Is there a possibility of a hippeastrum in the ancestry of your large pink flowered rain lily? A great many of the Hipps. have a maroon stripe down the center of the leaves, even as they emerge from a seed into seedlings. Patty Allen Humble, Tx. -----Original Message----- >From: "Leo A. Martin" <leo@possi.org> >Sent: Nov 23, 2013 4:22 PM >To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >Subject: Re: [pbs] Getting Rain Lilies to Bloom > >I have a little experience with several summer-growing clones of various unnamed rain >lilies. Our summer is very hot by most people's standards, and rain occurs, but is not >frequent. > >Habranthus tubispathus blooms, even in smallish containers, in late summer, when we have >the first few cooling nights. I have not tried this in the ground. Every flower sets >seed. It is more or less evergreen here, but I keep it in the shade. Plus, the >containers I use are tall and narrow, so they don't dry out as fast as would short, >squat containers. > >A large pink-flowered plant with maroon undersides to the straplike leaves grows and >multiplies just fine in the ground in full sun if it gets some water. It blooms with >each summer rain, but not necessarily with each watering. In a container, even 1 gallon >or larger, it often goes dormant for the entire summer. Its leaves emerge when the first >cool nights occur and it blooms sporadically some time after. Its tunics are dark brown, >whether wet or dry. It has never set seed, even after hand-pollination with another rain >lily. > >Two narrow-leaved rain lilies bought years (decades?) ago remain unidentified since >avian or canine garden assistants removed many unsightly labels. Both have white >flowers. Both have tan tunics. Both are dormant all summer in 1-gallon or slightly >larger containers, emerging in the fall. I have not tried these in the ground. Neither >has set seed, but then I have not tried hand pollination. > >One has near-cylindric, grassy, bright green leaves of small diameter that stand >upright, like tall grass. I suspect it is Z. candida. It is in full fresh foliage with >buds, and had we not had 2 solid days' worth of rain they might have opened today. I >will try and take a picture if it opens tomorrow. > >The other has wider, grayish-green, straplike leaves that relax over the container edge. >I suspect it may be Z. drummondii. This one is emerging but is not as far along as the >other. > >It may be I am just not able to keep them wet enough in these containers, and they would >perform better in the ground, as does the large-flowered pink one. > >Leo Martin >Phoenix Arizona USA > >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/