On 1 May 03 at 9:36, Angelo Porcelli wrote: > I grow the N.bowdenii ( a common clone ) in the ground from many > years and it increases quickly, but flowering isn't very reliable, > in the sense that many more stalks could rise from that mass of > bulbs. Probably it needs to be split more often. Here in Victoria BC, a rainshadow area on Canada's west coast, Nerine bowdenii is a common garden plant. It does well in many gardens, but fails in others. Mine is one of the failures. The best show I know of is on the south slope of a small mountain, where the nerines grow under the shade of Quercus garryana, have perfect drainage due to the slope, and go bone dry in summer. The huge beds in one or two gardens there suggest that nerine, like some other amaryllids, likes company, likes to be crowded in with its kith and kin. I believe the soil in the area is fairly sandy, so there is good subsurface drainage too. Note that we have a "cool Mediterranean" climate here: wettish winters, dry summers, but never any extremes of temperature. 80F is a hot day for us. > Surely better is N.undulata, which flowers profusely and often sets > seeds itself. Both don't get much care, but just a watering from > time to time in summer and a good fertilizer (low in nitrogen) in > autumn. From one year I am growing N.'Afterglow', N. s.corusca, > N.'King of Belgians', got from Lauw. All have flowered well and now > are going to rest (it's 30°C today here). I wonder if your N. bowdenii are *too* hot? -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada "To co-work is human, to cow-ork, bovine."