At 8:39 PM -0700 9/4/06, Liz Waterman wrote: >I haven't noticed anyone mentioning humidity. The hot humid environment > of the east coast summer should make any Mediterranean plant miserable. > It certainly has that effect on some people. Anything over 30% seems humid > to me as a lifelong Californian >My niece from Florida really suffers in dry the air here when she visits me. >Liz **I'm in NorCal almost on the coast (we can see a peek). Humidity here runs 65 to 75% most of the time (sometimes higher in the summer) Average summer temps run in the 60's (15-18C) and winter temps in the 40's and 50's. (4.5 - 10C) We had some temps of 27F (- 2.7C) last winter, but usually we only get near 32F (0C) for a week or so. My A. belladonna get no water and they are planted in heavy clay soil. They bloom well. We see many old large clumps in town. Some people consider them common and weedy <gasp>. It was the same when I lived on the Central Coast of CA (we could see the water there) except that we got only 10" of rain compared to 35+ " here. A. belladonna flourished. It only rains here from Nov to April. We've had nothing since April. And, I'm second generation Californian, never lived anywhere else. I don't like humidity either, but we have it. s. -- susan hayek, North Coast of CA, USA, zone 9b, Sunset zone 17. 15 miles south of Eureka, CA, overlooking the Eel River, with a peek of the ocean.