To add to the early fall (in this case, not late summer) bloomers being discussed, this morning I photographed a nice clump of Acis valentina (formerly Leucojum valentinum, and perhaps eventually to be placed in Galanthus) and added the photos to the wiki under that entry. These flowers look a little different than the earlier photos from John Lonsdale, probably because his opened wide in response to higher heat, and mine, pictured in the morning, are more bell-shaped. In both you can see the distinctive "noses" at the tips of the segments. These plants got into the garden because the label on their pot was lost during my recent move. I'm glad they did, though whether they'll survive a colder than average winter remains to be seen. Those in the garden, growing in well-watered, rich soil, are more robust than those in the bulb house, where they receive just a little summer water. The glaucous stems are about 10 inches/25 cm tall, and appear before any leaf growth. I recommend this plant of the western Mediterranean for temperate gardens. Unlike Acis autumnalis (a bit of a weed in gardens here), it hasn't shown a tendency to self-sow widely. Also appearing today are the first flowers of Prospero autumnalis (formerly Scilla autumnalis) in the rock garden, and Scilla scilloides (syn. Scilla japonica, in a group for which the genus name Barnardia has been proposed) in an island bed, popping up through the foliage of a prostrate-growing shrubby penstemon. The former self-sows readily. Fall-flowering Acis and Prospero autumnalis as well ripen their seed very rapidly, and seedlings mature rapidly too. Most of my Prospero autumnalis plants grew from seed I collected in the Peloponnese from a colony that was still flowering in roadside gravel. This contrasts with fall-blooming Crocus and Colchicum species whose seed doesn't ripen until spring. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA