Mike wrote: >I'm late coming back to this issue, but Michael, if you're still listening, >I think the advice already given is good. The one thing I'd add is that in >its native climate, the ground gets bone dry in July-October. So if you want >to see it in bloom more than once, you'll need to dig it up or protect it >from summer rain. I've grown this plant from coastal northern California (which doesn't usually experience the extreme summer drought of the more southern and interior areas) outdoors for many years in the Portland, Oregon, area. It is in ordinary borders as well as places that aren't watered in summer and does fine, as long as the drainage is good. There is even a volunteer among the Eucomis, which need summer water. It isn't as fussy as Mike suggests when it's in the ground, though probably it is less tolerant of summer water in a pot. It isn't a suitable pot subject anyway, being very tall and slender. In nature it grows among grasses and shrubs, which support it. Bulbs tend to work their way deep into the soil, which would help them survive in colder climates. It is a great favorite of hummingbirds, which are probably its only pollinator. Closely resembling it in flower form but different in color and very different in growth habit is the peculiar Dichelostemma volubile, which has a twining stem that can attain more than a meter in length. Its flowers are bright pink. Both these species can continue to lkook fresh in flower and ripen their seed after the stem has come detached from the bulb; apparently there is enough moisture in the long stems to support this. There is a plant sold in Dutch bulb catalogs as 'Pink Diamond' which is either a color variant of D. ida-maia or a hybrid of these two species. There was some confusion about its origin that referred it to D. x venusta, but this was an error. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA