Hi all, I envy Jim McK. if he has Nerine in his garden. I have not found a Nerine that will survive and flower outdoors in the ground here. We have Nerine filifolia just starting to bloom now. N. krigei flowered several weeks ago, followed by NN. gracilis, next [filifolia X krigei], and then filamentosa. I'm very fond of these, but they only flower here in pots. I tried NN. angulata, filifolia, krigei, and [filifolia X krigei] planted in my raised bed rock garden last summer. None made it through the winter. I also tried N. bowdenii (NOT!) 'Pink Triumph' in the rock garden, and it also perished. Only N. bowdenii "Koen's Hardy" have ever survived outdoors in the ground through winter, and they never bloom out there. One batch of Rhodophiala bifida survives in the ground and is now in bloom. Two other batches in the ground in different locations died. As Panayoti Kelaidas says, try plants in lots of different locations before deciding that they are not hardy. Where the one batch of Rhodophiala bifida survive, the Gladiolus oppositiflorus salmoneus died. These glads, however, flourish out in the open field in the same bed where three Crinum varieties also do well. Well, actually, out of about 20 bulbs of Crinum [bulbispermum X macowanii] lined out, only three survived the winter. On the other hand, 19 out of 19 C. [bulbispermum X lugardiae] lined out two or three years ago survived and most bloomed this year. Regards, Jim Shields in central Indiana At 10:32 AM 9/13/2004 -0400, you wrote: >I noticed Rhodophiala bifida in bloom in a local garden last weekend here >in the Washington, D. C. area. Zephyranthes drummondii was also blooming, >as were Crinum x powellii and x Amarcrinum memoria-corsii. > >And here in my own garden, a Nerine sarniensis cultivar is in bloom. > >Jim McKenney >jimmckenney@starpower.net >Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, zone 7 where the nights are, finally, >cooler, the dews heavier and the attitude improving. >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA