Dear Friends, The recent discussion on bulb depth reminded me a situation that I was presented with earlier this year. First, we have had a good discussion of contractile roots, but this is not the situation here. Jim McK (I think) mentioned 'droppers' in discussing crocus. Just what is a dropper? First what it look like. If some bulbs are planted too shallowly they will form something that looks like a stolon from the base of the corm and drop straight down or at an angle to develop a new bulb or corm at a lower depth. The structure of the dropper itself isn't much discussed, but I assume it is some extension of the basal plate and this extension responds to gravity and 'drops' until an optimum depth occurs. Over the years of PBS we have had a number of droppers mentioned. This fall I was sent pix of what appeared to be "risers" in Lycoris radiata. It appeared that the bulb was planted much too deep and it had made a hefty stalk straight up from the basal plate, through the center of the bulb , then up about 5 inches to form an 'identical bulb at a higher level. Both upper and lower bulbs had a similar size and shape, roots and foliage just emerging. I was asked if this was a dropper or what was happening. Although it had some of the features of a dropper, it didn't look right. In my experience a dropper will come from the side or bottom of the top bulb, go down and turn up to form a new bulb at a lower depth. This was two bulbs right on top of each other, there was no up turn of a dropper. I suspected that the original bulb was just planted way too deep since I knew that Lycoris prefer to grow very shallowly. I later learned that these bulbs were dug from a spot that had been altered by adding new soil and in fact were buried way too deep. This is the first time I had seen an actual 'riser'. Anyone else have experience with droppers or risers? Best Jim -- Dr. James W. Waddick 8871 NW Brostrom Rd. Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711 USA Ph. 816-746-1949 Zone 5 Record low -23F Summer 100F +