I would add a 10 to that Calin!
Yes, I am very fond of them. I guess one could purchase a bulb every year then the intensive care could be left to someone else, but some being sold could still take a few years to flower if sold as a young bulb. I once had visions of my offsets creating a staggered yearly flowering and eventually getting a garden full of them, the last giganteum flowered in 2005 with 7 offsets varying from very small to promising. I didn't lift them for a couple of years, when I did there was one left, the one I put in the ground in 2009. I'm wondering if the bulb fly Merodon equestris snacked on the rest. I have high hopes of it flowering next year, that's nearly 9 years from an offset if it does! The first two offsets from the original flowered in their 4th and 5th years, maybe the weather conditions were more favourable then.
I decided I would experiment with leaving them in the ground to save me work, and to see how they fared, we have had two very dry years as well as (several!) very cold years.
This is the offset from C. giganteum on 14th April this year when it burst into life, the leaves were probably this bronze colour because of the cold, they greened out.
