Dear All, I realize this is a very busy time of year, but hope a few people will respond to this week's topic of the week. Do many grow it? In my experience at least one of the species (F. crispa) is not very hardy so that limits who can grow it outdoors. Even in my climate in a cold year it turns to mush. Like John I really enjoyed seeing this genus in the wild, but often found I wasn't at all sure which species I was looking at. Later consulting my guides I still wasn't sure. The De Vos monograph which Rachel shared with me is helpful, but in her key the leaves and the anthers are very important and our slides are not often good enough to tell or I don't understand the terms well enough. I've added pictures to the wiki of Ferraria crispa corms which are very different and of a species blooming in the Karoo Gardens we saw in August 2003. Their plants had numbers on them, not names so identification was uncertain. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… I think it could be Ferraria divaricata which John says deserves greater attention. I'm sure Julian Slade will keep me honest and tell me if I've missed it. If I am correct and since it has a bluish median zone, it could be ssp. divaricata (there are four subspecies.) One of the significant features of this one according to De Vos and John is a wide bell-shaped cup and I'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to look like. The diagrams in the monograph don't show a very strong difference to me between how this species looks and a couple of the others. It does seem to have wider segments than the other one we saw at Karoo which Julian identified as F. uncinata and which seems to be closely related. (The key says to look at the margins of the foliage leaves. F. uncinata has some that are crisped and the margins of F. divaricata are smooth.) Some of the leaves on the unidentified one looked very unhappy and I am wondering what diseases Ferrarias might be susceptible to. I've mentioned before that I am growing a F. crispa that I grew from IBS seed marked F. uncinata that has a really nice fragrance so perhaps fragrance cannot be an identifying feature. I'd like to know how to grow Ferraria better. I find it difficult to get any of the ones I grow other that F. crispa to come up regularly and to bloom. Lauw said they needed to be started early and I believe they need deep pots, but any cultivation tips any of you have would be appreciated. I am really fond of F. crispa ssp. nortierii because it does not flop and has been a consistent bloomer and is weirdly beautiful. Mary Sue Mary Sue Ittner California's North Coast Wet mild winters with occasional frost Dry mild summers