Dell wrote: “I can't grow A. belladonna here in Eastern Pennsylvania - even in pots. But I do have several pots of xAmercrinum which do bloom. I noticed today that two pots of them are sending up scapes. Our summer has been VERY wet.” For decades I’ve been traveling to a friend’s house in nearby northern Virginia for the annual October picnic of our local lily group. Along the way there is a house with a curb-side planting of xAmarcrinum howardii which in most years is still in full bloom in late October. There seem to be a half dozen plants planted in a staggered row maybe six or eight feet long. It’s an impressive sight, in particular for those of us starved to see Amaryllis belladonna blooming in our own gardens. I have no idea when these plants of xAmarcrinum begin to bloom – I’ll try to get over there sometime soon to see what they are doing now. I checked the Amaryllis belladonna growing in my protected cold frame: the bulb extends above ground, so it’s easy to check. There is no sign of activity of either a foliar or floral type. Nor does a nearby plant of Rhodophiala bifida show signs of activity. The glass top of the cold frame is kept open all summer, but it is tilted so that no rain enters the frame (and the frame itself is in the rain shadow of the house eaves). So it’s pretty dry in the frame. In fact, it’s so dry that a plant of Echinocereus viridiflorus dried up in the frame this year! Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 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/