I want to thank Al for bringing this to my attention... it's a lovely Charisma! And, I'd like to thank Karen for sharing her beautiful hippeastrum blooms with the rest of us! You should pop over to the Amaryllis/Hippeastrum forum for more gorgeous flower photos... and tons of great culture information on these wonderful bulbs! It's a bit slow right now, but as fall begins, the conversations pick up pace, and the photos begin! I can promise you a world of bulb photos unlike anything you've ever seen! I am also in zone 5, Central Illinois... I began with one lowly Minerva bulb, and have since collected over 50 different varieties, including some species! Growing and breeding them has become quite a wonderful hobby for me, and for lots of other people around the world! We're a friendly group, always happy to share information and photos of the bulbs we love so much! Come join us! Al has been so helpful, and from him, I've learned a lot about how to keep my hippeastrums healthy and growing strong! Hippeastrums are great houseplants... and once you learn how easy they are to grow and re-bloom, they can easily get under your skin! My collection continues to grow... you could say I'm completely addicted to them... and always happy to enable others to become hippeastrum lovers, too!

Yes, do not water so often as this can end up causing root rot. Just be aware that large leaf plants like hydrangeas will wilt during the first summer (or two) as the plants are not established. Established plants will still wilt during the summer but not as bad as in the first summer or two. They recover by nighttime on their own. What to do: If you see extreme wilting then water immediately. Otherwise, check the soil moisture by inserting a finger into the soil to a depth of 3-4". If the soil is almost dry or dry, water. If the soil is moist or wet then postpone any action until next morning. If still wilted in the morning, add 1/2g of water for a small shrub. Having a lot of mulch helps conserve moisture so make sure that the plant always has 3-4" of any type of acidic mulch. When watering, water early in the morning & water the soil -not the leaves- from the root ball outwards towards the drip line.

If the Daconil did nothing to control that then it probably is not a fungus. Have you asked the people at your state universities Cooperative Extension Service about this?

skippy05 - I grow as many as I 'can' at my residence in Netcong with the limited space here that gets enough sun,although I do grow additional plants with local friends and with those whom I network with across the country... I do start some of the MG's that I grow inside,but I usually wait until the outdoor weather is very close to being frost free,since there's only a couple of windows in this house that get full sun... Many people enjoy success starting MG's earlier indoors by using supplemental electric lighting... The somewhat diluted coloration of the "Flying Saucers" pictured above that starts looking like "Blue Star" can also sometimes look the same way the entire season,but if you look at the area between the primary folds where the darker blue pigment forming the star pattern is,you will notice the prescence of the darker streaks...this type of darker streaking in the area between the primary folds is common in "Flying Saucers",but is very rarely(if ever) seen in unadulterated "Blue Star"... I'm suggesting taking note of the streaking/spotting feature in between the 'star' pattern because pure "Blue Star" cultivars will not exhibit this type of streaking...and the presence or abscence of the streaking inbetween the primary folds can be used as an indicator to distinguish a pure "Blue Star" from a "Flying Saucers" that is not displaying alot of the blue pigment in between the primary folds... Thanks for the well intentioned compliment of 'expert',but I have an aversion to being called an 'expert'...I enjoy sharing from my experience and if anyone likes the content of my postings,I would like to suggest that a simple appreciative 'Thank You' to be well in order and most graciously liberal... Enjoy(!)... TTY,... Ron