Hi all, I have taken to waiting to see the first flower before cutting this plant back. Mostly it's due to having to garden in a rush the last few months, and the CRS (can't remember it blooms in November). My I. u. began blooming about a week ago so I raced out there with scissors and cut it back and it is happily blooming away. In my yard it is growing in a hot bed, full sun, very hot in summer, lots of constant ocean breeze, regularly but rather sparsely irregated via lawn sprinklers. This bed sits at the back edge of the lawn up against a drop off which goes down a 45 degree slope, so the drainage is probably excellent. All the beds tested pretty acid for So Cal a few years ago but I had been ammending them with pine needles. No doubt they are a bit less acid now. I think mine wouldn't do so well with less water. We only had about 4 in of rain last year (July to July) but as most everyone has agreed it doesn't seem too picky and is reliably evergreen here all year - always nice. Cathy Craig Zone 9b Maritime Pacific Bulb Society President Mary Sue wrote In the past Will Ashburner and Cathy > Craig both recommended cutting the foliage to the ground since the flowers > are very short and could be obscured otherwise. I remembered to do this > finally this year and have been charmed by these gorgeous huge flowers.