I'm trying some this winter. I saw them for sale a couple years ago and was going to buy them until I saw the price. I think they wanted $6.99 for 5 bulbs. Don't think so. So I asked hubbys' Grandmother who gardens and she gave me about 50 bulbs (they've naturalized in her yard). So, hopefully this spring they come up. I'll let you know if I see them. ( I don't remember where I planted them, in the big bed in the frontyard is all I know.)

Syreeta

I've had them for about 10 years now. They come up every spring (sometimes in February, but this year I won't expect them until late April), and spread slowly.

I've been going through old gardening magazines looking for gardening projects I remember seeing in them. I happened to come across an article discussing bulbs. The lady that wrote the article has acreage and plants 1000s' of bulbs every fall. To give you an idea as to the amount of bulbs she plants one year she ordered 3500 bulbs in one fall, fortunately she can buy wholesale since she is a garden consultant. To date when the article was printed she had planted over 22 000 bulbs on her property. (I wish I could have that many, it would amazing.)

Anyways, getting off topic here. She says concerning winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), she planted 1000 with the expectation that about 200 would survive and flower the following spring. Winter aconites are small tubers that tend to desiccate and die in the process of drying, shipping, and waiting for sale and planting. She tries to obtain them as early as possible (so don't wait for them to go on sale), then soaks the tubers overnight in damp peat moss and then plants promptly. Doing this only a quarter survive. Then she relies on them growing and producing seed to multiply.

So, that could be the reason why yours didn't come up. I'd try them again and do her suggestion of soaking them before you plant. I'll still try and remember to let you know if mine make it. I'm hoping mine didn't dry out since they were only out of the ground for a week or so.

Syreeta

Thanks for the info.

There's also other tuber or bulb plants that are more successful when planted early or started in pots. In the 'Far North' one of these is snowdrops. Troopers once they get going but need a bit of help at the start.

I'll try aconite again. Buy them early, soak them and start them in pots for the first winter and then plant them out. This works with establishing snowdrops.

Alpiner, I think I'm going to start storing these specialty bulbs in pots for their first winter as you recommended. I don't know how many times I've ordered unusuals and they never show up the next spring.

For instance, I planted Erythronium 'Pagoda' Dog Tooth Violets in the fall of 2005, nothing happen last spring and like you, I'm hoping they will surprise me this spring, but I have my doubts that they dried out as Syreeta pointed out.

I sure wish mail order companies would send us Far Northern gardeners our orders early, like in August ;)

Sharon

We did the same with an Erythronium species...also with Eremerus (Foxtail Lily) and with some marginal Fritillarias. It's that little help at the beginning that might be the difference in the plants establishing or not. Part of the issue is what type of winter is ahead when the marginal plants are put in the ground. This is not only temperatures (will there be minus 30 or minus 25) but also things such as how quickly plants break dormancy, late season cold snaps and so on.

In the 'Far North' we are breaking new ground with many plants. The literature is sketchy at best and there just hasn't been enough seasons to establish a definite pattern. We 'assume' that somebody must have the answers but we ourselves are sometimes the first line of experimentation.