On Sun, Jun 2, 2013 at 12:31 PM, Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net> wrote: > The most interesting genus, however, is Calochortus. Thank you, Jane for this very nice post about the Calochortus species in which you are growing. I am also a fan of Calochortus and I'm slowly learning to cultivate them in my climate. Years ago there was a Calochortus society and I could have learned lots it if I were involved in the bulb world then. I focus on species that grow well here in the Bay Area, and luckily, my favorite group, the fairly lanterns grow around this area. The reason I haven't expanded is because of climate. I find that Calochortus are very difficult to grow in Berkeley. Our winters are just a bit too cold (-2 to -3C) for them and they get too wet. The combination of cold and wet causes a lot of fungal disease. Rotting of the leaves typically slow down the bulb's health and eventually even the bulbs themselves rot away. When I first started growing bulbs I ordered a bunch from Diana but I did not know how to take care of them and they all eventually dwindled and rotted away, except for a few very tough ones like C. catalinae and C. venustus. I now grow them in tall band pots so they have good root-room and can go deep, but because the pots are too tall, they did not dry out properly. As I found out the hard way, Calochortus bulbs should be dried out completely otherwise they are prone to rotting. That's how I lost my nice pot of C. amoenus, which now only photos exist (http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…). For some of the more sensitive species, I typically unpot them and allow them to dry out for the summer. I should do this for all the species but so many other bulbs beckon to be repotted in summer. Last summer I decided that they should be treated more like Western Cape bulbs so I moved all of them into pumice (75% pumice, 25% Super Soil). What a wonder that did to them! The bulbs were so happy this winter and with frequent fertilizers, they grew very strong and healthy. Here's a photo of the best blooming of C. pulchellus yet. http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/… Sadly, soon after the photos were taken, a juvenile rat decided to go exploring and chewed off the inflorescence. I'm pretty sure I got it back in the end. Nhu