Jim McKenney wrote: >Ixiolirion is one of those plants whose ubiquity (in catalogs at least) and >low price cause prospective growers to take less than seriously. Allium >caeruleum is another one. > >I have no idea how these behave in other climates, but under my conditions >many bulbs, and these two in particular, need to mature into drought. I also have not been able to keep Ixiollirion in the garden. I thought perhaps it was winter wet that did it in, since I had it in a section that is not watered in summer, when it rarely rains here. Allium caeruleum, however, is a permanent plant in the garden here. There are many bulbs that can be multiplied easily and grown to flowering size under the controlled conditions of the Dutch bulb industry but that are not easy to maintain in the conditions typical of the temperate-climate garden. Many of these species seem to do best in North America when grown in the severe-winter regions of the US northeast and eastern Canada, suggesting that a strict regime of winter dormancy under snow suits them. They don't get this in Holland, but there they have very deep sand and can be kept in temperature- and humidity-controlled storage and planted at an optimal time so that they will emerge at a time when they're least likely to be damaged by weather. They may also be treated with pesticides, fungicides, and heat to restrict the activity of pathogens; viruses, in particular, can become more active when the bulb enters the more stressful environment of the garden. With experience we learn which commercial bulbs can be "naturalized" as the bulb catalogs say, and which must be treated as annual bedders. Only experimentation in every garden with its micro-habitats will give us the answers. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA