Good morning everyone or good evening/night depending where you are: >About the watering process, I water all of my plant recipients by capilarity, to my experience its more water efficient, it also guides the water more directly to the roots or bulbs, it avoids soil compaction and washing all the nutrients away. > Regarding amancaes flowering, the flower spike does appear first what is known in botany as hysteranthous, after the first flower opens the leaves grow pretty quickly and since the flower last 3 or 4 days the leave have that time to grow, plus older bulbs produce at least 8 flowers, and not all of them open at the same time, so there is plenty of time for the leaves to come up, if you see the leaves grow first that means that the bulb wont flower that year. Im not a botanist or a biologist so my answer is according to what I´ve seen in the field. Hope that answers your question. Best regards Norton Lima, Peru ________________________________ From: pbs <pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org> on behalf of Bruce Schroder <bruceandjill.schroder@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, March 6, 2017 3:31 AM To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Re: [pbs] Ismene amancaes bulbs (norton cuba melly) - pbs Digest, Vol 170, Issue 2 >So, in answer to his question, perhaps it is a matter of just replicating nature by increasing the humidity and watering ever so lightly (misting?) at the same time of the year that the fogs start rolling in off the Pacific ocean. >One thing that does intrigue me about the cycle of this species though is that it is reported that in its natural habitat it sends up its flower spike and flower before the leaves appear yet every habitat photo I have seen (including Norton's 2 misty shots posted on the PBS wiki) show the plants in peak flowering whilst in full leaf. Perhaps you could elaborate on this Norton? Bruce Schroder Melbourne, Australia _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/