This morning I was thinking that any day now colchicum should start to bloom. So I went around the garden checking likely spots - and I had a nasty surprise. Colchicum have been blooming - and crickets have been eating them as fast as they appear. The only thing left are stubs: eventually these are lifted into view by the growth of the perianth tube. It's been so dry this year we will probably have a bumper crop of crickets. I still haven't forgotten the undulating black carpet of crickets which covered the late summer ground in Texas when I was there years ago. We have grasshoppers this year, too. I'm not happy. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where bottle gentians have started to 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/