Linda asked several questions about the culture of Eremurus here in Maryland. With respect to winter cold, I've never given it a second thought: I've never lost a plant during the winter here, and I don't consider any sort of winter protection necessary or even desirable. But as Linda noted, we're day and night in that regard. With respect to summer water, as Linda put it " do you mean not a drop of water, bone dry, not even a smidge of rain, and certainly no watering from me?" Yes, that's pretty much it, although nothing gets bond dry here during the summer. I would never water them during the summer, and I would get very nervous if they were uncovered during rain. But really there's more to the story there. I grow my plants in the local soil which is borderline clay/loam. This soil dries out very slowly. Although the Eremurus are in a raised bed (maybe a foot above surrounding ground level), I put covers over them as soon as the flowers fade and long before the foliage shows any sign of ripening. That's out of consideration for the soil - if I don't start drying the soil early, it will not be dry enough when the plants enter dormancy. If you were to grow the plants in a well draining medium which dries out quickly, you might want to modify this treatment. Many book accounts mention planting them in sand, or packing sand around the plants, or preparing special beds and all sorts of other bother. They seem to grow well enough in our local stuff. The trick is to get that local stuff dry as the plants enter dormancy. Linda also asked "They sprout in the fall, like muscari? That's not in the books." Well, yes and no. Last fall my largest plant sprouted in November. A sprout as big around as my forearm began to push up then. The crown of the plant in question is not buried deeply - it's probably only an inch or two deep. During the following winter, I kept that sprout covered with an inverted flower pot filled with soil. During the winter it never got more than about four inches out of the ground. It eventually went on to bloom successfully. Eremurus foliage is definitely susceptible to hard freezes here, so be ready to protect the foliage. If they were to sprout like some Muscari and produce mature foliage in the autumn, I suspect that even a mild zone 7 winter would destroy such foliage. But I've never known the foliage to grow that much in the fall or winter. Linda also asked when I expect to see them in the spring. The tips of the sprouts are often evident all winter. By the first days of spring (literally, i.e. the last week of March), I can usually make out the inflorescence deep down in the rosette of leaves (if the plant is going to bloom). This treatment seems to be working for me, at least in the sense that plants get bigger and continue to bloom. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where Sternbergia greuteriana has put up a second flush of bloom. My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/