Interesting to read of the dependables, but what about the undependables, those bulbs that you would expect to be good performers but turn out to be duds? Plant performance is critically dependant on the details of the environment, of course: soil, pH, drainage, altitude, latitude, aspect, climate, geography, precipitation & its distribution throughout the year etc. As a result, plants considered easy in some places are quite difficult in others. In my own garden, the following have been surprisingly bad performers: 1. Leucojum vernum. I've planted hundreds of bulbs of this over the years, in any number of different locations, and only in one small location do they survive and grow. When I say small, I mean an area that may be no more than a few feet each way. No, this isn't because the bulbs I've planted have been terminally dessicated. I know enough to soak L. vernum bulbs until they are plump and firm before planting, and those planted usually came up just fine the first spring, but then disappeared. It's a mystery: I have no idea what is special about the one and only spot. Perhaps there's simply too much root competition from nearby trees everywhere else I've tried them. In Janis Ruksans book, there's a photo of L. vernum growing wild somewhere in eastern Europe; the site is a dead flat meadow with nary a tree in sight. 2. Tricyrtis. They have never survived more than two seasons. Probably due to the distaste of Japanese plants for a dry-summer, wet- winter climate plus the fact that I live in a former marsh which gets soaking wet, and stays that way, once the winter rains have set in in earnest. 3. The double form of Galanthus nivalis. It hates me. 4. Most daffodils. The narcissus fly cleans these out in a hurry, some types much faster than others, though some cultivars survive and flower well year after year. The beautiful triandrus hybrids such as Libery Bells last only one season and then they're gone, not even grassy leaves to mark the site of their demise. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island