Jim, The friend who gave me the bulbs used method 1 in my prior email, while I (being much lazier) used method 2 and I only conjecture that method 3 would work to deter voles. Planting depth is mostly irrelevant as the new bulbs will adjust according to their own nature. I am in zone 6B in Lancaster county PA USA, but the ones I planted in State College PA (zone 5a) survived also. They grow exceptionally well here in soils in residuum of limestone but should grow well in other good soils. Although we don't have dry summers, they do seem to survive our intermittently soggy summers. I know I have lots of voles here as they are well represented in the random samplings of wildlife my cats present me with. I believe I have mostly pine voles as half my juvenile apple trees have keeled over. (they attack the roots and gobble up the roots on one side and the tree falls over in the next wind) My foliage only gets to a little over a foot (.3m-.35m) and it definitely weeps rather than standing erect as in most spring crocus. Tim -----Original Message----- From: pbs [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of James Waddick Sent: Friday, November 07, 2014 9:53 AM To: Pacific Bulb Society Subject: Re: [pbs] Saffron So I am sort of surprised at the range of comments here and lack of some actual experience in growing these common bulbs. Seems to be a number of communication problems. It would certainly help if each person who tells about their own actual bulbs tells us where in the world they are growing these things. Experience, climate and individual differences matter a lot.