What a nice initial post, Charles. Welcome to this group. I had to laugh when I read in the first paragraph that you are “not above using clothes!” This had me speculating about what sort of neighborhood you might live in. Was there, I wondered, a Swartmore nudist colony? Perhaps your concession to using clothes was due to deep snow which now buries our gardens? The last paragraph cleared up my misunderstanding, but to tell the truth I was enjoying it so much that a slower approach to the denouement might have been preferable. I think those of us here in eastern North America who have acquired these early blooming snowdrops should now start to name or number them, determine their true season of bloom, make crosses them among them, and in general make an effort to firmly establish a tradition of fall blooming snowdrops for our eastern gardens. Yes, in a bad year it will all be for naught. But in a good year, and lately the good years seem to outnumber the bad ones, we will then have a varied and profuse beginning to the annual snowdrop season. I’m glad to hear of your success with Galanthus reginae-olgae north of me. But I’m betting on the snowdrops of the Galanthus elwesii group to provide the most varied and reliable snowdrops for our late fall and early winter gardens. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7, where the snow piles seem to be over two feet deep right now - and it's still coming down! 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/