Dear friends, I am more and more enthusiastic about Lycoris caldwellii. This species was not described until 1957, relatively recently and is not widely grown, but it sure deserves more attention. It is the star of my garden this week. This species is totally hardy here with typical spring foliage and mid-late season bloom. L. squamigera is essentially gone except for a couple very late stems resulting form a recent rain. The flowers are good sized although smaller than the wide spread L. squamigera. Buds show a lot of rose-pink, but flowers open pale yellow - paler than the primrose of a steno note pad and gradually fade to cream -near-white. Although the fresh petals are smooth, they develop a wide open form with lightly ruffled edges. When fully open the petals spread out to a wide star shape. This species has the same genetic make up (2/3N= 27) as L. squamigera, but is likely a sterile triploid hybrid of L. chinensis x L. sprengeri. If flowers abundantly and offsets readily. I suspect it would match L. squamigera in a side by side vigor trial. This surely deserves wider cultivation and garden space. See the wiki http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… picture showing the pink buds and range of yellows in new and older flowers. Best Jim W. -- Dr. James W. Waddick 8871 NW Brostrom Rd. Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711 USA Ph. 816-746-1949 Zone 5 Record low -23F Summer 100F +