I've mostly given up trying to grow Fritillaria since I don't have continuing success with this genus even though I have gotten some species to bloom from seed. So many other things are so much more reliable for me. I have enough success that I don't need to succeed with everything. However, one species that has bloomed more than one year from seed is F. pontica. I have two surviving versions, one from NARGS seed labeled ssp substipelata and another F. pontica from the BX and Rob Hamilton. Since we don't have photos on the wiki of this species I was going to add some of our photos, but as so often is the case ran into some questions so hopefully some of you Fritillaria experts like Jane will help out. I looked through some of the previous posts and found a number of people are successful growing this one. First, Mark McDonough added pictures to the wiki of some he purchased from Dutch growers that he thought were something else since the descriptions he looked up said this frit is green. His photos are here: http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… One of my Brian Mathew books describe this species as often having a warm brownish suffusion, especially on the apex and margins of the segments. This is true of my plants and the picture on Plate 1 of the Pratt and Jefferson-Brown book shows brown coloring of this species too. When I looked on Kew to see if they were accepting Fritillaria pontica ssp substipelata, I found that it was now considered Fritillaria theophrasti Kamari & Phitos, Biol. Gallo-Hellen. 26(Suppl.): 70 (2000). That left me wondering what to consider my seed grown plants labeled as ssp. substipelata. The Pratt and Jefferson-Brown book lists the subspecies as found on a Greek Island and having thinner leaves and taller stems and being covered in a silvery-grey bloom on the outside whatever that means. Mine also show brown markings. Inside the book says the petals have a deep red patch at the petal tips. Unfortunately when my husband took pictures of the insides of both, the photos didn't get marked as which was which. There is red inside both, but not at the spot I'd call a tip. I'm tempted to label all my pictures F. pontica which would solve the subspecies dilemma. Any advice? Thanks. Mary Sue Ittner California's North Coast Wet mild winters with occasional frost Dry mild summers