Tell Panayoti thanks for the photos. I wish someone had some good instructions on how to grow these. I now have four seedlings/small bulbs (2 are 4 years old, 2 are 3 years old) that somehow managed to sprout from seeds I got from J J Halda over the years. One or two I think are U. sewerzowii and the other two are two different U. sp. However, I cannot figure out there annual growth cycle. They seem to leaf out at some random time that has been as early as late winter here in So. Calif. and as late as early summer. Some years they go dormant when it starts to get hot after the June gloom finally goes away. Other years like this one, where we had June gloom all the way in to August, they didn't leaf out until June and grew all summer long and into autumn. (Of course we got almost no hot spells except for about two weeks in Sept.) I've decided to dry them off now regardless. Also all they ever produce is two leaves, although the leaves get longer and wider each year. This year the older ones have leaves that are maybe 5 mm wide and 15 cm long. They look a little Lycoris-ish now. In previous years they just looked kind of amaryllid-ish and so I was never sure they really were Ungernias and not some random other amaryllid that somehow found it's way into these various pots (like Zephyranthes). However, they are extremely slow growing, which Zephyranthes definitely are not. Also I have them in small long pots and they seem to grow deeper than Zephs. So how should I be growing them during the year? When should I start giving them water and when should I start drying them off, etc. Should they be kept dry over winter, too? I try to leave them exposed in winter to our chilly but above-freezing winter temperatures. Should they not be watered in summer once it's hot, unless it's cool like this one was? I have no idea how to treat them, but so far, cross my fingers, they haven't died or rotted on me. --Lee Poulsen Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a On Nov 16, 2010, at 7:18 AM, James Waddick wrote: > The pix are taken on the border of Kazakhstan and Kyrgestan in a steppe filled with Ungernia sewerzowii gone to seed. The pictures clearly show the 'odd" ,but perfectly normal seed of this genus. Ungernia is the closest relative to Lycoris in the Family Amaryllidaceae and these seed pods look very similar. The seed itself could hardly be more different. Ungernia seed is flat , black and papery like many warm climate Amarayllids, while Lycoris have hard, round, black, pea-size seed. > > We can only hope that Panayoti brought back lots of seeds and will soon be offering photos of a bank of Ungernia in bloom at Denver Botanic Garden. >