Dear PBSers, This has been an exceedingly hot and dry summer and that is always bad for Lycoris bloom. The VERY common L. squamigera bloomed and is almost over. Bloom time seems to be spread out by variation in planting sites with hottest driest being slower to bloom. Some of the first are done and others at peak. It is the most common, easiest and most tolerant of planting situations. Still I go past gardens where clumps and lines of gorgeous blooms are gone due to the ignorance of gardeners intent on weekly mowing, lawn services and weed and feed killers. Very sad. I had just average bloom on L. chinensis in variety and same for L. longitiuba and L. l. flavum and all their hybrids. As these finished the L. sprengeri started up including some from near solid pale pink to electric blue and everything in between. The current round is the end of L. sprengeri and a slow show of L. incarnata and L. anhuiensis. Still no rain and bloom keeps getting worse. I am wondering if L. caldwellii and hybrids will appear at all. There were a couple of very out-of synch ‘Breaking Dawn’ - perhaps my favorite hybrid with orange-peach flowers. I doubt I’ll see anything from the marginal species like haywardii and albiflora - much too dry and fingers crossed for end of season L. radiata and relatives. A poor poor season here. Forecast calls for rain, but all previous forecasts have resulted in none or countable drops. Frustrating climate changes. Jim w. On Aug 19, 2016, at 8:24 AM, Jim McKenney <jamesamckenney@verizon.net> wrote: Here we are in the middle of August and hardly a peep on the listserv about oporanthous bulbs. Nhu's call for reports about Amaryllis belladonna has gone largely unanswered, and I have not seen Lycoris mentioned once recently. At the end of July a huge storm passed through the eastern states dumping loads of water and causing regional flooding. Ellicott City, Maryland was particularly hard hit. As I was driving home late at night Saturday, July 31, I passed a small pond where the tree frogs were really going at it. When I got home, I called Wayne and told him about the frogs: we hear them now and then, but never in numbers like the rains brought out. He got his camera and a flashlight and headed on foot up to the pond and got some nice videos of the frogs calling. You can see and hear them here: http://mcwort.blogspot.com/2016/08/… Within a few days of the heavy rain, reports began to circulate about Lycoris squamigera scapes being on the rise; before the end of the week, they were in bloom here in the greater Washington, D.C. area. They are still blooming, and I've heard reports about L. longituba and L. sanguinea blooming, too. Dr. James Waddick 8871 NW Brostrom Rd Kansas City, MO 64152-2711 USA Phone 816-746-1949 _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/