In a note in the recent BX offering from Roy Herold, we read: "The following tecophilaea hybrids are the result of hand pollinated, > controlled greenhouse crosses. Curiously, most of the seedlings from the > straight cyanocrocus parent look like leichtlinii. Perhaps the latter is > dominant? > > 15. Tecophilaea hybrid (cyanocrocus var. leichtlinii x cyanocrocus), few > 16. Tecophilaea hybrid (cyanocrocus x cyanocrocus var. leichtlinii), few" > When Tecophilaea cyanocrocus was rediscovered in the wild in the mid-elevation Chilean Andes several years ago, the report (published in /Gayana/, the Chilean botanical journal) mentioned that the flowers were all, or mostly, of the "leichtlinii" pattern with a white center. I suspect that this is the typical form of the species, and that the striking all-blue form that growers consider typical is the result of selection, either of collected plants or within cultivation. It's probably not valid to designate the white-centered color form a botanical variety. I'm glad to know that descendants of my little population of T. cyanocrocus are in circulation; I lost mine when I moved a few years ago and changed their growing situation (obviously not to their liking), but at least Roy and also Mark Akimoff have their progeny doing well. Mine all arose from 3 corms purchased from an English vendor in the early 1990s. Incidentally, the change that seems to have doomed them was a move from a plunged clay pot to a covered, sandy and gritty raised bed. This is a snowmelt species, and perhaps it needs a cooler summer dormancy than it got in the same conditions as, e.g., Juno irises (which, however, also grow and flower rapidly after snowmelt!). Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA