Hi all, To merge two threads here, I'd interject that the summer-rainfall species, Haemanthus albiflos, also blooms in autumn. Mine have just finished flowering and are setting seeds. It's interesting to note that when I neglect seeds of Haemanthus albiflos that I've harvested and cleaned, they go ahead and form tiny green bulblets, rather like many Crinum species do under similar neglect. These bulblets of albiflos seem to remain viable for a very long time, still just laying about on the top of my potting bench (indoors, not in the greenhouse). Other Haemanthus seeds will die under these conditions; they start to germinate, but then just dry up and die if not quickly planted. I wonder if H. albiflos has adapted to summer rainfall/winter drought by perfecting its germination in this way? I think Mary Sue has one significant climate advantage over me, where she gardens: cool nights year-round. She might well have rather better technique in growing her bulbs, too! While I might, in principle, improve my growing habits, I can't do away with my hot, humid summer nights. Besides his far superior growing techniques, I think Doug Westfall's Haemanthus also benefit from his cool California coastal nights in summer. I am thinking of carrying my young seedling bulbs over the summer in my basement rather than under the benches in the greenhouse. This might help with some of the larger bulbs too. For instance, I fail miserably with seeds of Haemanthus humilis hirsutus, but have reasonably good luck with seeds of H. humilis humilis. The hirsutus seedlings never make it through a full year from germination with me if kept in the greenhouse. Regards, Jim Shields in beautiful autumnal central Indiana, where the trees all look as if they were on fire in the morning sunlight At 10:11 PM 11/3/2005 -0800, you wrote: >I can think of two reasons why some bulbs in Mediterranean climates flower >in the fall. >1. There is less competition for pollinators. there are fewer species that >flower in the fall compared to the spring. >2. There is less chance of the pollen being damaged by rain. At least in >some parts the rains don't really start with enthusiasm until the winter time. >Harold ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA