On 2 Jul 2010, at 9:44, David Maxwell wrote: > given my Zone (Sacramento 9/10), someone please tell me when I should start > withholding water from my potted Lycoris in order to get them onto their > dormancy/blooming cycle. Generally speaking, eastern Asia has a summer monsoon climate: hot, humid, wet summers, with dry, cold winters. On the Pacific coast of North America, we have quite the reverse where moisture is concerned, with coolish, very dry summers, and very wet, not overly cold winters. I have found many eastern Asiatic plants most unhappy in the west coast climate, likewise some natives of the American east coast. (Note that my garden has a rather heavy, badly drained soil, which aggravates the effects of winter wet.) Tricyrtis disappears after one year, for example. I've learned the hard way not to waste time growing things that dislike this climate. You, in Sacramento, have warmer winters and much hotter summers than we do in Victoria, but your rainfall pattern is the same as ours. Hence, for an eastern Asiatic like lycoris, you need to protect the plants from the rain during winter and water like mad in the summer. Is the effort worth it? Maybe not; it might be easier to set up a tent in Jim McKinney's backyard and live there. Don't forget to feed your lycoris. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island http://maps.google.ca/maps/…