Dear Hugh, Welcome to our list. Where do you live? Scilla was our topic of the week in December 2003. You might be interested in looking through our archives for that time for the Scilla references: http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/… I see we are all resisting calling Scilla peruviana, Oncostema peruviana, as Julian Slade reported was proposed. I thought this plant was a Mediterranean plant where you would expect it to have a dry summer. Do the seasonal pools that Alberto C. mentions retain some moisture in summer? If Cynthia is giving hers a definite dry summer dormancy and getting it to bloom she is having more success than some of us. I've grown this plant for years as it really is quite wonderful the years it blooms. For me that hasn't been many so Jane I don't think it is the mild winter that is what it needs. I suspect Alberto from Italy is right that sun is what it needs. I moved mine to a sunnier spot and it bloomed the next year, but don't see any sign of that happening this year. Even in Stockton where it was growing in my clay soil that did not dry out in summer and where it was growing in sun it often skipped a year. Jim Robinett gave me some that were marked Lachenalia so I didn't figure out immediately what they were. Grown in a pot kept dormant in summer as you would do for Lachenalia they didn't thrive. I think they are better in the ground than in a pot. They have only a very short period when the leaves die back. Cynthia, perhaps you should save yourself the effort and leave yours in the ground this year and report back what happens the following year. Mary Sue