Hi All, I'm glad to hear Mary Sue can grow Haemanthus now. I grow several species here in Indiana, but my results are nothing beside what Doug can do in Long Beach, California. I grow both sorts of Haemanthus, the winter-growing species like barkerae, coccineus, crispus, lanceifolius, namaquensis, all in our greenhouse year-round; and we also grow some summer-growing species, including albiflos, humilis humilis, humilis hirsutus, montanus, and pauculifolius (spell?), all of which spend the winters inside the greenhouse but the summer outdoors. We have been getting mixed results. H. coccineus is very easy to grow under our conditions, and tolerates the dry heat in the summer greenhouse (up to 120 F) seemingly without trouble. My bulbs of this species run around 9 years old and have gradually gotten fairly large. Their leaves generally do not reach 12 inches by 9 inches, however. Repotting from their present 1-gal. pots into 2-gal. pots might get them there, one day. As they grow, they can use larger pots. They are very good bloomers, flowering somewhere from late July to early October, depending on the weather outside the greenhouse. Once they start to flower, they seem quite reliable in following years. H. barkerae do well in the greenhouse too, and we are getting good bloom from them in late summer to early autumn. H. crispus seem to be growing well, and I got one or two to bloom last year. H. lanceifolius has not so far bloomed for me, nor have the H. namaquensis. The H. montanus bloomed about a month ago, and those that have not died in past seasons now seem happy enough here. H. humilis humilis is also starting to bloom just now, but only two out of a couple dozen bulbs are flowering. H. humilis hirsutus is problematic, many large bulbs and even more small seedling bulbs having perished here over the years. I have had this subspecies bloom here just twice, but I keep trying, begging my friends for more seeds and more mature bulbs! Some of us have a hard time learning from experience, I guess. I got hybrid seeds from [hirsutus X coccineus] the second time it bloomed, and I want to someday try to make [hirsutus X montanus]. I saved a little of the montanus pollen, and I want to try making the cross [coccineus X montanus] later this season when the coccineus bloom again. Haemanthus species that have not done well here include nortieri, which is quite a rarity; I have one bulb hanging on, but....... H. amarylloides grows very slowly for me, and the seedlings just keep disappearing, a couple each year. I'm also growing a couple subspecies of H. pubescens, which are surviving but do not, so far, seem to increase in size; they haven't flowered for me. H. sanguineus seems impossible for me to grow. 9-year old seedling bulbs (the few I still have left) are barely 1/2 inch in diameter; sanguineus seems another lost cause here. So welcome to the Haemanthus club, Mary Sue, and may you enjoy ever more Haemanthus bulbs and flowers! Jim Shields in central Indiana (USA) ************************************************* 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