Dear Paul, Thanks for taking the time when you don't feel well to share your thoughts on Babiana. I hope people will always feel they can chime in after the fact on any thread they missed while they were away or sick. I think you could try some of your Babianas in the ground if you had space. My experience with them is that they are really happy in the ground and tolerant of wet or dry in summer. I am sure that isn't true of all the species, but certainly worth trying for many of them. One thing that I didn't mention though is that you have to cut off the dead foliage (which persists longer than some Irids). You can't just give it a yank as the whole corm sometimes comes out. Most of the ones I have tolerated occasional colder temperatures than some of my other South African irids (but many of those were in the ground which also add protection.) Good luck with Babiana ringens. Looking at Sheila's pictures on the Wiki has made me want to try again so I have new seed from Silverhill. We searched for it in the wild and missed it until Rod and Rachel took us to a place where they thought it might be. It was awesome (one of those things that you come back with many pictures of). We never saw it with a bird on the perch however. Mary Sue