Hi all, Among my more "botanical" Nerine bulbs, recent acquisitions are showing some signs of blooming. Nerine hesseoides is in bloom, with tiny flowers of pink. A scape is coming up on Nerine gibsonii. So far, no signs of blooms on Nerine krigei, laticoma, or filifolia. By this time last year, Nerine filamentosa had been blooming for several weeks; this year, no sign of a scape so far. Strumaria tenella orientalis has a scape up too. This one is self fertile, and I have seedlings of it from last season's bloom. It is another "botanical" for someone who loves tiny plants with tiny flowers. It's blooms are white, and shaped similarly to those of N. hesseoides. I'll try to get some digital pics and post to my web pages on Nerines at URL = http://shieldsgardens.com/amaryllids/nerine.html/ I got some bulbs of a cold-hardy (in Holland) clone of Nerine bowdenii in spring and planted them out in early summer in a nursery row. A few made a brief attempt to put up leaves, then disappeared below ground. I suppose our very hot summer weather must have discouraged them. I also planted 5 of the same clone in pots, and they are doing fine with plenty of foliage. Using a clone of N. bowdenii from Rob Potterton (Potterton & Martin, in the UK), I tried pollinating their flowers last winter with frozen pollen of N. filifolia and of N. krigei. Not a single seed formed. Has anyone any experience crossing other species onto N. bowdenii or vice versa? Regards, Jim Shields in central Indiana ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. +1-317-896-3925