Jim Shields wrote >I don't know where Jim McKenney lives and gardens, but it's for sure warmer >than here, if Hymenocallis 'Sulphur Queen' survives outdoors in the ground. Years of experience have shown that a wide range of "tender" plants which remain dormant will survive outside against a wall here. By "against a wall" I mean right up against the foundation of the house on the sunny side (and, in this garden, that's the side where the house heater is). Apparently it does not freeze there. Plants which attempt to grow in cold weather (lots of very desirable plants from the southern hemisphere) on the other hand are hopeless outside. Amaryllis belladonna is a good example. It keeps pushing up new foliage all winter; and the new foliage is destroyed soon after it emerges. The widely available yellow Lycoris behaves the same way. At the end of even a severe winter the bulbs are fine; but the foliage doesn't have a chance. The plants dwindle and eventually disappear unless helped. One improbable (and off-topic, my apologies) success story: Brugmansia Charles Grimaldi. It's been outside for six years. By the end of August it's seven or eight feet high. Once nights begin to cool off a bit it starts to bloom: that's something to see! Some Gloriosa and Eucomis tolerate this treatment, too. And I've had friends tell me it works for some hybrid Hippeastrum. How cold does it get here? In a really bad year, it may briefly go down to zero F for a few hours. Almost every winter brings a few very cold mornings with temperatures in the 0-10 degrees F range. And we sometimes experience fairly long periods when the daytime temperatures do not go above freezing and things really freeze up tight. This reminds me of when I was a kid and always reading British gardening books; I would see a reference such as "we experienced 5 degrees of frost" and think (wishful thinking if ever) it meant 5 degrees F. I killed a few plants until I figured out the British system. Just to be sure no one misunderstands: Hymenocallis Sulphur Queen would not have a chance outside in the open ground during even a mild winter here. But the microclimate right against a wall is a different world. BTW Jim, I think I bought some Hymenocallis hybrids (the Korsakoff hybrids Pax, Helios and Icon or Icarus or something like that) from you about fifteen or twenty years ago. Shortly after, you experienced a big freeze and lost a lot of plants - and I thought you were no longer in business. Does that sound familiar? If so, it's a small world, isn't it! Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net Montgomery County, Maryland, zone 7, where Hamamelis x intermedia Pallida is also blooming (or trying to) but the real action is under the lights with the germinating seedlings.