Dell asked, >Jane and all, > >I am very fond of the little blue bulbs. I may have asked Jane this before, >but can one obtain seeds or bulbs of Bellevalia forniculata or of Bellevalia >atroviolacea? And if one were able to get the seeds, how are they coaxed >into germination? I grow quite a few Bellevalia species. Some, like the fairly familiar B. romana, have dull flowers of buff and purple-brown, but these may have interesting form, such as those with very long pedicels. I grew all of them from seed from various sources. The Archibalds' list usually has a pretty good offering. I have never had B. atroviolacea. I do grow B. forniculata, which is very desirable for its flower color, the exact blue of a good form of Meconopsis betonicifolia. However, the individual flowers are quite small, so again (like Scilla melaina) it may not seem as spectacular "in the flesh" as it does in pictures in books, where you don't see the scale. I grew it from seed, from more than one source. Germination is the same as any other bulb of this type: best planted in fall and will germinate in spring after several months of moist chilling. I find that this species does best if grown in an open raised bed in a deep pot, exposed to plenty of rain and freezing. From seeing photos and descriptions of it in the wild (where it forms huge colonies in the northern Caucasus), I think it enjoys the same sort of habitat as we see favored by, say, Iris missouriensis in the American West. That is, it's really a steppe plant and would probably do better in places like Idaho than it does for me in western Oregon. Keeping it healthy at Dell's place in Pennsylvania might be a challenge. I do think it likes a lot of water in the spring. It is in bud right now. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA