Interestingly, when Osmani Baullosa still lived in Santiago, Chile, he grew an enormous range of native Chilean geophytes. I had the opportunity to visit him once and see his collection. He managed to grow all of them in pots on the deck of his apartment. He showed me how he managed it in each season, but one of the things that he told me that I’ve never done, is that he found that for certain species from locations further north of, and drier than, Santiago, if he kept those particular species dry and dormant, intentionally, for *two* years and only allowed them to receive rain and watering every other winter, the bulbs actually grew better, bigger, multiplied more, and always flowered during the “on” years. (Whereas when he had been letting them grow every winter, they didn’t bloom every year, and sometimes for a stretch of several years.) --Lee Poulsen Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m > On Aug 21, 2020, at 8:55 AM, Jane McGary via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > > Interesting that Amaryllis belladonna can remain dormant through a succession of dry years. I've seen this with Rhodophiala in northern Chile. I think there are some arid-zone Hippeastrum species -- do they do that also? > > Woke up this morning to the first rain in a long time, though probably not enough to soak in. > > Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA > > > On 8/20/2020 11:40 PM, Andrew via pbs wrote: >> Last winter restored our gardens in San Diego. That included bulbs. Of special note in high summer was, for many years, Amaryllis belladonna. For five years little, if anything, was seen of these lovely creatures. I mean, no flowers and no foliage. Clumps with over a hundred bulbs each lay dormant. Finally, and not until mid-July, they burst up. After their absence for five years it was a wondrous sight. Other South Africans had flowered once or twice over that period but A. belladonna had not. The clump sizes had not changed but the individual bulbs had shrunk somewhat. Steady, non torrential winter rains made all the difference. >> > _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…