I always remember my early days of bulb growing when with "frits" you were told to pour the bulblets round the parent bulbs when repotting, suggesting the parent(s) would benefit from this. I have never seen any reasoning behind this; but vaguely assumed that with an annual growth replacement bulb, the decaying bulblets will feed the larger bulb(s). Whether there is anything more scientific than this I don't know. Extra availability of nutrients should override this and you should get at least the same number of bulblets at the end of the season. Although this is, I presume, less relevant with annual root growth and annual repotting; mycrorhizal links between the roots systems may play a part in this too. Extra roots "dropping" improve drainage too I guess, if this is beneficial or a potential problem. Does anyone have a more scientific understanding of this? Brian Whyer, south east UK. Still suffering from the long hot summer, and now strong drying winds from second hand hurricanes. Only the Colchicums, which have no roots yet, seem to not worry and are exceptional this year. (until they get blown over) It seems like there was a discussion in the past about what to do when you go to transplant a large pot of Fritillaria atropurpurea and how to deal with a zillion rice bulblets in addition to what seems like the "mother" bulbs. Maybe a zillion isn't far off. I quit counting when I became overwhelmed at the number of babies. I'll transplant the mothers into separate containers, but how to manage the babies eludes me. Any help would be appreciated. Robin on the OR southwest coast where the wind is blowing way too much Hansen Nursery robin@hansennursery.com --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus/ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…