Steve, Bletilla striate is hardy here, I have clumps with hundreds of noses per clump and it is spectacular in May, flowering with large clumps of Iris tectorum. I have the Bletilla in a colder situation now, but used to grow them in a very sunny place (they are happy in full sun not just the shade in which they are usually planted) that was much more sheltered. There I encountered the problems you have described, but usually in early spring. The shoots respond quickly to anything they interpret as spring and will extend a couple of inches out of the ground. In this situation they are vulnerable to cold below around 27F - the above ground portions of the shoots will brown and die. If this happens you have to hope that the flower buds weren't also killed - they are generally an inch or two below the tip of the shoot. If just the leaves are hit you end up with truncated leaves with square ends - as if they've been mown or munched by a rabbit. Occasionally the shoot can be completely killed but the rhizomes are just fine. You should protect them as much as possible but don't worry over much - the worst it will cost you is a season's flowers. I have a few things here that have been fooled by our relatively cool and damp summer - a Frit. camschatcensis is flowering - and all my Cyclamen graecum flowered 3 weeks early. J. John T Lonsdale PhD 407 Edgewood Drive, Exton, Pennsylvania 19341, USA Home: 610 594 9232 Cell: 484 678 9856 Fax: 801 327 1266 Visit "Edgewood" - The Lonsdale Garden at http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/ USDA Zone 6b