>So I wonder how A. belladonna responds to "full sun" sites with southern or northern exposures, if there would be a difference in flowering time. To add to the complexity, there are many well documented cases of A. belladonna (and possibly the hybrids) blooming very vigorously after a fire has cleared the overlying brush. Mary Sue posted some great photos of this on the PBS Amaryllis page. Based on what Nathan wrote about bud initiation happening three years before blooming, that means it's routine for these plants to form buds, wait to see if conditions seem optimal for blooming, and then abort the buds if they don't get the right trigger(s). So when we fight to get these things to bloom, we're not just trying to make the bulbs happy, we're trying to avoid conditions that tell the bulb "this is one of the years when you should not bother to bloom." Some PBS members in Australia have said that the blooming trigger for them is late summer thunderstorms. But that can't be the only trigger, as in most of California we rarely get that sort of weather. The whole thing is surprisingly complex, and I'm glad Nhu is keeping records. At some point I hope we can collectively figure it all out... Mike San Jose, CA