Dear All, Both my husband and I thought Gladiolus carmineus when we looked at David's picture, but I suppose his Gladiolus could be a hybrid too. I looked both Gladiolus stefaniae and Gladiolus carmineus up in the Gladiolus in Southern Africa book. They are very similar in that they both flower in the fall before the leaves appear. Gladiolus stefaniae is described in that book as 2 to 4 flowered with brilliant scarlet or carmine flowers with a median white streak in the lower two-thirds. Gladiolus carmineus is described as 2-6 flowered with flowers pale to deep pink with the lower three tepals having a median whitish streak surrounded by a pale mauve halo, occasionally with the upper lateral tepals similarly marked. I haven't gotten G. stefaniae to bloom yet. Last year I got some bulbs from Telos, but my bet would be G. carmineus because of the color and the number of flowers that David says his has. The notes indicate some populations of G. stefaniae were once thought to be G. carmineus so others have confused the two. Hopefully we will hear from some of our South African list members. Speaking of G. carmineus, it is flowering all over my garden at the moment. It's got to be one of my favorite bulbs. It blooms in the fall when California gardens are a bit tired and it is so charming and dainty and able to survive my conditions without any care whatsoever. I let mine reseed about as I'm happy for it to naturalize and turn up in different places. It doesn't seem to be replacing anything. Instead of our usual Indian summer we sometimes have in the fall we are having a continuation of the early morning fog sometimes burning off later in the day. So I am appreciating the pink flowers here and there. Mary Sue Mary Sue Ittner California's North Coast Wet mild winters with occasional frost Dry mild summers