Mark, You're still ahead of us here in Chicago with a galanthus blooming If my single plant of elwesii doesn't show in the next 3 weeks, I'll know it's probably dead. I agree with you on the alliums from Iran, Uzbekistan, etc.. Part of the problem is that the areas involved have not been much botanized, and many of the species descriptions are in Russian, Armenian script or Georgian script. . viz.. Flora Turkmenistan, and hard to find in translation. I think i'm going to try a few of them again. Trying to grow them from seed back in the late 50s was most difficult , as seed from the various herbaria in their offerings from the area was not fresh and some of them (e.g., karataviense) pose germination difificulties that Deno noted and struggled with. Thanks for your pictures. The elburzense looks much like A. christophii as I recall, which self-sowed and became a kind of weed all over the place, crowding and shading my oncocycli, which I had to give up on for other reasons. Only 20° F here today and low 30s for the forseeable next week. The only bulbous thing showing is Scilla sibericia and it's not yet in bloom. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark McDonough" <antennaria@charter.net> To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 1:35 PM Subject: Re: [pbs] Seed of Eurasian Allium >I can second the endorsement of Dr. Vlastimil Pilous' seed list. I've >often wondered why more of the fantastic eurasian Allium are not in >commerce. Most should be fairly doable, given how easy to grow some >species like Allium karataviense are. The alliums on the Pilous list >represent some of the best and most desirable species. Be prepared to wait >a good number of years to get them to bloom from seed, 5-6 yrs on average. >