Dear All; Although I have at least mentioned this in the past, this year has reinforced my view that rain and Lycoris bloom go together. We had almost a month of no rain and temps hovering just under 100 (F) - from about July 7 to August 13 we had no rain. Over the last weekend we had a couple days of rain totalling over 3 inches. One small bed of various early Lycoris species and hybrids managed to produce a dozen flowering stems before the rain. This morning I counted 44 new stems emerging days after our rainfall. Another bed of L. squamigera now has over floral 48 stems in growth more than doubling the pre-rain numbers. Beds with only a handful of pre-rain stems on L. squamigera, L. chinensis, L. longituba and L. sprengeri are actively pushing up more or new stems. L. caldwellii is putting up its first stems, but this is always behind the others in growth sequence. We had a similar pattern last year. I assume that A. belladonna shows a similar surge in floral stem production following rain ending a drought period. Is this true? Best Jim W. -- Dr. James W. Waddick 8871 NW Brostrom Rd. Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711 USA Ph. 816-746-1949 Zone 5 Record low -23F Summer 100F +