My general rule of thumb about summer water is that if the bulb keeps persistent or perennial roots, then it will appreciate a small amount of moisture at all times. Such a bulb - if growing in the ground as nature intended - will be able to find enough moisture at some soil depth to keep its system at a slow idle throughout the dry season. However, if you unpot a winter growing bulb in midsummer and find that the roots have disappeared along with the leaves, then that bulb will probably not require any water or other unusual protection, and can even be stored in a bag of peat or wood shavings if necessary. Here, seedlings of Brunsvigia, winter growing Boophone and other amaryllids will decline if their pots are exposed to direct summer sun. The soil temperatures soar - particularly if the container happens to be black plastic - and the potting mix will become totally, dust-dry. These amaryllids tend to be happiest if they can keep a cool root run, much as they would if they were growing in the ground. One way I make sure that some bulbs keep a little moisture in their pots is to place a saucer under them, and give them a little bottom watering every once in a while. That way the crown and the basal plate - two prime spots where rot could get a foothold - are not dampened, yet the roots remain plump. Les Hannibal told me that the natural habitat of the Amaryllis belladonna receives about an inch of rain a month in the summer - that's an inch more than falls here. On a related topic, I have noticed something interesting going on for the past couple of years. Because of a few initial losses to summer desiccation, I began moving my containerized amaryllids to a shady spot after they lose their leaves in spring or summer. Some of them are on the north side of the house or in the shadow of a fence or tree, and a few are in the garage. Curiously, the bulbs in the garage are always the first to emerge in the late summer - by at least a month, sometimes more. I assume that this is because they are not exposed to the high temperatures of the summer days. They certainly are not triggered into growth by night-time lows, since the garage is both warmer at night and cooler in the daytime than it is outside. The early emergence isn't because of moisture either, since the outside bulbs get a bit of 'accidental/incidental' water and the garaged bulbs receive none. One theory that I have about this early emergence is that the garaged bulbs feel the average daily temperature range *narrow*, much as plants outside will feel a month or so later in the year. -- Ken Kehl East S.F. Bay Area, Ca. USDA Zone 9 -2°C to 38°C (but little of either)