Jim I can only refer you back to the Hamish Sloan TOW April 28 2003, in the pbs archives. "During the growing season, I water with a liquid fertilizer on every occasion, when the pots dry out from the previous watering. Overwatering is death to the roots and the bulb will regress. I hold no truck with those who have advised in the past that nerines do well on a starvation diet." In addition Hamish has the fertiliser in his soil based compost. Again see the TOW introduction. I personally rely more on the compost base fertiliser, as I only use liquid fertiliser sporadically as and when I remember, particularly in winter, but if you use a largely inert sand based compost in pots I cannot see how you can expect them to prosper without at least an occasional feed. A quick count of my small collection of nominally flowering sized pots just now, gave me 50% with 1 -3 flower stems this autumn, so I will stick with feeding, and a soil based compost. I suspect in the sand compost you are less at risk of overwatering and may get a more extensive root system. Like Hamish I grow mostly in tall form 2 litre square plastic pots, and I overwinter the tender bulbs above 43F/7C, with the hardier non sarniensis forms surviving mostly in a south facing cold frame. A pot of this dimensions (12cm/5"square) will take 2-4 flowering sized normal forms, or just 1 of the larger nerines such as Zeal Giant. Brian Whyer, Buckinghamshire, England, zone ~8. > -----Original Message----- > From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On > Behalf Of J.E. Shields > Sent: 06 November 2005 00:39 > To: Pacific Bulb Society > Subject: Re: [pbs] Nerine sarniensis > > Mark and Arnold, > > Arnold, we heard it from Sir Peter Smithers in the old [BULB] list. Sir > Peter has said that he is convinced that feeding any of the broad-leaf > Nerine varieties releases latent viruses, which can decimate a collection. > > I'm not willing to test it by actually fertilizing some of mine. Anyone > else want to volunteer to test Sir Peter's hypothesis? > > Regards, > Jim Shields > in summery central Indiana