Dear All, Reporting from the wetter North Coast of California.... Several years ago my husband and I made a trip to New Zealand and were invited to visit Bill and Willy Dijk in Tauranga. We had a wonderful time and I came home wanting quite a lot of plants I wasn't already growing. One of them was Bill's wonderful mixed color Veltheimia. Doug Westfall wrote in 1997, "If you need Veltheimia bracteata, I have them. They grow like weeds in our yard. They 'spring up' wherever the seed blow to. The bulbs seem to get larger in the garden soil than in the potting mix". I asked for some and he was kind enough to send a number of them which I shared with others as well as keeping some to plant out in the ground and others I planted in containers. Later I purchased a pale yellow one from him and still later I have some growing from seed that haven't yet bloomed. The ones I have kept in large containers are on my porch where the wind blows some rain on them, but where they are somewhat protected from the elements. I have some V. capensis from Silverhill Seed and one bigger one Doug sent me. They have not bloomed yet. They look quite different from V. bracteata as the leaves are silver and not shiny. My V. bracteata in the ground have survived and bloom, but they look pretty ratty as the season continues and do not look nearly as lush and beautiful as the ones I have growing in containers so my experience is really different from Doug's. But Northern California has colder temperatures and I get far more rain than he does. In fact this statement of his I found amazing: "My experience with Veltheimias has been that bulbs planted in the ground are better able to survive Southern California wet winters." Southern California's WET winters?? What wet winters? Perhaps what he meant was that Veltheimia bracteata as Rhoda points out is a summer rainfall species so we are lucky to be able to grow it where we get most of our rain in winter. On another list people in year round rainfall situations reported that theirs didn't always go dormant. In my Mediterranean climate I have the same experience as Jaime. There is definitely a dormant period for me sometime in summer until late fall. The ones in containers resprout September or October, but then I get eager to see them again so start watering sooner. If I remember right people concluded they bloomed better with a dormant period. Last year I experimented with some V. capensis seedlings exposed to the rain and some protected. My conclusion was that the ones that got rained on were not very happy. I believe this species often is found in very dry areas. At least that is where we saw it in South Africa both times we visited and always in seed already in August-September. As they get bigger I still might try one in the ground, but I suspect that I'll have better luck in containers protected from the rain. I have a question about growing from seed and how long the seed is viable. I've had mixed luck growing from seed. One year I started seed in the spring and in the fall. The deer ate all my spring seedlings and they never recovered so I wasn't able to conclude if that was a good time. I've had good and bad luck with seeds. Some years no germination and some years good germination. Last year's BX seed that was supposed to be bicolors which I really was excited about yielded 0. I'm not quite sure why the mixed results. Would some of you who are always successful tell us what you do? Michael, Doug? In another post so as to not make this one so long I'll share the Diana Chapman fire method from 1999 for all those people who missed it. Veltheimia bracteata has got to rank up there with one of the best bulbs I grow. The leaves are just gorgeous and the flowers very spectacular in various stages. Veltheimia capensis in fruit in South Africa we thought really amazing too. One of these days I'll get one of those pictures added to the wiki. As for the possibility of virus, Doug and I both thought some we saw at Cathy Craig's house a couple of years ago looked virused although others she had looked fine. If I had any that looked suspect, I think I would give them a decent burial. And Michael L., are Veltheimias hardy in Cleveland or are you growing them in greenhouses? Also when I was looking for Diana's post I found this one from John Bryan: "In "Plants of Southern Africa: Names and Distribution, published in 1993 by the National Botanical Institute, two species of Veltheimia are noted. V. bracteata, which includes V. undulata and V. viridifolia and V. capensis which includes V. deasii, V. glauca and D. roodeae. There would seem to be greater variation within V. capensis than V. bracteata Plants cultivated under V. deasii would appear to be variants of V. capensis. Mary Sue Mary Sue Ittner California's North Coast Wet mild winters with occasional frost Dry mild summers