Max wrote >There are red Tulips on Crete that I would dearly love to try, though I've >never seen them in the trade, e.g., T. doerfleri: T. doerfleri is the "outlier" of the Cretan tulips -- the other three, T. cretica, T. bakeri, and T. saxatilis, are regarded as conspecific by some botanists. They do look quite different from one another both in the wild and in cultivation, and they seem to prefer different habitats. T. cretica grows right down to the coast, but the others are plants of the stony middle elevation parts. T. bakeri is the largest-flowered of the three, and T. doerfleri is about as large. T. bakeri and T. saxatilis are widely available, and T. cretica is remarkably easy from seed, flowering sometimes in the third year from sowing. I usually have seed of it for an exchange, though this year the rabbits got it all. T. saxatilis perennialized in my Oregon garden in the Cascade foothills, secreted among rocks to foil the voles; I haven't tried any of the others outdoors. In nature T. saxatilis and T. cretica tend to grow in rock formations, avoiding rodents that way no doubt, while T. bakeri flourishes in cultivated fields if the grazing animals are kept off them at the right season. I saw T. doerfleri growing in the meadow below the rocky outcrops where T. saxatilis grows; perhaps it likes richer soil and/or more moisture. In any case, all of them get some winter chill. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA