Last winter restored our gardens in San Diego. That included bulbs. Of special note in high summer was, for many years, Amaryllis belladonna. For five years little, if anything, was seen of these lovely creatures. I mean, no flowers and no foliage. Clumps with over a hundred bulbs each lay dormant. Finally, and not until mid-July, they burst up. After their absence for five years it was a wondrous sight. Other South Africans had flowered once or twice over that period but A. belladonna had not. The clump sizes had not changed but the individual bulbs had shrunk somewhat. Steady, non torrential winter rains made all the difference.