I wonder if Hans-Werner is correct in his assertion that seedpods, bulblets, etc do not weaken the mother plant. Building a bulblet must take a serious amount of energy and resources from the parent bulb. The bulblet grows underground and does not photosynthesize until it is bigger, so it has to be an energy sink initially. Maybe I misunderstand his claim. Similarly, making seeds puts an important energy and nutrient drain on most plants. Also, it is not a ridiculous idea that nutrients and sugars are translocated into the bulb as a leaf dies back. This does happen. His point about a leaf drawing water out of the bulb does make sense to me, however. Lou