I can't understand why this species is described as growing in "an area that receives nearly constant rainfall." The two sites for it described in "Flora nativa de valor ornamental" are on the east slope of the Chilean Coast Ranges, which have dry summers, and I don't think a great deal of fog gets to the east side. I've been to one of them, which is in La Campana National Park. It is noted for the wine palm (Jubaea chilensis), which does tend to appear in the lower parts of canyons where moisture is higher. It is somewhat moister than the east side of the central California Coast Ranges, but not as moist as the west side by any means. They grow avocados around there. That book says (my transl.), "They need full sun, soil rich in nutrients, good drainage, and some moisture." They flower in mid-spring. I haven't seen p. bicolor in flower but have seen the closely related Phycella ignea, growing on steep slopes (in one place fairly shady, in another in full sun). If you're growing your bulb in a pot, you should not water it "heavily." The leaves may be dying because the plant is too wet, too cold, or inadequately lighted. I'd try to deal with "too cold" also. Or you can move to California, where all the beautiful Chilean plants are so seldom grown and so well suited. In general I've observed that Chilean amaryllids grow with their bulbs quite deep in the soil (you can see this in drainages where floods have washed away some soil). This Phycella would experience dry conditions during its summer dormancy, when the weather is likely to be quite hot, but would not become completely dried out or hot because of its soil depth. That is also difficult to provide a potted specimen, but plunging the pot in sand would help. Hope this helps. It's always worthwhile to find exact wild sites for plants, and if you can't visit them yourself, look at the images: they may show topography and soils, or whole plant communities from which you can infer growing conditions. Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA On 10/29/2018 7:36 PM, Michael Kent wrote: > I need some help with this plant. My bulb has sent up sprouts three times > since I acquired it. Each time, the sprouts only got about 2" out of the > soil before flopping over and dying off. Two of the times, I was trying to > water very lightly since my only option for winter growing bulbs is the > basement, under grow-lights (With the temps in the mid-50's, too much water > tends to lead to cold and damp soil.). The third time, I watered more than > previously, but still had no success. > > I recently was looking at some information on Chile-Flora website. It > states that the P. bicolor grows in an area that receives nearly constant > rainfall. The annual rainfall may be up to 32", mostly concentrated in the > winter months. It also stated that the soil tends to be either clay with > limited drainage, or poor soil with good drainage. The soil in the pot may > not quite qualify as poor, but the drainage is good. > > I now have a few more sprouts coming up. Should I be watering heavily until > Spring, or will that just cause more problems? > > Thank you for any input. > > Mike > Zone 6a in the Finger Lakes, where the paperwhites are impatiently popping > out of the ground > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…