Hi, Amaryllis belladonna hasn't always bloomed each year for me even though you see it coming up everywhere in coastal northern California. None of mine are showing yet even though I have seen them all around town for weeks. This has been discussed on this list in the past without any conclusions. People have suggested they need some summer water, but not a lot, that they need to be covered by soil or have their necks exposed, that they need a lot of sun. They aren't supposed to like being transplanted, but I've seen some bloom the next year after they were planted and others sulk for years. And where I live we get low temperatures in summer at night and they bloom most years in abundance so I'm not sure Jane's theory is right for why the don't bloom for her. It could be low winter temperatures instead of low summer temperatures. I was reviewing an old Veld and Flora which noted that they do not bloom reliably in the wild either. They are fynbos plants that normally flower only after fires at intervals of 5 to 40 years. Since they do flower more often in gardens this might support the needing a lot of sun which they would get when the fires clear the vegetation. In the garden they could be planted where they are not shaded by other plants. The article mentioned two memorable fires. The great fire of 1950 resulted in the mass flowering of an estimated 50, 000 belladonna lilies. Now that must have been an amazing sight! In February 1996 after a raging fire in December 1995 at Lion's Head (Table Mountain National Park) thousands erupted from the blackened soil transforming the slopes into a fragrant white and pink carpet. Note that the latter fire occurred in summer when the plants would have been dormant and Kathleen's plants were stressed in winter when they were in growth. Like others in our great freeze in 1990 we lost a lot of bulbs. Some recovered in later years. Some did not. Mary Sue Mary Sue Ittner California's North Coast Wet mild winters with occasional frost Dry mild summers