I have no idea what the answers to Jane's questions are, but something she said reminded me of something I saw in my own bulbs last week. I had been turning bulbs out of pots, and when I turned out one small Colchicum, I found four mummified old tunics stacked neatly over the living corm. The entire assemblage was about three inches long. I've read about similar tunic stacking in Crocus, but this was the first time I have observed it in Colchicum. Also, I was reminded of an observation I made long ago when I started to grow bulbs. I was aware of the problems with various rots and bulbs, and it struck me as remarkable that in so many bulbs the new parts of the bulb form within the rotting hulk of the old parts of the bulb. It was only years later when I learned that, in effect, there are rots and there are rots (i.e. some pathogens attack living tissue, other fungi and bacteria work on tissue which is already dead) that this began to make at least a bit of sense. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 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/