Bulbinella latifolia ssp. doleritica
Max Withers (Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:06:54 PST)

Thank you, Mary Sue. I wish I could take credit for brilliant gardening,
but the fact that I bought it at Annie's Annuals suggests that it is at
least relatively easy in the Bay Area, presumably because of our
rainfall, as you suggest. Oakland averages about 24 inches a year,
though last year was very dry, approximately 15" total. (According to
SAWS, annual rainfall at Calvinia is 228mm [=8.9"]).

My special techniques consist of doing nothing. It's planted in the
"bulb bed", which is nothing more than a raised bed with a lot of gravel
to leaven my native clay. It gets no supplemental water, and there is
some Epilobium californicum (syn. Zauschneria californica) to provide
shade for the bulbs, food for the hummingbirds, and something to look at
for me in the summer when the bulbs are dormant. It could conceivably be
sucking quite a lot of the winter water out of the soil.

There are a few more photos of the plant here:
http://flickr.com/search/…