Dear All, My garden is located in coastal Mendocino County, California. I live at about 840 feet (256 meters) with a distant view of the Pacific Ocean. My climate is a Mediterranean one with rain starting in the fall, building in the winter and tapering off in spring. Summers are completely dry. Temperatures in winter occasionally get below freezing, but not usually much below. Average rainfall is 64 inches (about 1625 mm) but in El Nino years it has been much higher. Summer temperatures are moderate as well, with only occasional hot days in a row almost always followed by coastal fog that cools things off. Evenings are cool. It can be very windy, especially in spring and summer, which makes our part of the coast less foggy than areas north or south. I grow bulbs in containers, in raised beds (that I have created just for bulbs) that I don't water in summer, and in the ground. For the purpose of this subject I'll just discuss the bulbs that are growing directly in the ground and blooming reliably. There are plants in the raised beds that are thriving too and some of those could probably be successful in the ground. Plants go in the ground if I think they will do better there, if I have extras I want to test, and if they are not blooming anyway. Some in the latter category then bloom and others are never seen again. We are fenced from the deer and don't have gophers, but we do have moles and other critters that dig holes. The squirrels seem fixated on the pine cones in the pine trees, but some day they may figure out that nirvana is awaiting them and I'll be in trouble. We water occasionally in summer, but the tree roots soak that up and when you dig down in the soil it is completely dry. Alphabetically I have Amaryllis belladonna (at least a few of them bloom every year, but not all), Aristea ecklonii (I was sure it would need more water and would reseed too much, but perhaps because of the low amount of summer water it hasn't), Arthropodium cirrahatum, Babianas (some are hybrids, but B. rubrocyanea and B. villosa are doing well and I am sure some other species too), Brodiaea (californica, elegans, purdyi--interestingly I haven't had luck with B. terrestris when I have planted it out and it grows where I live), Calochortus (most of my experiments with this in the ground have not been successful, but the last two years C. vestae has bloomed), Cardamine californica, Chasmanthe (aethiopica has to be watched for weediness, other ones I have tried increase rapidly, but don't bloom), Chlorogalum pomeridianum, Clintonia andrewsiana, Crocus (I've planted a lot of these and many are gone, but C. imperati is better each year and I have chrysanthus hybrids and vernus), Cyrtanthus brachyscaphus (not as happy as in a container, but is blooming each year), Dichelostemma (capitatum, multiflorum, ida-maia), Dierama pulcherrimum (should need more summer water and not like wet winters, but does fine), Erythronium multiscapoideum (I've only had this a couple of years from Diana, but it has bloomed since I had it), Ferraria uncinata (was a huge thug in a raised bed, but better in the ground), Freesia (alba is very invasive here, but long blooming and fragrant and laxa is less weedy but blooms and would probably like more summer water), Geissorhiza inaequalis (this is appearing everywhere), Gladiolus (carmineus, carneus, dalenii, tristis, undulatus--but dalenii is not doing as well as in Jana's garden where it gets summer water--carmineus is my favorite), Homerias (I know they are Moraeas, but it is easier to list this way-ochroleuca, flaccida, collina, pendula, and hybrids of the same all over and long blooming), Hyacinthoides hispanica, Ipheion uniflorum (weedy), Iris (douglasiana, Pacific Coast hybrids, innominata, japonica, unguicularis), Ixia (hybrids, dubia, flexuosa, rapunculoides, others dwindled away), Lachenalia mutabilis (I had a number of others in raised beds that were fine until they got sick), Leucojum aestivum (long blooming and very satisfactory), Lilium martimum, Moraea (aristata, bellendenii, gigandra, vegeta), Nerine (flexuosa x undulata, pudica), Orthrosanthus chimboracensis, Oxalis purpurea (if this doesn't seed how is it that it can appear everywhere-it only blooms with good sun), Scilla peruviana (is blooming really well this year, but not every year, but I'll include it because it looks so nice right now), Sisyrinchium bellum (this goes dormant for me in the summer but always comes back), Sparaxis (hybrids, elegans, bloom well even when they were virused), Spiloxene capensis, Triteleia (hyacinthina, ixioides, laxa), Tritonia (crocata, deusta, lineata--the latter is strange since it is from a summer rainfall area), Tulbaghia (simmleri--never increased or set seed alas, but blooms once or twice a year and violacea), Veltheimia bracteata, Watsonia (humilis and marginata), and Zigadenus fremontii. This is the Calochortus that I've gotten to grow in the ground (one that likes rain.) http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/… A few of these I've already managed to get added to the Wiki. Freesia alba in mass and close-up http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/… http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/… I've been adding pictures of all the Moraeas in bloom right now to the Moraea page as my husband photographs them and I downsize them (M. atropunctata, aristata, vegeta, loubseri, bipartita, tripetala are all in bloom right now, but some are in raised beds not the ground). The Homerias are just starting so pictures of those will be added lately. I think Bob is taking some gorgeous pictures so am including the whole page and not just the ones I mentioned. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… I grow four different varieties of Cardamine californica which is one of my earliest spring flowering native wild flowers. It is in the brassicaceae family but has little tubers. One variety I grow has attractively marked leaves so I think of it as my California cyclamen although the flowers aren't as nice. I'm having better luck with Cyclamen in containers than in the ground. The Cardamine is really hard to photograph since it grows in the shade for one thing and the flower is not clear here but you can get the idea of how attractive the leaves are. It is spreading nicely under some Redwoods and growing with Viola sempervirens. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/… So the bulbs in my garden are mostly native or South African, with a few others thrown in that have worked. As I keep experimenting I'll probably find others that can survive. It's always a gamble when you live where there is so much rain and are passionate about flowers that don't bloom for very long. Since I grow so many things I am bound to get some of them to bloom on those sunny days between storms. Mary Sue
