Hello! Please help me figure it out. There is an image of the Firecracker hippeastrum on your site. It is orange and has narrow petals. Produced by Hadeco. But on the originator’s website, under the name Firecracker, a completely different flower is presented! It’s red, it has a different flower shape, a different petal shape. There is confusion. A mistake has crept in somewhere. I really want to understand this issue. Thank you for the answer!
I thought a waxed amyryllis bulb would be perfect to give to a nursing home resident. It requires no care and needs only a small space and gives the person something to watch as it grows. Unfortunately, the 2 bulbs that I tried did not grow. All that I got was about two inches of growth. When I removed the wax and suspended the bulb in water they grew and flowered.
Loving all the updates this year, thank you for feeding my addiction! And thank you for the link to the US supplier with Thai Thai and Aurora, I ordered both. The Aurora just finished blooming, so sweet, but the Thai Thai all came up just leaves. The bulbs are super tiny, maybe they will bloom next year and show if they really are Thai Thai…
Thanks for your comments! A few of the several ‘Thai Thai’ I received did the same…all leaves. They all look true-to-type at least. A few also had Hippeastrum Mosaic Virus, so I have rogues those out. Good luck re-growing yours.
Wow! Had a busy few weeks and only just looked back to see what’s posted for the season. What a fantastic plethora of photos and variety’s. The most you’ve ever done in a season? Some stunning colours too. Your bargain bonanza has certainly got me looking and planning for my own bargain hunt! Thanks for all the amazing posts this season!
That first Amaryllis ‘rescue’ is a beauty! I tend to have the opposite problem, where other varieties end up being Apple Blossom – must be nice to have Apple Blossom turning into other varieties instead. Looking forward to seeing what the others do. I am also addicted to ‘reduced’ plants of any kind, but I figure it’s a cheaper and healthier addiction than most.
It is very common to end up with one of the “big three” no matter what you buy, so it was quite strange to see ‘Opal Star’! The next to bloom should be open in a couple of days, so check back!
“Caught up in the end-of-season sales frenzy, kits were bought in the last day of 2023, and first two days of 2024. This is something E would never advise our audience to get caught up in”
You don’t have to – any time I see seriously reduced amaryllis bulbs, I’m guaranteed to get caught up in a sales frenzy, with or without advice!!!
I’m still waiting for any flowers at all – and annoyingly, the bulbs I kept from last year are actually closer to flowering than the supposed ‘flowering in time for Christmas’ pair that I bought new this year – even though I wasn’t trying to get my old bulbs to flower early. Out of those, one has produced leaves and the other is just showing the tip of a scape!
Hmmmm, it sounds like we are having the opposite experience this season. I have only one of my “home grown” bulbs scaping…but then I only brought them in from outdoors a couple of weeks ago. We’ve had a slow and gentle autumn so far! I hope your collection picks up speed!
I’m not usually keen on doubles but this is a stunner! Congratulations on having two box kits that actually have the right bulbs in them – I’m doing well if I even get the right colour.
Whatever the reason for the increase in white, it’s really pretty! I just bought the one box kit this year – so far, it’s produced lots of leaves but no scape. I had a similar issue with one purchased last year from the same place, which never flowered – hoping that one will flower this year!
Hi Emaryllis, well it’s that time of year again for us Amaryllis addicts to start ordering for the new season. Think it’s come early this year. I’m wondering if you may have some suggestions of scented types to look out for please? “Aquaro” was so lovely, it would be nice to find some others. Looking forward to seeing what’s new on here as the season progresses. Hope it’s a good year. All the best, Stella
Oh, how I wish ‘Jewel’ were still in production. You can still find stalwart double ‘Blossom Peacock’ readily and recently introduced ‘Cape Horn’ has some fragrance along with trumpet type ‘Santiago’. Hybrids with some of the white flowered species should yield fragrant progeny, but these have yet to show up in commerce.
That’s great thanks. online companies put Amaryllis for sale so early, this year, many sold out super fast. Blink and were gone, especially new types. So your list, I will have to look out for next year. I did manage to get a Santiago, (most expensive Amaryllis I have ever bought!) 🙂 It’s now in bud and will see in a week if it was worth it. After getting Amaryllis 99% incorrect last year. So far this seasons buys, different supplier 100% correct, big surprise. 🙂 Marilyn has a very delicate daffodil scent. And also mystica and La Paz flowered so gave them Marilyns pollen, using the tips that you suggested. La Paz…nope. but mystica has 2 growing pods from cut stigma tips pollination, but viable seed will be another matter. I still have 2 Chinese mysteries with never a flower in 7 years. 1 shrunk to an acorn in size, sat for a year in a sunny window no shoot no root, so about to Chuck it, removed it from the pot, sealed in a zippy bag with damp vermiculite, sulphur powder and cinnamon and dumped it on a dark radiator in September. It got shockingly hot, highly humid and sure I’d killed it, few days later went to throw the bag away but it had a brand new inch long root and tiny shoot! It’s now potted up with 2 leaves 5 inches long, is too big for its plastic bottle greenhouse, is back on its windowsill and sulking. I’m at a loss🤷♀️
These things are supposed to need sunlight and air circulation, but this one defies the odds. Do you have any ideas? What can it be in the Amaryllis world? And how do I keep it alive and growing? If you have any suggestions Emaryllis, they would definitely be appreciated please…. Soo the addiction continues lol. Can’t wait to see what your box kits reveal! An interesting mix 🙂
I love your unnamed amaryllis. So beautiful.
I’m not remotely surprised by AppleBlossom standing in for a red and white striped one. I’ve had Apple Blossom in place of a supposed pure white and a red and white striped version so far this year – waiting to find out what my mystery ‘red’ bulb I found in a charity (thrift) shop in January this year will be – although it’s nearly opening and the bud is awfully pale to be hiding a dark red flower!
Yay! Bonanza of new pictures. 02 originals Nice! However this website is fatal! Lol. After the expensive mislabels, Just found some bargains, sold as pot luck … garden types £1 each, indoor £2.50 Couldn’t resist several of each. However I’ve promised to share some. But no doubt there will be more visits to the photo gallery yet. Sigh… I need more windows!
After several years of buying expensive named bulbs that ended up being nothing of the kind (usually just Appleblossom or Red Lion – and often, the Appleblossom stood in for a red variety and vice versa!) I now only buy the super cheap supermarket box kits. I still find the colours are wrong, but at least I don’t get so mad if I’ve only paid £3-£4 instead of £15!
This was my year for mislabeled bulbs, 3 out of 7. Interesting about the Opal Star substitutions. Both my Pinkolo bloomed as Opal Star. My Ice Pink bloomed as a beautiful but NOID double, I suspect that it is a Nymph of some kind. Pale coral background with dark raspberry trim and picotee edge. The seller couldn’t ID it but said that it came from Peru.
There seems to be consensus that mislabeling is as much a problems this season as ever. Sigh. Since you ordered an Israeli variety, they are usually substituted with others from the same supplier. As with my ‘Bagatelle’, check the Amaryllis IL Coming Up page…perhaps you got a pre-release ‘Replay’.
Found the photo of Replay. It could be a possible ID for my NOID. Easy to Grow Bulbs did list Replay this season. Lord knows what they were actually selling, since you say it is still in prerelease. Maybe Replay will be widely available next year, and I will see if the bloom matches the one that I already have. Hope always rules in the Amaryllis collectors world.
Love the new homegrown hybrids, especially the cybister. Commiserations on the yet more mislabels, though interesting. I was seriously thinking to call “the year of the amaryllis”… “Year of the Spamaryllis”! Cynical perhaps, but then tonight a new bud is showing a miraculous actual hint of possible peachy colour and I’m wondering could it really be the desirable “Desire” I actually bought after all? Please don’t let it be yet another “Serenity” thing. We live in hope and wait for the revealing. Patience!🙂
Wondering about your box kit update and thinking, bet one of those 2 turned out to be a “Serenity” thing.😏 Meantime love the new pictures.
Thanks! Just photographing another cybister type hybrid today and hope to post soon. The two box kits are photographed and just waiting for me to do a write-up. You should patent the term Spamaryllis (™) lol!
I might just do that! Lol. 9 out of 10 so far completely wrong, but today I celebrate that finally one has come out at least the right colour…orange! However it’s a bit pale so not sure if really is “Desire”. I’m now waiting on “Naughty girl” to open, but it’s starting to look like some naughty guy may have swapped her out too!
Looking forward to seeing those new cybister hybrid pics. My first year to set seed, so far looking good. The plants seem to choose if they want to grow the pods or not. A couple started to do so but then aborted the attempt n shut down the scape. They decided not enough roots perhaps? The ones growing pods are staying without leaves as yet. Perhaps plants have more intelligence than we know?
Good luck with your ‘Desire’ bulb! The most common reason that hybrids don’t take is a basic chromosome number incompatibility, but there are other factors. Short of embryo rescue and tissue culture techniques you can just accept it or try a few tricks of the trade. Try the reverse cross using the failed pod parent’s pollen on the other variety. Cutting the stigma off of the style, and using the sticky sap it exudes can work by removing the “lock and key” system of the stigma. Using a compatible pollen that is “killed” via microwaving, then mixing it with the desired pollen can also get around the style’s lock and key system. If you know the cross will fail, cutting the scape and placing it in water can prevent the bulb from controlling the shutting off of resources to the failing pod.
“Desire” did actually turn out to be “Desire”. “Naughty girl” was indeed switched. Really disappointed to find “Minerva” instead! That’s really interesting info. Heard years ago about cutting scapes to get seed production but didn’t say why, so thanks for explaining. So as my second “Opal star” is also now aborting half grown pods I have cut both scapes to see what happens. One looks too late but the other still has 2 ok pods out of 7 starts between them. As for those other things may experiment bit by bit. That’s all new to me. In fact thinking I’d need “The days of a tree” to learn everything to know. lol
Love the new hybrids – Congratulations!
My mystery ‘pink’ amaryllis whose first flower was white with a faint pink overlay is continuing to confuse – the second flower has opened white with a green centre (with a tiny pink dot at the base of each petal) and the tiniest possible amount of pink on the tips. and the third flower is all green & white. Definitely not the very strong pink colour shown on the box, but at least I only paid £4 for it! Can’t wait to see what the ‘solid red’ and ‘red and white striped’ varieties flower as!!!
Thanks, Phil! I’ve got a few more hybrids opening soon so stay tuned! Your pale mystery may be something unique, and you did get it at a bargain! Keep us abreast of the others.
Haha – red and white striped didn’t flower at all, solid red was Appleblossom and my second ‘red’ (someone else’s unwanted Christmas present) is now flowering pink…so of a grand total of 4 bulbs, none of them have flowered as they were supposed to!
Amazing 4/4 mislabels. Quite an indictment of the industry! Hopefully we can maintain at least a sense of humor about this situation, albeit with a note of frustration.
Commiserations on “table dance” Think it looks like a cat scratch accident in need of serious wound care! 😏 Hope you get the real McCoy next time. I’ve a new “Mont blanc” that I’m sure isn’t.4 Not huge flowers. Slightest daffodil fragrance at flower opening and aspirations to masquerading as a tulip. Flower stays very cupped until it withers. Have you any ideas what this confused creature might be? Not seen anything similar on your website.
Wow! American dream looks amazing! So glad I dropped by to see if there’s anything new. I’m adding that one to my list of must haves. 🙂 I’m not jealous of course… Not half 🙂 It looks perfect. More contrast than Daphne but so much cleaner than those random speckled inbetweeners. Wish it was available in Uk! What size are the flowers? Thanks for giving us amaryllis addicts another beautiful fix. 🙂
It looks like ‘American Dream’ and a spate of other van Geest hybrids are set for autumn 2023 delivery. This one is a “must have.” 🙂 These are not huge like ‘Daphne’ but still large at about 16-18cm. I imagine under ideal conditions they could be a bit larger.
Love the new pictures! Tantalising wondering just what they will turn out to be. 🙂 look forward to seeing the next update on those. Just wondering if anyone knows a reason why this happened to my bulb? Bought a new bulb that started to sprout leaves just before the buds. However the buds never grew above peeking out of the bulb and now shrivelling up. But the leaves have happily grown to about 20 inches. It’s a 30 cm bulb and 2 buds showed but not grown since October. The buds not gone bad just the energy is being pulled back out of it and aborting the flowering. Wondering if I did something wrong or a problem with the bulb itself? 🤷♀️
Also thanks to this website I’ve learned information about amaryllis I couldn’t find anywhere else on the web… for instance what to do when receiving a mail order bulb with maggots in! Amaryllis sure are like the lottery! This season has been mouldy bulbs, rotten bulbs plus maggots and so far totally wrong colours bar 1. A fabulous red pearl! But I can only do mail order so will keep coming back here when a surprise colour or a problem pops up. It’s a great resource.
Stella, I doubt you did anything to cause the scapes to shrivel. It is not that rare of an issue, and more likely is due to improper handling in the cooling period after harvest. Ethylene build-up in their storage container could “blind” the bulbs, killing the buds. There is also a chance that overdone heat treatment (aimed at killing bulb scale mites) could adversely affect the floral growths, but not the foliage. Hopefully you’ll be able to grow it on and se what it can do next season. Thanks for being an Emaryllis user and Good luck!
Thanks, that’s really interesting to know. Amazing what we get to know on this website! Not heard of that before but certainly makes sense. The leaves of this “ maybe Clown” do have amazing growth! 32 inches tall so far! ( in a sometimes sunny west window) Though not as tall as my 1st “not clown” Moon Scene, 39 inches:-) my third “Clown” attempt 2 weeks after delivery has turned out to be another Opal star….. Opal rocket?? 2 stems both grown to 2 foot tall in just over 2 weeks with 10 flowers! One slight caveat to that though being that the scapes popping out of the bulb in transit got damaged so couple flowers bit crumpled. Plus arriving with outer squishees needing cleaning up, fungal treatment and slimming down I’m wondering if it will self destruct? But that’s the fun of amaryllis 🙃
Hello. I love reading your blog. Last year (oh, this peaceful 2021 with its banal pandemic without explosions and drones) I bought bulbs numbered 08-005-1 and Lemon Cream in several stores. They do have some differences though. What I like about him is that he is a chameleon (maybe my dual nature sees kinship in him) And how do you like this variety? And was it bought already with the name or how else is it licensed?
Oh, Olesya if you are writing from Ukraine you have the compassion of all of us that condemns the brutal and cruel war being waged on your people. It is amazing and uplifting that you can find some moments of calm to appreciate the natural beauty of plants.
This new NL van Geest variety was apparently sold in Europe under its company accession number before the ‘Lemon Cream’ name was registered officially. They are the same variety…but as you say a variable one at that. The bulb I had bloom last summer even produced some flowers with extra petals, almost a double flower! It is still not sold commercially here in USA. I got mine from Vlad at Bulb in a Box.
Please stay safe and warm, and I hope the spirit of the holidays fills you with hope for brighter days. We stand with you.
Yes, I’m from Kyiv, we had two air alarms today, but our guys from the Air Defense Forces protect us!!! Thank you for your sympathy, we appreciate it all. Thanks for the answer, this variety is very interesting… Yes, thanks to Vlad I have very interesting varieties Thanks for your reply, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Let St. Nicholas or Santa Claus bring new varieties, and we will all read your review with pleasure
Hi loving the website and the Myriad pictures! Wondering if it’s possible you can identify a new Amaryllis I just got that just popped into flower today and looks to me a bit like Fledermaus. A big surprise as I ordered apricot parfait. This one is quite pretty but the flower much smaller than I would have expected for what I ordered and quite dark ruby in the centre. I would be happy to send a photograph of it.
Thanks kind regards
That’s great thanks. this crazy beauty is full of surprises. 4 flowers on first stem and now 6 new buds on a second! Also researching on your website is feeding my growing addiction!:-) it’s like picking a lottery ticket, get a winner by accident and totally hooked! 🙂
Just now seeing this almost a year later! A friend loves to give me plants and plant-related items for Christmas and birthday. She orders on Amazon. A couple of years ago, I got an Apple Blossom amaryllis. It did not bloom until well after Christmas, but has been a reliable bloomer since. How do I stop people from giving me such things???
All gifts are nice, but those that require your care for months or years can become a burden of sorts. I try to convey the specificity of my interest in plants so that others don’t try to give me something I don’t really need or want. It doesn’t always work…and sometimes I just still have to say thank you, and be happy that they are trying to give me something from the heart! PS Ivan is still doing well at the BG! Your gift was much appreciated in that case!
As I see those photos above, these bulbs are in a very small pots. Hippeastrum needs lots of nutrient to grow and flowering. I always give enough big pot to let them grow, and my bulbs bring the best they can. I can’t enclose photos here, but I happily would show how my Hippeastrums look like. All leaves and flowers are perfect and big. I buy derectly from Netherlands, from a reliable company. They sell big bulbs, ship carefully and they have a best price! Lemon star 9,3 euros, Tierre 8,51, Grandise Fantasy 9,32 The bulb size around 30-32 cm or bigger!
I think you are looking at bulb kit photos…I try to grow them in exactly the same pots the list come with to show performance. Yes, Hippeastrum hybrids are heavy feeders, and bigger pots with very well-drained media are great! I grow in mid-size pots due to a lack of space, and putting them out in spring, when heavy rains might oversaturate the media leading to rot. You are lucky to be able to buy directly from NL van Geest, I wish we could buy direct here in the USA! Thanks for writing!
I was just looking through some Amaryllis websites. Do you know if Royal Colors has gone out of business or have they just shutdown their website to the USA. I certainly wouldn’t buy from them given their past issues, but curious to see what they are selling this year. When I search for http://www.royalcolars.com, I keep getting a message that their site is being blocked by my servers since it is not considered secure, whatever that means.
Yes, sadly Royal Colors is gone. It became I Love Amaryllis (which still has a FaceBook page describing it as a travel company) for the European market, but alas even that company has now stopped selling amaryllis bulbs. It seems Royal Colors was skirting legal boundaries by shipping the way they did, but they are greatly missed by those of us who managed to get some unique offerings over the years.
Well that explains why I occasionally get advertising emails from “I Love Amaryllis”. I always felt that a financially sound company wouldn’t be dodging the proper inspection procedures. I imagine they were struggling to stay afloat for at least 2-3 years. Covid may have been the final nail in the coffin. That’s a shame that they went under, since ten years ago I considered them one of best Amaryllis dealers.
Agreed! They were great early on. I stay away from recommending specific vendors because not all sources operate within other country’s agricultural regulations. The buyer assumes the risk. Inspection by USDA/Aphis is routine in the Netherlands due to their large horticultural industry, so it seems like it would be feasible for a Dutch company to sell direct to North America. The issue is probably that small direct shipments to individual customers are not very profitable.
This year’s amarylllis have finally flowered – and I have a first. I bought three kits, all under £5, and ALL THREE are flowering in the colour they were meant to. My white amaryllis has flowered white (huge flowers on an enormously tall plant, with a lovely green centre to the white), my red & white one has flowered red & white (barely a foot tall – never had such a short amaryllis!) and…drum roll…my third attempt to grow Queen of the Night seems to have worked. Anyway, she’s flowering in the right colour and looks pretty similar to the photo in the gallery. My last two attempts have been white and red & white striped, so I’ll settle for a solid deep red, even if it’s not the right one!
Only had one rebloom from last year so far – the others are still sulking.
Congratulations on your bargain blooms! It sounds like you hit the jackpot this season. So happy that your quest for ‘Queen of
The Night’ is fulfilled at last!
You have my sympathy – none of my box kits have flowered yet (been super-cold, so they’ve all been sulking) but a couple of them have opened partially, and so far, I’m dubious that they are going to match the labels. Waiting to see if my umpteenth attempt at Queen of the Night has been successful.
I really like this site for all the information that is available. I’ve been looking for the “Scarlet Baby” Amaryllis for several years and have been unable to find it. Is it even being produced anymore?
While the registration site KAVB hasn’t stated that ‘Scarlet Baby’ is out of cultivation, it is clear that it hasn’t been sold commercially in about 15 years. From about 2010 on it was used as a marketing name, but substituted with new varieties. It would still be successful in my view; the bronzed foliage and crimped edges of the flowers were nice details. Thanks for using the site!
I didn’t realize this year wasn’t a great year for amaryllises. I guess I got lucky! I pre-order 4 different sonatini and got them. The exciting bit was they arrived at the end of October and they looked ready to go! Now, considering I bought 3 of them for my mom’s birthday at the end of November, I was really happy I have my very mini-fridge I bought for keeping amaryllises cool. I caved on Nov. 20th, took them out, potted them, and gave them to her that day. They are growing quite well and, as of today, I can see the petals for one bulb on its two scapes. One bulb is taking its sweet time but that is fine. 🙂
We’ll see if I got the kinds I ordered which are: Belladonna, Brightspark, Joker, and Lemon Sorbet (that one is for myself). I had good luck last year with the one bulb I ordered for myself. I ordered a Thai Thai and it was correct.
I wouldn’t say it wasn’t still at least good, save for retail nursery prices and some delayed shipments here in the U.S. I think mail order firms had already set prices before covid related impacts had really reared their head. The loss of Royal Colors as a source of direct shipments from Europe also makes for a less exciting year for some unique sourcing. Also Hadeco’s MyAmaryllis.com does not seem to be shipping, and they have offered some of the harder-to-get South African grown cultivars.
The South African grown Hippeastrum are amazing! They are definitely ready to start showing off earlier than most. You made some nice choices, and I bet they will come true to type.I hope your bulbs bloom brightly, thanks for using emaryllis.com!
Poor thing! I’m glad you rescued it – it was a noble deed!
I’ve had several amaryllis like this – chiefly due to my cheapskate nature which means I wait for the ‘posh’ box kits to be heavily reduced before buying. They sometimes flower surprisingly well – I just stick them on a high shelf so I can look up at the flower – and often plant the bulb slightly angled to compensate and then repot it upright once it’s flowered!
I was looking for a bookshelf that wasn’t entirely full…I think a well elevated perch will be the only way to appreciate this one. Hopefully it makes a second “normal” Scape later!
No – the two cheapest were labelled as ‘from Holland’ but that could just be where the kits were made up, and not necessarily where the bulbs were from. No reference to origin at all on the slightly more expensive one – just the supermarket branding. (That one did come as a named variety, although I’ll be surprised if it is what it says on the box – I’m usually doing well if the flower colour matches the picture on the box, so it is a bit of a lucky dip!)
I’m ONLY buying super-cheap grocery store/supermarket kits now. Last year, I mail ordered 3 bulbs from a ‘specialist’ nursery at around £10 each (that’s around 13.50 in USD) because I didn’t think I could get any locally. One arrived so mushy with red blotch it was worthless, one grew & failed just before flowering and the other grew & failed just after – all had to get thrown out.
A few weeks later, my husband found some cheap kits at the supermarket (costing the equivalent of $3.50 USD). All three flowered really well and I’ve been able to grow them on for this year too.
So far, this year I’ve bought 3 box kits, (costing between $6.50 and $3.50 USD), all of which had MORE growing media than I needed, pots with drainage holes (and saucers), no sign of red blotch, no sign of starting into growth while in the box AND all with 2 inch long healthy roots. I’m never buying from a specialist nursery again!
“The color class will probably at least be solid white”
I wish I had your confidence. I’ve had white amaryllis bloom pink, striped amaryllis bloom solid red and dark red solid amaryllis bloom pale red & white!
My experience with this brand kit has usually been good when it comes to at least ‘Minerva’ being correct (even ‘Mambo’ was a very close facsimile!). The bulb supplier has three white varieties in production, so if they can’t get the color correct, it means the switch is happening in the packing plant…which I’m sure does happen!
Olga, I wish ‘Santos’ was still marketed too, as do many other amaryllis fans. It had a commercial run of about 10 years. It was the only modern striped foliage hybrid to make it into large scale production. It seems to be a strong grower and easy bloomer, so it should have stayed in production for much longer. There is always a chance that a Dutch grower still has it and will consider producing it again, but those chances are slim. Since you mentioned this cultivar, I will update the photo of ‘Santos’ in our gallery to show a bit of its unique foliage! Thanks for writing.
Great if from Melbourne Australia. Lots of fabulous hippeas flowering in mid September. ( our spring) .
Continually use this amazing resource
Thx michael barrett cliviaman
So nice to have friends down under! Of course we love Clivia as well as Hippeatrum. Happy spring to you, as we are just ending our growing season up here. Thanks for using emaryllis.com 🙂
Oh, I only wish I knew how to find Hippeastrum fosteri for sale. It is a beautiful species with a lot of potential for breeding work. Good luck in your quest!
I have an amaryllis that bloomed and the bulb dried up. I lifted the top off and there was several small green bulbs under it. Will these bulbs turn into plants? What do I have to do to get them to produce flowers?
Yes, the offsets took over when the main growth died (sometimes this is from Narcissus Bulb Fly if grown outdoors.) You could just leave them as a clump for another year, or separate them and replant each in its own small pot, bringing the nose of each little bulb just above the soil surface. Fertilize and keep evenly moist through the growing season. Since they will be too small to bloom the first or even second year they could be grown on during the first winter or two indoors in a sunny window, or better yet under plant lights to extend daylength. It takes some patience to grow them on for bloom! Once they reach blooming size, they can be treated as outlined on our Amaryllis Care page.
Help would be appreciated about growing from seed. I have seen some hints about “floating” them and then transplanting. Is this necessary? Also, how long do you let the seed “dry” or lie dormant before planting? I have some capsules about ready to pop, and need to know whether to store or plant right away. If planting directly (I plan to use pure coir to start — I live in a very dry climate), how deep should the seeds be covered?
Many thanks!
Hi, Meredith,
Hippeastrum seed are quite easy to germinate. When the pods begin to split, I cut them and drop them into a paper lunch bag. Within a few days the seed will spill out; they are ready for planting immediately. You can hold them for a few months in dry conditions if necessary.
The floating method is used to gauge viability for a large quantity of seed, or to test old seeds…for you it introduces an extra step and a delicate transplanting operation. Just sow on your media and sift a fraction of an inch/centimeter over them and firm them in. Putting the seed flat in a plastic bag or container will keep the humidity high and assist in germination. You should have grass-like seedlings appearing within 2-3 weeks! Once they are done germinating you can acclimate them to normal humidity levels. Good luck!
It does indeed look a lot like ‘Bambara’. It just seems odd to sell in a manner of new, unregistered names by using a numeric code. So, it remains here in purgatory! Yes, it was around 7″ diameter.
Jeff, After looking at all of my photos of both 4082 and ‘Bambara’ taken over time, I agree with you. I still have to wonder why it was marketed without the cultivar name, as there is no patent or trademark to infringe on a variety so old. Thanks for pointing out the obvious “similarity”!
Double amaryllis petals are often formed from the sexual parts of the flower. If the stigma and pistil become petal-like they will not function to transport pollen cells to the ovary for seed development. More often though, the male parts (anthers and filaments) are what become “petals”…sometimes with some distorted anthers still bearing some pollen. Breeders take advantage of having many plants to work with, the odds are better for finding a double flower with functional female parts.
Eduardo, I’m not at all sure of the breeding background of this one.Many of the species have thin scapes compared to the big hybrids! You will be pleased to know that Park Amaryllis is ramping up production of these smaller to mid-size varieties, so availability should become steadier in the next few seasons. Have a look at their recently updated site that includes several that do look H. papilio influenced:
Meredith,
I recently changed to the photo with the mauve background, which will make it look a bit different than the black backgrounded photos on NL van Geest’s website. They also tend to underexpose a bit, oversaturate a bit, and use a warmer color balance. The shape and form seem spot on. ‘Tarantula’ has much thinner tepals and smaller flowers, as it is a more direct descendent of H. cybister. I attempted to purchase ‘Tarantula’ as a cutflower but they were unavailable late in the season. Hopefully I can add that one to the galleries next year!
Could you please say more about “pollen shedding means a bulb in trouble”? I had a couple of Charisma make a real puddle of pollen on my floor this year. What should I do for them? Thanks!
Meredith,
Amaryllis bulbs (whether potted or “grown” as waxed bulbs) without functioning roots results in stunting and commonly pollen grains shedding before the flower even opens. I’ve usually tried to reach the anthers with a pair of manicure scissors, then rinse with a gentle stream of water to remove any already shed pollen in the flowers. In healthy flowers, the anthers are usually an aesthetic plus, and the grains will only come off when brushed.
Thanks Bill ! This article was just what I needed. I melted off the plastic ” prison” as Pritch called it) with a lighter 😂 and chipped away at the coating. Then I potted the bulb in moist potting soil. It hasn’t bloomed yet. I just couldn’t stand not putting it up . . The flower bud looks to be deflating a bit but I’m hoping to save the bulb. . .
There is something very reassuring about taking time out from the current craziness our world is in to read an Emaryllis kit report. Thank you for brightening my day!
So nice to hear that! I have seen the visitation numbers going up lately, so hopefully others are also enjoying a pleasant distraction:-) Thanks for the comment!
I was interested to note your comment about the absence of red blotch in these kits. Over the past 3 years, I’ve noticed red blotch (and an absence of live roots) in the expensive garden centre boxed kits (as well as a tendency for the flower to look nothing like the cultivar advertised on the box). The cheap supermarket kits have all been free of red blotch and all but one has had at least some live root. Plus good drainage holes. As far as I can see, the only advantage of the expensive kits is the named cultivars…but as they’re usually wrong anyway, I’m sticking to my £4 nameless box kits in future!
One of the main reasons for the move to growing in Peru in particular is that the climate naturally discourages fungal diseases, and these are often the least expensive, mass produced bulbs. Perhaps that is why the bulb kits are much cleaner of late, but whatever the reason it is a welcome development!
How frustrating! Can’t say I’m surprised though – far too often my expensive named amaryllis bulbs have ended up looking nothing like the name on their label! I now have a rule that I don’t spend over £5 (that’s under $7 USD) – at least that way, I haven’t wasted too much money if they are not as advertised!
In spite of restrictions, I was able to get 2 box kits from my local food store and mail ordered another 3 bulbs – waiting to see how they will flower. Also waiting for last year’s ‘Christmas Star’ to flower – it didn’t bloom last year, so I have no idea if it will be Christmas Star or not – if not, this will be my THIRD non-Christmas Star.
Agreed, Philippa! Price doesn’t predict better outcomes for amaryllises. There are some pricey suppliers that generally have good sized bulbs and rarely have major labeling errors, but there are less expensive firms that do just as well. It is those really inexpensive bulbs (and kits) that come off as the most amazing value.
Sigh! Three strikes and we’re out here too – ‘Christmas Star’ is not fully opened yet, but I can see enough to know it is NOT as labelled – streaked/veined pinky red with a green/white midrib and green/white tips. Just glad I only paid £2 for it, out of the end-of-season bargain trolley. If I’d paid the full price of £15 (over $20USD) I’d have been really annoyed!
When it’s fully open, can I email you a pic to see if you can ID it for me?
Well, you are a savvy shopper! Its a lot easier to take a mislabel when you havn’t parted with too much money. Please do send your photo along for ID whenever you’d like.
I found out what happened to my shipment from Royal Colors. The bulbs were intercepted and destroyed by the Dept of Ag. plant inspection station at the Miami Air Cargo facility on Dec 16th. Today I received the empty box, sealed with US customs green tape and an interception notice. Royal Colors is not getting the proper permits. I contacted them to see if there is a chance that they would refund my money. What a shame that it has come to this.
Oh, boy….no good! My tracking status is still shown as “In transit” but considering it was mailed around the same date as yours, I am not counting on it arriving. I actually wanted to place a second smaller order a few weeks back, and that’s when they stated that they are no longer going to sell outside of Europe. They cite the cost of phytosanitary certificates as the main issue. You are so right…what a shame. I hope you and others get refunds if they did not succesfully get the bulbs to customers.
Considering that Sonatini dissappeared this year, and now Royal Colors, the amaryllis world just got a bit smaller.
I’ll post back here when and if I get a package…empty or otherwise.
Not even a “no” on a request for refund? Not the best business practice. I too received an empty (and very beat up) box about about a week ago. My box was intercepted at JFK for no phytosanitary certificate. Contents destroyed. The box was marked as though it was a “gift” and merely stated “garden products” as the contents. I might try asking for a refund for the bulbs themselves (and not the shipping) to see if that gets a response. A sad and frustrating situation.
Did you receive an order from Royal Colors last month? Mine was supposedly shipped Dec 6th but has never arrived here in Florida The RC website now states that they are not shipping out of Europe after Oct 2020. I suspect that it got turned away again from US customs. Unfortunately they don’t take responsibility if something happens with shipping. Reminds me of two years ago. Any idea what’s going on?
Hi There,
Is there any way you could post a picture and description of which crosses are involved in ‘Devil Smile’? It’s a Komoriya hybrid and there’s very little information of it on the internet.
Thank You
Hello Jose. I haven’t grown any of the Komoriya hybrids, but they certainly are striking. Looking at some photos of ‘Devil’s Smile’ online I can only make a semi-educated guess. It looks like two flowers per scape, so likely a primary cross (two species involved) or perhaps a more complex hybrid back-crossed to a species or primary hybrid. Because they sell both Hippeastrum papilio and H. corriense, it could be a simple cross of those two, but when I see the flower it really suggests that H. psittacinum might be involved. That’s about as close as I can get based on (as you say) little online about this hybrid. Thanks for writing in and Happy New Year!
Agne,
It is impossible to come up with a Top10, as it would vary from day to day! I think one could build a nice starter collection of colors and forms with the following: Exotic Star, Chico, Magnum, Naranja, Neon, Glee, Rapido, Doublet, Temptation, and Spartacus. By tomorrow I would probably have a completely new list…but with Exotic Star and Chico still on it…the species charm of those is hard to beat!
Hi, Alex. Thanks for using the site. This season we will hope to profile ‘Scarlette Belle’. The others were scarcely available in the USA. The one copy of ‘Amazing Belle’ that we obtained did not bloom true, which was disappointing. I hope we can have all three of your requests fulfilled next season!
Question, a bit off-topic, but I really need to know. I see in the photo of the cleaned up bulb that a basal plate of about half an inch thickness (? or maybe 3/8″?) has grown. It looks a little thick, proportionately.
I’ve been told that thick basal plates can stunt hips’ growth; that it blocks their uptake of nutrients. Is that indeed the case? I am in the process of repotting my collection now. Ran into one bulb – smaller than it should be – with at least 3/4″ basal plate. I trimmed that plate and dusted with cinnamon, and am letting it cure for a few days. I know the bulb will put out new roots eventually, and bloom again too; but at the same time I worry about the loss of living roots, even though I have received bulb shipments that have no living roots, and the bulbs have been solid.
This trimming is what I’ve been told is a good idea. Do you agree? What is the function of that plate, and is its becoming thick really an issue?
By way of contrast, I’ll just note that the thicker plates seem to occur, in my limited observation, on bulbs that aren’t making offsets. I haven’t seen them on those which seem to naturally want to produce offspring.
Or… is it something in cultural practices that pushes any bulb one way or the other?
I really want to understand this. Hope you can help me.
There probably hasn’t been specific study on the physiology of this in Hippeastrum, but I’ll take a stab at it. Horticulturally, it has been demonstrated that trimming down an old, large basal plate can create much better root production, and improved plant vigor as a result. I do this regularly when repotting just as in the case you mention. It feels like you will be setting the plant back, but as you say, they are quite capable of recovery and regrowth.
The basal plate is the compressed stem of the plant. As the bulb grows, leaf bases (leaf scales or cataphylls) are left behind and slough off after serving as a tunic and the stem becomes longer, tougher and nearly woody. Root formation is likely encouraged by hormone production (auxins) from the active growing point. As the bottommost part of the basal plate becomes farther from the growing point and less conductive, it stops receiving these hormones and stops initiating new roots, and old ones die off. At this point, new roots are only able to sprout from the uppermost part near the bulb itself, and only from the outer edges. Removing the tough, older basal plate exposes tender, conductive tissue under the entire surface of the bulb, which can now root from any part of that surface in addition to the outer edges.
I don’t know how this works out for Hippeastrum in nature, but perhaps constant production of offsets means that the older mother bulbs simply get squeezed out in many cases. The complex amaryllis hybrids certainly grow more quickly and therefore this intervention is more likely to be needed for them to remain vigorous in cultivation. Genetic variation means that some hybrids seem to rarely require this intervention, where others do.
I hope this helps. Thanks for checking out Emaryllis.com!
Yay! Welcome back Emaryllis – I’ve missed your posts over the summer! Can we look forward to some more bulb/box kit reviews this season?
I’m having to forego the box kits this year as I can’t go out to the shops, but I’ve just ordered ‘Mont Blanc’ and ‘Orange Souvereign’ as loose bulbs from a mail order site. Be interesting to see if they end up flowering true to label, as the box kits hardly ever do.
Welcome back to you as well! I’m sorry you are being limited by the current situation. Mail order is a great way to get bulbs, and even box kits. I haven’t been overly adventourous either, but have tried to get as much as possible in far fewer trips than usual. Box Kits are definitely coming along, hopefully initial posts to go up next week. A few cutflower varieties will be added to broaden the site a bit more also. Thanks for following the site 🙂
I would just like to find out whether you can help me, if I would want to register a new Amaryllis hybrid, how does one go to work? I am from South Africa and I don’t know who to contact regarding this. Can you please advise?
The international registrar for Hippeastrum (and many other bulbous plants) is KAVB in the Netherlands. They used to want some bulbs to grow on as part of the process, but I think that requirement may no longer be in force. Here is a page from their site with a link within to the registration form:
I have never bred anything that I felt was good enough for registration, so I am excited for you! Please keep us posted on your progress, I hope that your hybrid(s) can be featured here on Emaryllis.com some day!
After my amaryllis bloomed three gorgeous flowers, I trimmed the spent blossoms, and let the green leaves continue to grow in bright light. They really must of liked the location, temperature, and watering because the leaves grew so tall I had to prop them up with a plant spike and gardener’s velcro, otherwise the leaves would just fall over. It just got so out of hand.I started by cutting the leaves that would fall over the easiest- they were on the outside anyway. That only helped for a little bit before all the leaves were just falling to the ground. I got annoyed and I snipped all the leaves off. I know that this was the wrong decision to make… i should have just propped up the leaves with a stick.
I can’t believe I did that. . I know cutting off the green stops the bulb from getting all it’s energy, so does this mean the bulb will die? Or did I just force it in to dormancy?
Thank you!
Skyler, I hope everything turned out well. Normally they will just keep growing as long as daylight hours and temperatures are to their liking. Growing them in brighter light should help keep the leaves from being as long and floppy. Trimming back their length would be a better option than removing them entirely.
General comment- an overnight soak in warm water increases root growth amazingly well. This was a tip from John Vandenberg years ago when I was a commercial grower
I picked up a boxed kit at Lidl yesterday for £2.79 – no labelled varieties but they come in a choice of pink, red or white. My white one proved to be a 27cm circumference bulb with no sign of disease or sprouting and some fat, healthy roots. It came with a sturdy grey plastic pot (with great drainage holes) and matching saucer and LOADS of coir. Obviously don’t know how it will flower yet, but compared to the £9.99 ‘de luxe’ boxed kits I’d seen earlier in the day at the local garden centre (small, shrivelled bulbs, suffering badly from scorch, with no roots and hardly any growing media), this is already looking like great value. And bearing in mind 50% of my garden centre named varieties didn’t flower true anyway last year, I think I’m sticking with Lidl’s unnamed bulbs this year!
Sounds like you picked up some nice bargains, Phil! It is very true that spending more on a bulb kit does not necessarily mean a better bulbs waits inside. Let us know how they turn out!
The ‘white’ amaryllis turned out red & white, which you have kindly identified as ‘Ambiance’. I guess Lidl were half right! Still a pretty flower though. And a good strong plant. If I can keep it free from scorch, I’ll rebloom it next year.
My ‘Half & Half’ from last year (which was supposed to be Christmas Star!) is flowering again and looking beautiful. I picked another ‘Christmas Star’ out of the garden centre’s bargain bin in January – be interesting to see what this one flowers as, but at £0.99, I’m not too bothered if it’s wrong!
Hello. We’ve recently had an interesting hybrid trumpet bloom (H. Aulicum cross) and wanted to send you pictures to see if it would be of any interest to anyone. It seems to be evergreen, only has 2 blooms per stem but has a lovely clean up facing trumpet with nice color. It’s also producing nice offsets. I was shocked that the cross took and truly expected it to be one or the other parent plants but it’s obviously a hybrid. Thanks so much!
Ooo, I’ve never seen Jewel before. I like it. It has understated elegance. And it is kind of like a daffodil with the center clump of petals. If I see one for sale, I think I’ll have to buy one, even though I’ve already narrowed down the purchase I plan to make for next year (leaning strongly towards Benfica because I want a dark red amaryllis with blossoms the size of my face this time around).
On April 27 & 28 at Apopka Art & Foliage Festival in Apopka, FL You can find information on planting & growing large flower hippeastrum bulbs in limb forks of large old Live Oak trees in both South & North FL. Ask Bill or June at the Amaryllis Spectacularis booth(15th year). You can use your own bulbs.
Amaryllis Study Group
Agreed! I think ‘Mambo’ (the most common sub the past several years) just dind’t perform as well under the same circumstances and I was happy to see it offered this season as a large sized bulb in the dry bulb trade, that way it can shine in its own right.
I’m impressed you got the variety that the box promised. So far, my box kit results this season have been one blooming true to what it claimed on the box, one blooming with a totally different variety and one not blooming at all…and my Queen of the Night which didn’t bloom last year has finally flowered…and is very definitely NOT the Queen!
Unfortunately, your experience is all too common. I hope that every once in a while it is a pleasant surprise that you find! Do you know what your NOT Queen of the Night has turned out to be?
Thanks, Emaryllis, for your wonderful site in general and espacially for this post on a very sad aspect of “cultivating” Hipeastrum.
It’s a nuisance, to say the least, and I wonder how anyone can take pleasure in watching a flower killing itself by blooming to death – but this “trend” is obviously unstoppable. In fact, here in Germany, those waxed bulbs have seemed to gain popularity during the last three years or so.
A lot of people, however, toss their bulbs anyway, once they have finished blooming, and that is equally sad.
I have rescued a lot of these bulbs, which are usually given to me when the flowering season finishes. Now I happen to have lots of space, but even I can’t keep all these “Minervas”, “Red Lions” or “Christmas Gifts”. So I try to grow them healthily and then give them away at the start of the new season, hoping for the best. Maybe you’ll find someone you can give your Olaf to, and hopefully it will be someone who will take good care of it. It is very predictable, though, that it will take the plant two or even three seasons to recover completely – I’ve seen it happen!
Best wishes and happy growing!
Thanks for writing in from Germany, Tom. The trend seems to be gaining here as well. The ‘Olaf’ seen here is currently rooting into a new pot, and seems pretty healthy, so it will be grown on. I have very limited space, so must make decisions each season on what I can keep. First, I eliminate most of those with virus infection, then more common ones that I have several bulbs of. Some get donated to local gardens, as most of my friends would rather give me their amaryllis plants than receive any more from me! Happy growing to you as well Tom!
Good to hear these news, Emaryllis! Love from Germany to you and to everybody who is visiting your beautiful site (which enabled me to identify one of my amazing dark Hippeastrum as “Queen Of The Night” – thanks to your Gallery! Happy growing!
Tom
Hello , I am wondering if your H Machupijchiense is correctly named , in the http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com you can see the stamens are red , this isn’t the case on your picture (I have the same flower than you , still seaching for it’s ID , finaly might be an hybrid)
Agapanthe, To be honest I am not 100% sure that the species is correct. I have thought it might be H. miniatum, variegatum, fuscum and others in its related Peruvian group. It is what is sold in the U.S. as H. machupijchense, and that is what I am standing by for now. Thanks for your comment!
I was foiled again. I had the opportunity to purchase that same Jewel kit so I did. I even grabbed one already blooming, but I was in Such a rush that I failed to make sure it was ‘Jewel’! *facepalm*
‘White Nymph’ found her way to me after last year’s ‘Popov’ substitution. I am both irked and yet pleased with it. Can’t say she isn’t beautiful!
I recall it being the substitute for ‘Carnival’ a couple of years ago. Odd that it seems to be in such high production now, probably because any trademarks have expired.
Perhaps, or pink and striped is really popular now.
They really do out there substitutions. A pink and white instead of a red and white? I can’t even…do they purposely Tell their Packers ‘put whatever as long as the orders get on the truck!’?
I don’t know the source of these not Bogotas, but I keep wondering if it’s a Maguire bred. The Maguire farm closed and sold off its stock. Would it be far fetched to think commercial growers nabbed some?
I doubt they would have made their way from Australia to the Netherlands. These bulbs are surely from a Dutch breeder. It’s possible that it will be officially released with a name next season since it has made it to early stages of production. Then again, its tendency to sometimes make only 3 flowers per scape, and the rather dull coloration could mean that its use as a substitute were just a a way to rid a grower of a crop that they knew would not sell on its own merits. Time will tell!
I’m leaning more to the idea of a “pre-release” than the latter.
I think three buds are lovely, it’s balanced and each flower has the chance to glow without being crowded by its sibs.
I disagree that it wouldn’t do well on its own. We each all have our own preferences. Not every person loves Bold-in-your-eye coloring. I certainly do, but quieter coloring are appealing to others.
It’s definitely true that there are no ugly amaryllises! In commercial trade though, there are standards. I think this one makes a beautiful cut flower because its delicate coloration means it blends with others well. That said, whenever cut flowers are sold, or bulbs are touted for their floriferousness, scape numbers and bud counts do matter. Only a few really special cultivars (like ‘Exotic Star’) will appeal without four or more flowers per scape. Hadeco’s site demonstrates this concept really well. Let’s see what the next season brings!
You are more right than you know. I went poking through your reference sites and park amaryllis has a new release that looks very much like this one.
I do find commercial standards for bulbs rather harsh. I mean for most Consumers those standards are ideal. Hardy, easy, grow to certain sizes and more buds the better.
I feel that there’s a market being ignored. Many people enjoy a challenge. Bragging rights for getting something difficult to thrive. There are lots of successful finicky plants in house and out with dedicated followings.
Personally, I’d rather have three great flowers per stem than 5+ mediocre flowers. I turn my pots not just to keep the stems straight but to enjoy each blossom.
These kind of substitutes are kind of sad. This kind of marketing is misrepresentation of the merchandise. I don’t get how it is allowed?
I mean when I order plants from a place and they can’t fill what I wanted, I have the option of accepting a substitute instead, or waiting on backorder. At least I know what I’m getting when I get it and don’t have to wait 6-8 weeks to find out.
I really think that these bulb suppliers and companies should be more professional. The constant deceit is really offputting.
The prepotted bulbs I’ve seen this year all seem unhealthy. Granted, my purchases were bottom of the market at $5 each so I probably couldn’t expect much better. Scorch and thrips were my adversaries this season. I’ve treated my bulbs and so far no more issues.
Hippeastrum mosaic virus is my first concern since there are some off-color streaks on the scapes. We’ll see what happens when the leaves grow out. This looks like it might need to be coddled more than most, but at least the color and dwarf nature of it are unique-so far!
Opal Star is a hidden gem in the outdoor landscape. I have several and they have naturalized into large clumps that produce lots of flowers. Blooms without fuzz or bother, getting only rain and a rare topdressing of fertilizers.
That’s the kind of plant I love to have in my outdoor garden. No fuss type that thrives with little aytention. I’m too far north to plant hippys year round, but I did put mine out for the summer last year. They did good and are blooming for me inside. 🙂
The only reason the third dry bulb was the correct Apple was because the poor thing was blooming. A very sad, but fragrant performance. I wonder if the bulb will even recover.
I did purchase two kits, about 8 weeks apart, both were labeled Stargazer. The first one has bloomed…a very small solid red with a slight nod to the flower. I was very disappointed at first, but it’s a new variety to my collection. I think it’s Firecracker and it’s second scape is opening. The second kit is without a scape even nosing up yet, just a few leaves.
I have several more unknowns I’m waiting on, but all in all I can only count on being surprised.
Keep us up on the progress Rosie! ‘Firecracker’ would be an unlikely find as it has been out of production for a while as far as I know. Feel free to send a photo for ID to info(at)emaryllis.com
This exact same kit was available at my local nursery too. Alfresco and Dancing Queen were the other offerings next to Jewel. I’m wishing I could of gotten Jewel as I find her appealing and I’m all for the fragranced varieties.
Yes, those were the three offerings that I saw as well. There are so many nice double white amaryllis (‘Alfresco’ being one of them) that ‘Jewel’ may not be around much longer. I would snap one up next season if they are offered. There may be just enough of us to keep at least one grower producing her! Thanks for dropping by, and Happy New Year.
Happy New Year to you too. I’m so happy to see a new blog entry! This season has been wacky for me. I’m still batting 4/5 mislabeled bulbs! You’ll never guess what beauty I got while trying to acquire Apple Blossom though!
Happy New Year and thanks, Rosie! Yes, this looks like a normal season with lots of mislabels. What did you get in place of Apple Blossom? Was it a box kit or dry bulb you bought?
A dry bulb. Well, the first one I got came up a Telstar. Not even close right? But the next attempt is even more out there. I knew something was funny with its extremely vivid scapes and narrow folded leaves. Badum I got an Opal Star! I never thought I would get a variety like that here.
Very popular “not Bogota” this season, but it’s not looks like Princesse Claire
Katerina,
Thanks for your good eye! I agree. After the second “not Bogota” bloomed it seems clear that this substitute has fewer flowers, less rounded form, and less red coloration. I have changed my front page post to reflect this, and will make a blog post about it in the near future. If you think you know what cultivar this is, please let us know!
Why, for several months, there are no photos of Hippeastrum species on your site. I am a fan of your side for a long time,
which largely helps me to identify varieties, and I have 65 species of Hippeastrum hybrids + 4 botanicals in the Vitatum type
and every indication of the origin of the variety is valuable to me.
I praise you on Polish forums, and here is a ‘zonk’, please explain
this situation and if in the future you can count on the return of a photo .. Andi
Thanks, Andi for the praise in any forum in Poland! I hope you are happy with the fixes to the site and its improved functions. I hope we never face an issue with the galleries in the future, and thank you for voicing your concerns.
