Jane and Mary Sue have both reported indifferent results with Lycoris in their climates. Mary Sue in particular has noted that in her dry summers bulbs seem to fade away. I had an experience here which agrees with that. I planted some bulbs of the commercial Lycoris aurea (I suspect that more than one plant is making the rounds under this name) in my protected cold frame. Past experience with this species (or these species) showed that it was not hardy in the open garden. Even in the most protected places, the foliage was generally destroyed during the winter. I thought the protected cold frame would be the ideal place of it, and at first that seemed to be true. Bulbs planted in the protected cold frame produced thick clumps of broad foliage which remained undamaged during the winter. When the foliage died down I checked the bulbs and found big fat bulbs. I was already counting the flower scapes! I place a glass cover (it allows free air circulation but keeps out water) over the frame sometime in May. The frame itself is in the rain shadow of the eaves, and the soil is thick with the roots of other plants. The soil in the frame dries out quickly and stays dry. About a month ago I checked the bulbs again and this time got an unpleasant surprise: the bulbs had shriveled down to skinny little things. This suggests that these plants need some water even during their dormant period. This year I intend to move these plants to another protected cold frame which is not dried off during the summer. I’ll let you know next year if this makes a difference. In a related note: bloom here on Lycoris squamigera was very light 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/