In her excellent notes on her BX conations, Mary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org> wrote, >11. Pasithea caerulea--There are only a few seed of this blue flowered >geophyte (another unusual underground storage organ) from Chile. Jane >mentioned it in her report. I have seen it in the ground at the University >of California Berkeley's garden. I think it might need year round water as >some I planted out where they didn't get summer water did not come back. I'm pretty sure it does NOT need summer water. I saw it growing robustly in semi-arid situations where there definitely is no rain in summer, and where it was up on hills with no likelihood of underground water. I would be more inclined to suspect predation. It can stand a few degrees of frost; it was growing well in the botanical garden at Valparaiso, where I was told they had experienced temperatures down to minus 4 Celsius (c. 25 F), and also inland in the coast range where I assume there is a bit of frost. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon