I grow mine in gritty, gravelly soil in a submerged kiddie pool buried in my front garden. For about seven months of the year the pool pool receives an irregular supply of rainwater from a downspout that I disconnected from the sewer system (It's a thing we’re paid to do here in Portland, Oregon). These are the cheap, shallow blue plastic wading pools you see for sale outside the hardware store in summer months. I found a damaged one on a free pile in the neighborhood and brought it home, excavated a round, shallow, gently sloped pit, placed the pool in the pit, then backfilled it with a gritty sand and gravel mix. I added a few more holes so it could drain slowly into the surrounding ground. It has a massive patch of Hesperantha coccinea growing in it, together with a big clump of Wachendorfia thyrsiflora, another moisture-loving South African bulb, which will be coming into bloom in the coming weeks. There’s a single H. coccinea blooming right now, but vast majority of the flowing takes place in the fall months. Charles Powne iyou@me.com <mailto:iyou@me.com> https://map.what3words.com/extend.storm.palace <https://map.what3words.com/extend.storm.palace> USDA zone 8b > > Dear Bulb- lovers: I have recently been pleased to have six cultivars of Hesperantha coccinea come into bloom this Spring. Please excuse that I like the old name Schizostylis. Schizostylis is supposed to bloom in the fall and a couple of years ago I had one do this but it bloomed so late I had to bring the pot indoors while it finished blooming in November and December. It subsequently went dormant and I assumed it had died. Probably if I would have stored it in a cool place it would have reappeared with water in the Spring. I believe much of the information on the internet is misleading. After a good deal of research it seems that while Fall blooming is normal, people have reported bloom off and on all year long. > > I grimace a bit when I see reference to well-drained soil. My experiences for the last couple of years have been that if in a well- drained soil the plant is more likely to die at any sign of drought. I had one plant that seemed to have gotten too dry in late spring that I plunged into a bucket filled with water just above soil level. The plant started growing rapidly all summer and I have since decided it does better as a pond plant. I have been experimenting with longer and longer periods of inundation and am convinced that well-drained is not something it prefers although off and on I do let the water level drop to an inch below the soil surface. I am anxious to hear of other people experiences. > > > __ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…