Hi Mary Sue, i use dahlia culture to grow these here in Michigan where we get hot summers and frigid winters i plant them in the open garden in early June when the clay soil is warn and water them well all summer, no water means no flowers. they bloom in July August Sept. I dig them when it gets cold and put the bulbs with dirt clods in a box or bag with crumpled newspapers and store in basement all winter at 50-60ºF and plant them next June, some dry out but the dirt clods on the bulbs and the newspapers keep them all from drying out. i have been doing this for over 5 years. i may soak the bulbs for a hour before planting if they look to desiccated. see http://srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/… <http://srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/…> Rimmer SE MI Zone 5-6 > On Mar 17, 2017, at 1:02 AM, Mary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org> wrote: > > When I lived in Stockton, California I grew Tigridia pavonia in raised beds with perennial flowers. It came back year after year and produced a succession of flowers. I haven't had a lot of luck growing it successfully in coastal Northern California where we get much more rain in winter and summer temperatures are cooler, especially at night. Purchased bulbs I put in the ground didn't reappear so I tried growing some from seed and keeping them in pots. I had some success with that, but very few flowers and nothing in subsequent years. Still, when I saw the photos of Ellen's 'Sunset in Oz' I was smitten and so when I saw if offered in the NARGS seed exchange I decided it would be worth it if I got to see a couple of flowers. And I was curious what they would look like. I had discovered from my other experiences growing this species from seed that it was possible to get it to bloom the first year if you transplanted it up to a deeper pot after it came up and fertilized it. I sowed seed on February 22 and seedlings started emerging on April 15. The first flowers appeared in September. Five bulbs bloomed that month. Luckily I was home as the flowers only last for part of a day. Two of them resembled the cultivar and the other three did not. The following month a second flower was produced on two of the plants. And that was it. Seven flowers lasting less than a day. > > I moved the pot into my greenhouse so it could be dry over the winter and didn't repot. The second year there were lots of leaves and only one flower one day. But it was a beautiful red and it happened on my husband's birthday so that was special. > > I moved the pot in the greenhouse again when it went dormant and recently I unpotted and discovered there were lots of bulbs of different sizes which really surprised me. I probably should give it up as I obviously don't have the right climate to grow these, but I'm giving them one more chance and planted a few of them out and a few in a pot and am sending the rest to Dell for the BX. If they can flower from seed in months, it would seem there would be a chance for smaller bulbs to flower this year. I added photos of my 8 flowers to the wiki. > > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… > > After years of drought we've had a lot of rain and some things are flowering that I haven't seen for years so that is very exciting. > > Mary Sue _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/