Calochortus tolmiei grows in both northern California and southern Oregon and experiences pretty cold temperatures in nature. I've grown it for many years from seed I collected in the Siskiyous. It's usually the very first Calochortus to flower in my collection, but this year several others are about as far along in bud. I wonder if a period of prolonged storage out of the ground last summer affected them in this way. I was afraid none of them would bloom this year but all of a sudden I see flowering stalks -- and at last, no rabbits are here to eat them! This species produces a fair number of offsets, too, and it flowers relatively soon from seed (about four years), so it should be a good one for many people to try. It is not available commercially as a bulb, probably because it wasn't grown by the Dutch as a cutflower, as C. venustus and some others have been. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA At 01:54 PM 5/11/2011, you wrote: > Hi Bob: > >Beautiful plant and images. > >Does anyone have any idea what evolutionary function (if any) the 'hairs' on >the leaves serve? > >We haven't tried this species but we have tried other commercially available >Calochortus at Chicago Botanic Garden with disappointing results.