Thank you all for the very supportive and provocative responses, I hope to someday be in a position to pursue this hypothesis and form some theories! I dream of discovery... Mike Rummerfield and Bob, I think you are both talking about two sides of the same coin. 'Teaming with Microbes' (get it, it's awesome) states [in general] annual plants are more prevalent in bacterially dominated soils. No coincidence that bacteria are the first colonizers of freshly disturbed soils (from humans, or otherwise), perhaps explaining why invasive weeds are first to colonize disturbed soils. Perennials on the other hand, and trees/shrubs are technically perennials, prefer fungi dominated soils. Both fungi and trees occur later in the natural succession. Fungal hyphae, unlike tiny tiny tiny bacteria (unable to move very far in their lifetimes without being inadvertently relocated by larger organisms), can grow very long and cross larger gaps in the soil (microscopic gaps that bacteria can't navigate), so can potentially thrive in more open, free draining soils. Or at least that's how I've interpreted it. And to respond to an earlier point, there are fungi and bacteria which can live symbiotically with both annuals and perennials in the rhizosphere (the area directly around plant roots; there is an exchange of nutrients) as well as in the plant tissue itself. The latter types have had surprising benefits such as protecting the plants from pathogens or herbivores. And to be clear, I'm basically quoting [not verbatim] from 'Teaming with Microbes'. I'm enthralled and smitten. Twitterpated, even! So yes, pseudo-experiments on my part wouldn't be with a single prized bulb, but something like Crocus or Narcissus, relatively cheap and available. But theoretically in a healthy soil food web the pathogenic microbes would be kept in check by the beneficial or benign ones. Similar to growing organic, the key is balance, not eradication, so there could be some losses. Growing from seed I could develop bulbs with horizontal resistance rather than the vertical resistance of clones. I wonder how a bulb/fungus symbiosis would work with a species that essentially has annual root systems. I assume the fungus would have a corresponding dormancy cycle. Travis Owen Rogue River, OR http://www.amateuranthecologist.com/ http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/