Randy wrote: >>Most of Iran falls in the typical "Mediterranean climate" type, which extends very far inland in the eastern Mediterranean region than it does elsewhere in the world. One of my favorite topics. The concept of a "mediterranean" climate is easy to understand (dry summers), but when you get into the details of its official definition, things get confusing. Even if an area has winter rain and summer dryness, if it gets too little total rain per year, it may be classified as "desert" rather than mediterranean. And if it gets too cold in winter, it may be classified as "continental" or "steppe." The official definition of mediterranean also allows a fair amount of summer rain (which is why some "mediterranean" bulbs can naturalize in lawns and other places that get watered in summer). I won't get into the details, but you can drag yourself through the articles on Wikipedia if you're having trouble getting to sleep some evening. As a result of the classification weirdness, the places that grow some of our favorite summer-dormant bulbs are not technically classified as mediterranean. Those areas include the Sierra Nevada mountains in California (too cold), Nieuwodtville in South Africa (too dry), everything north of about La Ligua in Chile (too dry), and as Randy mentioned, most of Turkey and a huge chunk of Iran, the "stans" and other parts of the Mideast (too cold and/or dry). The lesson out of this is not to get too hung up on the official definition of mediterranean. It was written for climatology, not gardeners, and definitely not for bulb growers. And if someone tells you a bulb is "mediterranean," don't assume you know how to grow it. Ask for details on how much winter cold and summer rain it expects. Mike San Jose, CA (min winter temp 20F / -6C, ~6 months of absolute drought in summer)