A number of years ago I was speaking at Ness Botanic Gardens. The director told me this story. He watched as an older woman was going around pulling up a little plant here, another small plant there, and apparently having a grand time. He walked over and asked to see in her purse. When she opened it up and he saw all the plants crammed in there he began a restrained lecture about how if people took plants like this there would soon be nothing for anyone to enjoy. Whereupon the woman looked at him and said "But my sister told me the gardens are free." Umm, yes, perhaps she meant the admission, madam. Of course there is also the time I saw someone very furtively digging Ranunculus ficaria at the New York Botanical Garden. I was going to warn them about the plant's territorial ambitions but then decided that their actions would bear a just reward. 'Nuff said. Let's go back to growing bulbs. Also corms, tubers, rhizomes. Judy in splendidly sunny and wonderful New Jersey