Jim Shields asked about Nerine hybrids. A number of breeders have made hybrids between N. sarniensis and bowdenii, with the obvious intention of combining the colours of the first with the hardiness of the latter. The most diligent breeder was the late Terry Jones of Zeal Monachorum, Devon, who had a breeding programme going back several decades and numerous generations. Some of his progeny are on the market in the UK, e.g. the spectacular tall 'Zeal Giant' with big bright pink flowers and shorter 'Zeal Salmon' and 'Zeal Grilse' with more salmony shades. Terry died a couple of years ago but left the entire breeding programme and stock to Matt Bishop (of snowdrop fame), who now works on them at the Garden House, Buckland Monachorum (lots of monks in Devon, evidently). Some of the colours are fantastic, including the dark purple of 'Zeal Plum' and various salmony shades, but none of the Zeal hybrids have scarlet flowers. 'Afterglow' is a commercially available hybrid, I forgot from which breeder, with quite good red flowers, but it is strongly winter growing. Many of the Zeal hybrids are fully hardy in southern England, but just not freely enough available to try widely, yet. Most of the F1 generation are not very hardy, tending to be winter-growing, so the aim of the breeding is to work back to N. bowdenii for hardiness, but finding the right combinations of parents is not so easy. What Matt is looking for, even in seedlings, is winter dormancy as a good predictor of probable hardiness. I must pester him to write an article summarising progress sometime. John Grimshaw Dr. John M. Grimshaw Sycamore Cottage Colesbourne Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 9NP Tel. 01242 870567