Here in the foothills of the Oregon Cascades, I think there is no bulb flowering in the open garden except Galanthus 'Allenii'. Weather is chilly, though not too far below freezing yet, and very, very wet; 3 inches of snow on Thursday, melted by a hard rain last night. The atypical weather patterns in North America are being attributed to ENSO (El Nino and the Southern Oscillation), a cyclic event that is not directly associated with global warming. These patterns are not all harmful either to the environment or to human activity. Our correspondents in Australia will face yet another drought, and probably wildfires, but on the Pacific coasts of the Americas farmers will revel in extra moisture (though the offshore fishermen will suffer). Ski and snowboard teams have moved from European training areas to the mountains of Oregon to take advantage of the snow conditions, and when the snows melt the native plants will flourish and the salmon will find it easier to get upstream. And for plant enthusiasts, we can expect a year of flowering deserts. I went to northern Chile after the last El Nino winter and saw marvelous sights, and many of us remember the epochal flowering in the southern California deserts a couple of years ago, when Death Valley's floor became a shallow lake. I hope to return to Chile late next fall and find seeds in some of the places I photographed in flower in October, and to visit some mountain areas that were still under snow when I was there before. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA