On 20 Sep 03 at 20:15, Angelo Porcelli wrote: > Hymenocallis x festalis, from 1994 in the ground, has turned in a > massive clump of maybe 15 bulbs, sends stalks every summer but it > aborts the flowers regularly. This summer I have watered them > continuosly, thinking it was my summer heat and drought to cause > this, but no result again. Probably I have to move the bulbs in a > partial shade, as now are in full baking sun. I wonder if there's some nutritional deficiency involved? Since I started a program of fall fertilization of my garden a couple of years ago, I've noticed all sorts of things flowering that never did much in the past. A stray lycoris, not the usual squamigera, popped up this fall to my astonishment, and the colchicums include some I don't remember seeing flowers on for years. You might, as an experiment, try scattering a general purpose fertilizer on your Hymenocallis now. I use 13-16-10 at a rate around an ounce per square yard, roughly 35 g per square meter -- not much. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada "To co-work is human, to cow-ork, bovine."