Here in Portland, Oregon, a little light rain has fallen in the past few days, but another hot, dry period is forecast for next week, so I'm not giving the summer-dry bulbs a drink quite yet. My rule is that they should never be hot and wet at the same time. Before they're ready to be soaked, I'm going to sprinkle some dry aged cow manure over the gravel top-dressing so the water can wash it in a bit. The best show today is provided by Cyclamen graecum, now settled for one year in its raised bed built up with tufa (calcium carbonate rock). Cyclamen hederifolium, a basic garden subject in this area, is also in bloom here and there, especially in the impoverished soil under large Douglas firs. Prospero autumnalis is flowering in the rock garden (I have two collections, one much bluer than the other) along with several Colchicum species and, of course, the lovely little weed Acis autumnalis. Colchicum x agrippinum is attractive in border and turf; fortunately the grass is still too dormant to need mowing, since I don't "do lawns." In the bulb house only a dozen or so Colchicum species are in flower, whether on the moist side or the dry side. They don't need moisture to trigger blooming. Soon to open are Scilla obtusifolia and Scilla intermedia, probably now called Barnardia; these may be conspecific and certainly look as if they should be. Scilla, or Barnardia, japonica (syn. S. scilloides) has just finished in the garden. The latter plant is widely grown under the misnomer Scilla numidica, which probably happened when somebody sent seed to an exchange under the fond hope that he was growing the North African plant. Another PBS member has asked me for information on distinguishing them (they are similar-looking but at least one botanist has written that they should be in different genera, now that Scilla has been split up), but although Barnardia numidica (Scilla numidica) has a very wide range in nature, I can't find a technical description of it online, except probably on the loathed Springerlink. I'm not intent enough on this problem to drive to the college library to access the latter. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA