For thinking out of the box, it's hard to beat these magic bulbs. I bought them three years ago at a garage sale for a dollar apiece. When the owner called them "magic bulbs", I thought 'oh sure', but he pointed to a row of not-all-that-beautiful stalks growing in a sunny spot along the foundation of his house. "They flower first," he said, "and then the leaves come." I'm sorry to say I didn't pay much attention to any that might have been in bloom, but the old gentleman was so eager to have me try them that I bought three. They grew into tall, exotic plants like short palm trees with burgundy spots on the leaves. I did not see any flowers.

Maybe the reason I don't remember the flowers is that they weren't in bloom along the side of his house--because they had already bloomed indoors, in a box, as mine have each spring since then. When I have gone to the basement to bring up my other bulbs each spring, there they have been, their flowering stage completed and nothing left but a tangle of yellowish-white, dried stalks snaking through the warty, brown bulbs--never any flowers. Each spring I have planted the bulbs outside around May 15 and enjoyed the foliage.

This year they were sitting in a box near the freezer, and one day when I went down to get something, I had the "eeeek" experience when I saw these magical organisms snaking out of the box. I decided I would pot them up and keep them inside for a month or so to see what the flowers are actually like. One is already beyond flowering, but others promise to show me what they are once I get them into a pot, which I have not yet done. Maybe once I can identify the flower, I will even be able to find out the name of the actual bulb, since there are many bulbs with magical qualities and they can't all be named "magic bulbs". For coming up with good names, one really needs to think out of the box. Out of the Box Bulbs?