Dear All, I have two Amaryllis belladonna hybrids blooming now and two spikes are coming up in the gravel next to my driveway in a place my husband didn't want me to plant them as he was sure we'd walk on them. I think they are ones from Bill Welch that Jana Ulmer gave me. I visited her house in Sebastopol on Tuesday and she has a whole row of hybrids in bloom she got from him. None of her Hannibal bulbs from the dig before he died are blooming, nor are any of the ones I planted in my yard and my neighbor's that were products of the work of those who went and dug the ones Les thought were special. I think the distinction Bill Welch made about the requirements of the hybrids versus the species is an important one. All the ones I see naturalized all over what we refer to as (California's) North Coast are the species. And they do very well obviously without summer water. Mary Sue