About a week and a half ago, we had a strong rain come through the area. It probably lasted only 20 minutes, but dropped almost 3/4" of rain. Last Suturday, while driving into Bentonville, I found two locations with L. squamigera in full bloom. One location was a shady area under a house eave, the whole front of the house having a display, and the other was in full sun, just a clump, right by a ditch. The other usual locations showed no sign of bloom. The day after the rain, I went out to check my Lycoris beds. These beds have about 2" of coarse oak mulch on top. Digging my finger into it, I found that only the first inch of mulch was moist. The rain didn't even make it into the soil in the beds. Well, Wednesday, we were supposed to get another string of storms roll through. I watched the radar and the line ran hundreds of miles south and west of us and hundreds more north and east. Somehow, someway, we did not get a single drop of rain from it, even though I could hear thunder constantly to our southwest. Anyway, before this potential rain event, I had zero L. squamigera flower stalks, a few L. longituba and one L. sanguinea coming up. Because we had no rain, I drip irrigated the Lycoris plots yesterday, which, at this point had one L. squamigera bloom stalk. Today, I have about half a dozen coming up of the L. squamigera and L. longituba. We'll see how it goes. I was hoping for a solid stand of L. squamigera this season, as the foliar stand was good and the bulbs are big. So far, no sauce. Even yesterday, none of the usual stands were coming up in Bentonville, so I am guessing the rain triggered bloom in locations that got excess moisture from roofs or ditches. I wonder if change in atmospheric pressure is involved? I believe we have discussed this before, considering irrigation alone does not appear to always provide the solution. Mr. Kelly M. Irvin 10850 Hodge Ln Gravette, AR 72736 USA 479-787-9958 USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 6a/b http://www.irvincentral.com/ Jim McKenney wrote: > Lycoris squamigera, which I think of as the flagship of the local > oporanthous flora, is blooming now in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Not > only are they blooming in my garden, but several friends in nearby northern > Virginia have reported bloom. > > As is usual, plants growing in the shade are blooming before plants growing > in sunny spots. > > Jim McKenney > jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com > Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone > 7, where I might have an exciting Cardiocrinum story for you soon. > My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ > BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ > > Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS > Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ > > Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/ > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > >