Thank you Uli and Leo! Great information! Jerusalem rarely gets to 40 C and summer is typically low to mid 30s. It's those blasts of desert air in spring and fall that give us a sudden drying out. All the best, Shmuel On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 2:54 AM, Leo A. Martin <leo@possi.org> wrote: > Hi Shmuel, > > > Uli gave you most of the info on these plants. S. tubiflora is blooming > here in Phoenix > where we have had temperatures well above 104 F / 40C for over a week (and > this will > continue until October.) Judging by newspaper weather reports, our > temperatures are a > lot like those in Cairo or Baghdad, which is warmer than Jerusalem. In the > past the > plant has been undamaged in full sun with temperatures above 114 F / 46C. > This year I > put it where it gets about 8 hours of sun morning to early afternoon. The > foliage is > much thicker, with shorter internodes, than it would be in more shade. I > am convinced > the reason people don't bloom this plant is because they don't give it > enough sun. > > I don't let it dry out when in active growth. I suspect if I had a > full-sun greenhouse > it would grow and bloom all winter. I keep it completely dry in winter > outside in my > carport to protect it from our cold winter rain. Some winters the tops > never die, even > after months of dry soil. My plant in its 10" / 25cm diameter container > tolerated > overnight freezes to the mid teens F / -6C dry in my carport last winter > without > problems. > > Stem cuttings will root in water and produce tubers when planted in soil, > so there's no > need to dig up tubers for propagation. I think this is normal for > Sinningia with longer > stems. > > The bigger the pot the better the show. So far every sprout has produced an > inflorescence. It is a matter of how much space you have and how much you > want to lift > when moving for the winter. > > One year a caterpillar ate all the shoots and the plant struggled after > that. I don't > know which butterfly or moth it was, but no trouble so far this year. > > Leo Martin > Phoenix Arizona USA > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >