Hi Jane and Jim: Particularly striking right now are clumps of Colchicum (darker colored flowers) inter-planted with Heuchera (maroom to silver gray foliage) and in a second location with Sedum (with purple foliage). Both Heuchera and Sedum gladly fill in the gap left by the Colchicum foliage. The white flowered cultivars really show up well as they pop up through the Phlox subulata groundcover. The Colchicum foliage dies back early enough to allow the Phlox to fill in before the flowers appear. Cool (to cold) rainy weather in the Chicago region has prolonged the flowering of many of the Colchicum. Snails and slugs were a problem on the earlier flowering species and cultivars but one combination of Colchicum and blue sheeps fescue was nice. The problem is the seedlings of the fescue don't come true (steely gray blue color). Wish I had thought about that before I let the grass go to seed! Boyce Tankersley Director of Living Plant Documentation Chicago Botanic Garden 1000 Lake Cook Road Glencoe, IL 60022 tel: 847-835-6841 fax: 847-835-1635 email: btankers@chicagobotanic.org