Thank you for the warning, Blayz! I have never, ever, dared to take any of my bulbs outdoors to summer over... mainly because I just expanded my collection from 2 to over 30 within the past few months! The first 2 I had were grown as houseplants, never going through forced dormancy or put anywhere other than a different window... and they've done exceedingly well for me, blooming every February.

I do plan, though, to take them outdoors next spring when the weather allows, and let them regain strength and mass with the help of Mother Nature. I have a small fenced-in raised bed veggie garden that I plan to commandeer part of for this purpose. One of the beds gets nice filtered sun from some surrounding trees...

I was wondering about rain, and how it might affect the bulbs... especially since bottom watering is recommended... what might the rain do to them since there will be no way to keep it off them at all times? I realize that nature will dry them off with breezes and filtered sunshine...

My orchids will stay indoors... or if I do put them out with the bulbs, it will only be for a couple of months...

Yes, we do indeed have cold rain here. It is a must to cover them or give them some shelter in the winter months; I often keep plants next the building and they seem to do well; or even in the garage for a few days if necessary.

I place most of my orchids outside around the end of May. They get bright indirect Sun with maybe a little early morning direct sun only. The Amaryllis get full Sun all summer. I got a Lc. Summer Christmas "Marie" today! Not much on the web about them though. White flower with purple on the center lip.I believe it's in the Catt. family.

Jodik; that veggie garden sounds like a good place for them. they love sun, hipps do. rainwater by itself doesnt do any harm, and so long as its warm enough it evaporates off, like you said. the problem is when it gets cooler at night, say below 12 C, (about 55 F). thats when the rot starts happening

tommyr; That Lc. Summer Christmas sounds nice. I havent gotten any Catts. in my collection yet...Im all about the oncidium alliance.

Hello Blayz...By the way, welcome to the forum!!! I have been busy over here and have not responded to the posts but have read your intro a few days ago.

I have 80plus established ammies in my collection that I put out in spring/summer. Last summer we had a week of straight rains. Very bad. Some of my plants got Stagnospora. It took me almost a month or two of spraying strong fungicides to combat this. Fortunately I did not lose any of the ammies. Then in early fall we were forcasted with 3-4 days of rains(cold) again. The collection was still actively growing and not ready to rest. I panicked. So I went to the dollar store and got this plastic drop cloths. I got this 3 foot bamboo sticks that I stuck in the middle of the collection and made a "tent-like" structure. I should have gotten a pic but it was starting to rain. The rain came in for days and when it was finally done, I took the drop cloth out. It WORKS! The collection was fine.

I think the most important thing to note with ammies grown outdoors when it is raining is to protect the crown which leads to the "heart" of the bulb. Too high of humidity and prolonged wetness can cause Stagnospora. It gets transfered from one plant to another by water/rain splatter. This could be VERY FAST too. So it would be wise to keep the bulb and leaves as dry as possible also.

I think the drop cloth would work with slight frost too. You just might need a thicker kind.

I am with you Blayz. Never again...

Blayz... I don't think I'll leave my bulbs out through temperatures that dip at all... I plant to take them outdoors well after danger of frost is past, and bring them in way before frost will strike again! I want no adverse weather, besides a bit of rain and wind, to affect them at all! I'm talking about the end of May to the beginning of September, maybe! I think 4 good months outdoors should be plenty of Mother Nature for them!! I enjoy my bulbs way too much to risk harm... now, all I have to do is make sure no pests attack, or hitch a ride back indoors, and I'm in business!

One very interesting thing: During Winter here in Southern California, the weather is about 60-70 during daytime and 40-50 during night time, sometimes lower. It is usually rain that pours down in buckets often even causing landslides... In the morning the dew is so strong that I cannot let Toto out till the afternoon, because he'd be completely dripping wet... And the amaryllis bulbs are doing just fine.
But if it were only my first year, I wouldn't say this, but I see amaryllis blooming OUTSIDE from year to year all the time, that are left out, planted in the ground and left alone to survive. they never die from cold rain and 30-40-50F temperatures. In fact, I will try to go and take some pictures of the little garden that has dozens, if not 40-50 flowers blooming at the same time, planted out, never taken in, left out during the largest, multi-day rains and steep dropping winter nights...

So I am leaving my bulbs out there. I will only dig them up on December 30th, so I could force them inside. Otherwise, I'd leave them outside, because they seem to love it out... Papilio jus started to bring new leaves.

Mariava; thank you for the welcome, and for the 'battle story' Sounds like I'll be doing something similar.

Soultan; I can't understand what the difference may be between the situation in California's winter and our summer here in BC. why do some get Stagnospora (thanks for that term too) when others don't? Is there another risk factor for the disease?

I can't understand either... My hippies get cold rains and really cold night temperatures when wet. Los Angeles has a pretty much desert temperature. Hot days, cool (cold in winter) nights.

My thought would be that perhaps California's drier days and more desert-like conditions help dry out the bulbs a bit faster than the weather after rains would in BC... I'm not certain of daily weather conditions in BC, but I'd think they would be a more damp or humid than CA... maybe that's the difference... the western states are a lot drier normally than northern or even southern weather... Virginia may be a bit more humid for longer periods after rain than CA... and that may be what brings on any fungal problems...

Calfornia is not desert like all over, jodik, especially where I live. Nor is it desert-like even further north. We have many subclimates and microclimates. For instance, toward Oregon it gets even more rainy.

BC is not humid and damp all the time, either. They have some beautiful summers.

As a rose grower and reader of the rose forum, I CAn tell you that in general Californians do not have nearly the amount of black spot and other diseases on their roses.Not even the ones in the northern area or near the ocean.

I think there is just less of a load of the botrytis spores in the air where here it is a constant battle, especially years like this one where it never stays hot for long, and there is more moisture then usual.

Perhaps a good clue to protecting Our ami bulbs is to look around at a rose garden that is "No spray", and see what the foliage looks like there.

I don't know what's up here in my area growing/conditions. I used to grow roses but gave up on them due to black spots and japanese beetles. Too much spraying is required. Lizalily brought up a very good point there about the amount of fungus spores in one's area. I live right in the foothills of the mountains which could be the problem.

I have documented this Stagnospora with lots of pics and advices from commercial growers on how to control it. I just need TIME (which I don't have much recently) to put them together and post here. I am still on dial-up ( no choice up here). I will TRY to do it soon.

We nearly always get a rain the day before a cold front, and every year, I try my best to leave my potted amaryllis outside until after the first (light) frost. The last few years, the first frost was a hard freeze around Thanksgiving Day, so I was forced to bring them inside before the leaves are frosted.

This year, we have been blessed to not have a sudden hard freeze (5 hours of below 30 degree F), so I have brought them inside, slowly but surely, and there are still a few more to bring inside.

I am with Soultan, but my climate conditions are quite different. We get colder probably more often than he does. Our winter are typically wet and rainy, but this does not seem to bother the amaryllis in the gardens.

To my knowledge, I have never had 'red blotch', but if I should encounter it, I know how to treat it. That's not to say that I have never had problem with red spots. I have. Every time there is a hurricane or a tropical storm or those horrid, huge grasshoppers visit, I see red!

In fact, it is not uncommon to see red marks on my hippi's. The wind gets mighty furious during our summer, afternoon thunderstorms.

The only time I have had a serious problem is this past year when a few of my hippi's were attacked by the Spanish moth caterpillar. Never again!

Don't be too afraid of the rain. Hippi's adore RAIN! They also do not mind HOT and HUMID! Take it from me... The Gulf Coast is HOT and HUMID!

I think blackspot depends upon the susceptibility of the rose. I have one that is very susceptible. The other ones are hardly bothered.

I really have to say, since I live here and have been growing roses for many years, that Calfornia has as many problems with roses as anyhwere else. However, we don't necessarily have them all at the same time. It depends upon where one lives, the rose itself, and the conditions on where they are planted. I am surprised that would not be known.

Come on down and see what we sell for rose problems. You will see the whole gamut.

I lived in Washington for 5 years one time, and 4 years another. No appreciable differences, really; at least where roses are concerned. Although if you are confusing L.A. with the rest of CA you might see some bigger ones.

I didn't mean that all of CA is a desert... what I meant was, western and southwestern areas would most likely be a bit drier than northern and southern areas... I wasn't even thinking in terms of where the concentration of spores might be... that's a good thought!

We usually have very dry winters and very humid summers... the last few years we've had no problems at all with any type of fungus on roses... although, I have had terrible powdery mildew on my bee balm, but only the plants on the north side of the garage building... go figure! The only reason I can see that we haven't had rose fungus is because Central Illinois is very flat and windy... which might tend to dry things out faster after lots of rain... I don't know...

Good question... why do some areas seem to have a higher rate of fungus spores than other areas? Or is it that the newer bulb varieties are being bred more for flower color, size and number of scapes, and health and hardiness are not being taken into consideration when breeding?? This is exactly why the newer garden mums aren't as hardy as they used to be when I was a kid... Hmmmm...

I was not meaning that you did necessarily say that jodik, just that I was clarfiying that CA is a lot more diverse than many people think. It is in many parts (more southern)desert-y than, say, where I live. You would be surprised what we have here-mountains, desert, sea, and snow in certain areas. Of course, not all at the same place at the same time!

I know what you meant, Hopflower! :-) California is a very diverse state... from extreme desert to high mountain... from snow to sand... from redwood forest to the sea... this land was made for you and me! Oh, wait... where was I?! Hehe!

I remember my brother going out west, not sure exactly where, for a vacation when he was a teenager, and he said that they went up the mountain to ski during the day, and back down where they swam in the hotel pool in the evening... elevation has a lot to do with micro climates, I'm sure...

From what I've read and seen on tv about California, Santa Barbara is the place I want to be! Apparently, the weather is as close to perfect as it gets! I have relatives in Sacramento, and from what I remember as a child, it was lovely there... orange trees in the backyard, warmth and sunshine... Disneyland was rather close...

If California was as cheap to live in as Illinois, I'd already be there!!

That remark about being cheap is certainly astute. It is so stupidly and obscenely expensive, what can I say? We have to live with it and it gets harder and harder.

Yes, Sacramento is famous for tomatoes, and oranges do indeed grow there, althugh most of them are not raised for the citrus produce trade. Most are not sweet enough to be candidates for that, although a few are. You find most of them in southern CA. Remember the freeze that ruined the crops several years ago? A neighbour down the street has a tree that once in awhile gets a few sweet enough to eat. The fragrance and the ornamental beauty of the tree are breathtaking, however.

Grapes for wine and apples are raised where I live, although the apple bit is going slowly, but surely. The prunes have already gone.

Yes, Santa Barbara is indeed an ideal climate for most people. It is MUCHO expensive down there.

Jodi,

Disneyland from Sacramento is some long-long hours of drive... Though definitely closer than where you are right now. :o)
I go to the French Festival to Santa Barbara every year in the summer. It is a very nice sleepy little town. It is just so far from where life is happening that it is not worth living out there if you are not retired. You know what I mean... But to be true, you don't have to be retired to go to Santa Barbara, but you definitely need to be someone into quiet times and not much happening around you.

What we hear around here is that San Diego has the most ideal weather in the whole country. I can't vouch for that, since I have only been down there for a few times, but it is not bad. Driving down there, there is the Carlsbad Flower Fields though, that grows amarylli too for EasytoGrowBulbs.com and other retailers. I have never been there. Would be nice to take a tour when they are in bloom.

That would be pretty interesting... to tour an Amaryllis operation right here in America! Some day, when you have vacation time, Soultan, you should find out about going there for a tour... then you could take photos so we all could see what it is like!! :-) That would be awesome!

If I thought I could afford to live there, I'd look into going to the San Diego or Santa Barbara area... I am just about retired, and a quiet town would be perfect... I don't care for the cities... I prefer to live way out in the country! Our property up north is located on a gravel road about a half hour from civilization... just the way I like it!

When we were kids, we went to my Aunt's place in Sacramento, and I remember her picking oranges from the back yard for breakfast! She made them into orange juice. And then, we drove to Disneyland to spend the day! I was probably about 5 or 6...

With today's economy, there's no way we could even think about moving to California... it's out of our league, financially!

Take a look at the Flower Fields' site... I have driven by there before, but never stopped. It seems like we are always going when there is nothing blooming... Maybe this Spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: Carlsbad Flower Fields

Well folks, after reading all that, Im convinced that the problem isn't so much the rain, or the cold, but the combination of both. and yes, it's humid here, seldom drier than 40%, usually over 60%. The spores in the air is a good point too, which would make sense because we had such a lousy wet summer here this year, which makes for more spores. Thanks for all the posts.

I was a long haul truck driver for a couple of years, and I went all over California lots. It is extremely diverse! You cant get much different than comparing Palm Springs to Redding. I was stuck in Redding for three days once because a snowfall had the I5 closed over Mt. Ashland. My favorite area was the northern part, especially around Mt. Shasta.

Mt. Shasta is indeed a pretty area, blayz. Still, even with all of our population here, it has not been ruined.

Until a few years ago, I held a CDL license with Hazmat endorsement... although driving a semi is not my cup of tea, I spent several years trucking with my ex-husband... I went through Tractor Trailer driving school up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for Midwest Coast Transport. The ex and I owned and operated a T600B Aerocab Kenworth, and drove the 48 States. I saw loads of wonderful scenery, and was fortunate in visiting many cities and places of interest throughout the country... from LA to DC, and all points in between! Basically, my license gave the ex lots of extra driving time to log... I don't consider myself a great semi driver, and he pulled all the mountain, bad weather, and city miles... and I drove lots of flat miles! We hauled everything, from a load of blue jeans into Compton, CA... to giant wire spools out of Bay St. Louis, LA... lots of frozen veggies in reefers to Ohio, and more wire spools out of Port Washington, PA... the best loads were cardboard boxes... no loading or unloading, light weight, and good pay!

I quit driving when I filed for divorce, but I won't go into that... it was all quite an experience, and I wouldn't change the past at all, because that's what led me to the point I am at now! Looking back, I certainly have led a diverse life... I've milked cows on a dairy farm, driven a semi coast to coast, bred American Bulldogs, and been part of my current husband's kennel, that's appeared in several books and a few videos, published a magazine, ran a dog registry, raised three step-children... and have worked in many positions in several fields and industries, plastics and metal work among them...

What a long, strange trip it's been, to quote a favorite song! And here I am... a Grandmother who grows Hippeastrums, gardens constantly, reads a lot, designs and creates jewelry, breeds and raises bulldogs... and has the best online gardening friends in the world!! :-)

Jodi; Wow, that is quite a row of medals on your belt, figuratively speaking! I quit trucking because the stress finally got to me. I hate cities! My mate, Wolf, is the real animal nut around here...I'm sure she'd love to chat about the bulldogs, but this isnt the place for it. THe standing joke around here is that Ive got the green thumb, while she has the furry thumb! Lol.

It's funny... people who garden usually have pets, too! More than one pet, a lot of gardeners have... we seem to have a need to nurture everything, whether it has leaves or fur or feathers!

Driving a semi is stressful... most people don't realize what it takes to operate a rig that large, and they don't know that not only are we responsible for our trucks and ourselves, but we are also responsible for everyone around us while on the road, because we are the commercial vehicle. I remember being constantly tired, constantly sick from going through so many climate changes and not getting enough sleep... and constantly stressed about keeping load appointments and getting paperwork in on time... there's a lot more to it than just getting in and driving!