Hi Rob, the first adjustment I suggest is your raising medium. Try pure sand and feed with blood and bone and woodash. The simpler the soil content, the more success I have had. As bulbs are natures adaptatin to poor soils, you will find that sand and clay keep these bulbs really well during the dormant period. The second is, once they are settled and growing in the sand, use a small covering of grass over the soil during the hotter months. This slows down dessication of most small Amaryllids. My challenge here is too much heat and spring rain before they have had a chance to die down and go dormant. This cooks them in the soil and I can loose them very easily if I don't shade them somehow. I am growing corn in the rows this year and that is working well. Must be that we all have one hickup or another in dealing with our environments. Have a great day, Dash. Daryl Geoghegan, Mainly Amaryllids Garden, P O Box 173, Barnawartha, Victoria, 3688, Australia. +61 02 60267377, Mobile 0429 621 612 Visit my web site @ http://www.mainlyamaryllidsgarden.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ New Home & Garden site - http://www.thegardentalk.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Hamilton" <robhamilton@trump.net.au> To: <Australian_Bulbs@yahoogroups.com> Cc: "Pacific Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 10:16 AM Subject: [pbs] Why wont my seedlings return ? Hi all, Firstly apologies for those who receive this as a multiple posting, but I want to reach as many experts as possible. I have an ongoing problem of not getting my winter rainfall South African amaryllids to return in their second season. They grow well from sowing in autumn / winter until late spring . As it is now towards the end of their growing season here I have been gently removing the surface of potting mix and in most cases am finding plenty of small bulbs sitting there with active roots in most cases. They do occasionally sprout the following autumn winter but often a lot less than were present. There are exceptions and this year Brunsvigia orientalis , Cybistetes longifolia , Haemanthus coccinea , Nerine humilis and Strumaria discifera and tenella all returned although the latter tended to remain evergreen through summer. In past years I have raised several other Brunsvigia , Crossyne and Strumaria species without any problems. I have no such problem with summer rainfall amaryllids with often grow for 12 to 18 months before their first dormancy. I wonder if our daytime temperatures being too low is part of the problem - from late autumn we often have prolonged periods where daytime high does not get above 10-12C with odd days even lower. However there are many winter growing amaryllids which are very happy growing in the garden here including Amaryllis belladonna, Brunsvigia jospehinae , Haemanthus coccinea and Nerine sarniensis and others of these genera which I have purchased as more mature seedling bulbs seem happy. I am going to trial some of the species under glass next winter to see if it helps with a glasshouse currently under construction. I now raise all these seeds in commercial seed raising mix 50;50 with coarse sand. I would love to hear of your ideas and experiences. Cheers, Rob Dr R F Hamilton 7 Beach Road Snug 7054 Tasmania Zone 9 equivalent at 43 °S Dr R F Hamilton 7 Beach Road Snug 7054 Tasmania Phone 0362679221 Fax 0362679041 _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php