I'm always on the lookout for unusual bulbs in local gardens. One reason that there are unusual bulbs in local gardens is because in the bad old days at least some of the bulbs sold in local garden centers were collected bulbs. The Sternbergia stocks sold twenty years ago are a good example: they were a mixture of S. lutea and S. clusiana. To this day, whenever anyone tells me they grow Sternbergia, I try to visit when they are in bloom to see which Sternbergia they are. An associate had Sternbergia clusiana which he had acquired this way. He didn't know what it was. Unfortunately, he and I had had a spat, and as I waited years for things to mellow between us, the Sternbergia clusiana eventually disappeared (this species is very prone to bulb fly in our area). Twelve years ago another friend moved into a new neighborhood. While visiting him one autumn - as usual in a rush - I noticed a clump of Crocus kotschyanus in his next door neighbor's yard. I only got a quick glimpse, but something about those flowers seemed different. They seemed to have pointed tepals, much more so than the ones in my own garden. Every year for the past twelve years I've been reminding my friend to ask his neighbors if I may have some of those crocus. The house has changed hands two or three times over the years. I mentioned it again this year in late September. This year I finally got my wish. My friend called and told me that the crocus were blooming freely this year (the good news), but that the owners had just mowed the grass and demolished the crocus flowers. He collected a flower for me to examine. So today I went over hoping to finally close this chapter. There was a slightly shop worn flower to examine, and the neighbors agreed to let me dig some of the crocus - whose location was now identifiable only by the white stubs poking out of the ground. I came home with some corms grow on. Something about the shape of those flowers as I remembered it from long ago made me hope they might be Crocus kotschyanus suvorowianus. But the somewhat mangled flower I examined didn't convince me. Perhaps it is simply one extreme of Crocus kotschyanus kotschyanus. If the corms I collected today bloom next year, I'll have a better idea. Whatever it is, it's a bit different than what I have now. This discussion we're having about cultivars of Crocus speciosus reminds me that C. kotschyanus is a species which, from a horticultural point of view, could use some selecting. Five variants are commonly available, or maybe I should say commonly distributed. The four are a) the good typical form b) the non-flowering form c) an odd form which rarely flowers but when it does produces stringy, misshapen flowers - this might be the same as the one here described as "non-flowering" d) the form sold under the name "albus" which as I know it is a dirty gray-white and e) the form without yellow spots at the base of the tepals - this is the one once called "leucopharynx"; this is a good form but evidently because it has lost its botanical standing, it is now shunned. We should be trying to ensure its survival. In response to the muddle suggested above, two other forms are sometimes offered: 'Reliant' (or is it 'Reliance'?) which is reputed to flower dependably; and Jane McGary offers a form under the name JRJK which produces large handsome flowers. Now we should get busy trying to select and establish more color variants for this easily grown species. The color of even the best forms is opalescent; something a bit more pronounced would be nice. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where the autumn crocus season has so far been too wet for me. My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/Bulletins/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/