess moisture. I'll stick my neck out and say that, based on decades of experience, there are only a few crocus types which will persist indefinitely under our conditions, but there are many more which will quickly disappear if planted in the open garden. Crocus ochroleucus is one which for me has lasted for many years in the garden, but eventually disappears unless protected. And it sometimes has happened that a crocus which I had come to take for granted suddenly disappears. This happened a few years ago with my entire stock of the crocus sold as Crocus sieberi 'Firefly'. For many years it was everywhere in my bulb beds. And then the year came when it was nowhere. One of the periodic explosions in the vole population might have been the reason, but efficient as those little devils are, I doubt that they would have gotten every one. Whatever the explanation, it happened. However he accomplishes it, I think the thing Steve needs to do is to fight summer moisture. Jim McKenney Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where there is snow on the ground and more on the way; brightly berried evergreen lily-relatives Danae and Ruscus shine against the snow.