Yesterday I saw a spike starting in my garden. The ones in my garden always bloom much later than the ones closer to the ocean a couple of miles away that have been appearing here and there already. This one with a shoot usually blooms in September. Since except for almost a week of warmer than usual temperatures, it has been a colder than usual summer with many days of only a couple of hours of sunshine, this throws out the warmer temperatures theory. I wonder if it is the very late significant couple of days of summer rainfall we had late June after a dry spring. My garden is I suspect much too shadier for successful blooming. It will be interesting to see if this year is different. Mary Sue