Dear All, Now that Australia is getting rain and the rain lilies are blooming I have to share mine from another hemisphere. Those of you who were with us in the beginning may remember our rain lily discussion from this summer. We concluded that to get them to bloom you need summer warmth, warm wind, and rain (with barometric pressure changes.) Having periods of dry followed by rain works. Lisa Flaum did some experiments on her rain lilies since it had been a dry summer for her, saturating them over night and many of the ones she grows bloomed as a result. Diane Whitehead and I tried the same (mine were put in the greenhouse for weeks first to provide the warmth) and were less successful. Jane McGary suggested the ones to try in our cooler summers were: Habranthus tubispathus, H. robustus, and Zephyranthes candida. I have gotten all three to bloom, but the first one has bloomed for a few days at most once a year. Last year when we were gone and my neighbor neglected to water a lemon tree in a container causing it to lose almost all its leaves I had a really nice display of Zephyranthes candida in that container. It had been overwhelmed by some perennials that had seeded themselves in the container (Erigeron) and I didn't even remember it was there. When I pulled out all the Erigeron I saw the buds on the Zephyranthes. I'm not sure I'd be willing to do that every year to get it to bloom although the lemon tree has recovered. H. robustus has been known to bloom twice in a year for me and it was the only thing that responded to my rain lily soaking experiment by blooming. When I complained on the IBS list about rainlilies a woman in the southern United States sent me some that she promised I could grow and get to bloom. They were in growth when she sent them and promptly went dormant, but last year they bloomed. We had a couple weeks recently without rain and then a good soaking one day. Before the day was over I had a bud on my plants which has since opened and bloomed. This is a rather large flower as my container is 8 inches (20+ cm.) and it stays in bloom for awhile. So there is at least one species and a rather spectacular one that I can grow in my Mediterranean climate with pleasant (not hot) summer temperatures, Zephyranthes atamasca. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/… Mary Sue
