Yesterday I was corresponding with Janis Ruksans and I mentioned the following to him: "I also have a mystery - for the last two years I have had 3 bulbs of Sternbergia colchiciflora that are large and healthy and have set seed every year. But I have never seen a flower! I am always looking for flowers but never find them, but a month or two later a really large seed pod appears on each plant. Any idea what is going on?" Janis replied: "I was looking for Sternbergia colchiciflora, too. It is a very tiny, beautiful sternbergia producing small bright yellow flowers at soil level before the leaves come out what happens only in spring. Now I have many different stocks that all have come from Turkey and they enjoy beautifully me every autumn. Possibly I went there too early because the autumn was very dry and tardy but this species has a unique feature---in very dry seasons the flowers can stay inside bulbs and they don't come out of the soil. All the parts of flower are left only half--developed and the pollination happens inside the bulb; after that the development of the seed pod which normally appears on the surface in spring starts. I have never observed it myself because I normally water my plants in autumn and they flower nicely but such cases are described in Journal of Russian Botanical Society (1926)." The intriguing is thing is why do some plants do this and others not, and what really causes it. I start watering my plants in mid-September and they stay moist thereafter. Maybe this species needs some water earlier? Any ideas? I spent ages trying to get this plant - now I just want regular flowers (although the seed set is an obvious bonus). Best, John John T Lonsdale PhD 407 Edgewood Drive, Exton, Pennsylvania 19341, USA Home: 610 594 9232 Cell: 484 678 9856 Fax: 801 327 1266 Visit "Edgewood" - The Lonsdale Garden at <http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/> http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/ USDA Zone 6b