Dear All, Last year about this time we had an extremely interesting discussion about when to start watering our winter growing bulbs, especially if we have protected them in dormancy or live in an area where it is dry in summer. If you were not part of our list then you might want to look at the archives for October 2003: http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/… When I was in South Africa I asked people when they started watering their bulbs. Gordon Summerfield said if his bulbs had not started into growth by April 15 (October 15 I guess that would make it in the northern hemisphere) he watered them very well then. Others said that seemed about right, but they'd water any others earlier if they showed signs of life. I don't believe anyone said they watered their bulbs in summer, but they do get some rainfall in summer so that no doubt makes a difference. Members of our list who insisted that they lost their bulbs without watering them in summer were mostly from Southern California which has a much shorter rainfall season with less rain than we get in Northern California and I expect higher night time temperatures as well. I had an extremely interesting discussion with Alan Horstmann about this subject of when to start watering. He observed that in the wild there were many South African bulbs that had a very short growing season in response to the amount of rainfall they get. If those are watered early they are in growth much longer than they normally would be and if they bloom in their regular time frame their leaves may have become untidy. So he is going to experiment with starting to water some of these much later to see if they would then become a more attractive pot subject. Genera he mentioned he was thinking about experimenting with were Tritonias and Ixias. This resonated with me since many of these bloom really late in the season for me and with all the rain I get their leaves look awful by then. Many of them are coming up now as I watered them before I left and that means they would be in growth from September-October to when they start drying up in May, a very long time. He also talked about some of the Lachenalias that come from very dry habitats. Some of these also are from cold areas. Gordon had told us to water them from below and shelter them from the dew which he thought caused more problems than rain so he was growing them under cover. My notes from Alan were species like L. isopetala, zebrina, doleritica, obscura, and even mutabilis (although this last one has a wider distribution so it may depend on its origins.) Alan had a very tiny Lachenalia he was growing that was quite choice that he had keyed out to be mutabilis. Finally Alan had some gorgeous pots of Daubenya aurea in bloom. Most of us who would have seen them would have wanted to add them to their collection. Alan told us that he had the very best luck getting them to bloom this year after taking them out of the soil and storing them dry for three months in the refrigerator to provide the proper cooling before potting them. So mine that did not come up last year at all I dumped out of the soil when I got back and they are getting chilled. Since this is a bit late to start we will see how the delayed planting works. Mary Sue