Hi Tony,
My apologies for the current situation. A solution is around the corner. Thank you for using the site, and I promise it will be up and running normally asap!
What has happened to the Photo Library?? It has been COMPLETELY BLANK for weeks! I referred friends to view what I had given them as bulbs and nothing! Will this be fixed?? When? It’s a useful resource
Charlene, Thanks for using the website, and my apologies for the gallery pages being down. At first the titles and descriptions went missing, and soon after the galleries became invisible. The Emaryllis website tech guru knows what the problem is, and will address it soon. These are the vagaries of an open source platform!
Any idea about what’s going on with Royal Colors?. They aren’t currently shipping to the USA. Claim a customs’ issue. They had that problem several years ago. I ordered back in June, was told my order shipped Oct 30th. Still haven’t gotten it. Were you able to get your RC order yet?
Hi Barbara,
Unfortunately I have had two orders refunded by Royal Colors this year. I’m not sure that any regulation has changed since other companies that import into North America haven’t been hindered this year. Most bulbs are sent to a company that imports (and has import permits), then distributes from within the U.S. Since RC ships into countries directly, the problem may be that they are circumventing the needed import permits to receive the bulbs from a foreign country. This is just a guess, but I hope the issue can be resolved as Royal Colors has been a great source for a unique variety of amaryllis cultivars.
My Royal Colors order arrived today, It had been shipped Oct 30th, returned and reshipped on Nov 22nd via another courier. The bulbs are surprisingly healthy, given the fact that they have been in transit for over 2 1/2 months. I hope that RC can straighten out their USA customs issues, since I will sure miss them as a supplier in the future.
That’s great, Barbara! Had you already been refunded? If so, I wonder if there are some stray boxes that may yet be delivered to those of us who had placed orders as well. Thanks for letting us know!
I was never offered a refund. I didn’t heard anything until I contacted them at the end of Nov. So my order may have been an early one that got into the mail, before they cut off shipments to the USA. And it still got returned to them once. I doubt if anyone else will get bulbs. Go to the RC website, inventory is very high for being the end of the year. RC has gotten stuck with bulbs that should have gone to the USA. No matter how you look at it, this is a real shame.
Oh, that is interesting. My orders (placed in May and September) were both refunded, so I hope the bulbs made it back home for someone else to grow. I imagine the U.S. is a significant market for RC, so they will undoubtedly make every effort to iron out any regulatory issues. Let us know how your bulbs prosper, and thanks for the update for all readers here in th USA.
Barbara, I just got one RC box today, also shipped Oct. 30. Mostly things are OK, but some had sprouted out and there were damages. The box looks like it was kicked around a lot during its journey!
I noticed, today, that RC has removed the notation on their FAQ section that they are temporarily not shipping to the USA. In the absence of that “disclaimer” I have to believe that are now shipping to the USA. Since the bulbs come into NYC, and with the severe cold in the North, I would be hesitant to order bulbs this late. But it does sound like progress has been made with their shipping issues. I also saw that you are getting bulbs directly from Hadeco. I will definitely try that bulb source this year.
Barbara, Royal Colors now has the U.S. listed in both their FAQ and in their dropdown menu in the shipping section of the order form. Good news, if late in the current season. Let’s hope for trouble free shipping next season! Ordering from Hadeco was a smooth process in my case; most of the bulbs were correctly labeled and it is the only way to get some of their newest creations.
I experienced the same. I placed an order and had priblem with custom so I canceled delivery. They said the bulbs were delivered but never receive the bulb. I was offered credit. Checked from them the code to use credit on my order and no response at all. I plan to check pay pal ir my visa regarding this when I arrive in US as I am still out of the country.
Cheryl, It looks like they have not been shipped to the U.S. this season, but should be available next season. Check the Hadeco My Amaryllis website next summer to see if that cultivar is available by direct order.
Is it common for a box kit amaryllis not to flower in the first year? I bought Queen of the Night (according to the label) at the beginning of December and it has produced loads of healthy leaves, but no sign of flowers. It has had the same treatment as my two amaryllis from last year which I started back into growth about the same time – one of those is flowering and the other has two well-developed scapes, but just leaves on my new one!
Phil, typically these bloom quite well, if not true to name. If the bulb is making only leaves, it was either “blind” beacause the flower initials aborted (this can be caused in many ways) or it was not cool conditioned. In the latter case, it may yet bloom, as spring is the normal flowering period for Hippeastrum. Don’t give up!
Thanks! If the flower initials aborted, does that mean it will never flower? Or is it worth keeping it till next year if it doesn’t flower in the spring?
They will bloom in the future. Most Hippeastrum hybrids make one bloom scape per three leaves. That is why I always look at the number of fleshy leaf bases on the top of a dormant bulb at purchase…more leaves = more flowers!
‘Orange Sovereign’ is only used as a marketing name these days, the original cultivar was close to scarlet in color, and huge! You probably are looking at two bulbs of ‘Naranja’ which is one of the best orange flowered amaryllises in the trade today, along with its sibling ‘Tineke Verburg’. I am hoping that the ‘Orange Sovereign’ name will be used to market ‘Souvenir’ in the future, as it is also stupendous!
Ah, well that makes sense now – thank you! Some of these Amaryllis flowers look so similar that I sometimes wonder why they bothered to give them different names. But I guess it is important when breeding for certain traits.
Come on what else have you got in bloom? I miss your blog posts.
I have a rather interesting mixup this season through a local greenhouse. They got in a small, but lovely selection of very large quality bulbs. I’ve bought two, labeled Rilona and White Nymph. Neither are right. Lol the “white nymph” I knew wasn’t white from all the color on the scape, but I thought perhaps it would be a red or pink of that family.
Yikes, Rosie! So many mislabeled bulbs have been reported this year, its disheartening. Older named varieties are so often substituted with robust growing newer types, and ‘Popov’ is a very strong grower.
Thanks for missing the blog posts, it has been a very busy year for the author, but I do apologize.
Thanks for the kind words Rosie! You may have an example of ‘Naranja’ for ‘Rilona’, or perhaps the smaller but very regular ‘Desire’. Both are excellent growers in high supply these days. I’m glad you like ‘Popov’, it is an excellent selection, and the scent is subtle but permeating.
I was also foiled at getting Sofia from Royal Colors. Last year I was contacted ahead of time, and offered a substitution for Sofia. This year, as happened to you, Picasso was sent, labeled as Sofia. I don’t expect this kind of dishonesty from Royal Colors. Shame on them. In regards to a previous email, the Hadeco Cayenne from Amaryllis Bulb Company was Cayenne.
Very few, Rob. I keep a few for breeding stock and some of the varieties that I favor and are no longer sold. I have very limited space, so when a lot of new amaryllis varieties get released, I part with some of the others.
Perhaps you need to develop a network of Amaryllis foster homes to grow and reintroduce those varieties that are no longer in circulation.
Ahhh, if only Emaryllis didn’t have a very busy day job! It would be nice to develop an ark of sorts for the cultivars that often disappear just as they are introduced.
Hi! I’m a very great fan of this website and love them! greatful! Congratulations!
I love Amaryllis and have many of it!
Do you know where I can buy Hadeco Amaryllis bulbs in Europe? I wish to had a bulb of hadeco’s ‘Honeymoon’
As I was a child, there was hadeco bulbs in trade here. And I have had a ‘honeymoon’ since a long time in bloom in my children room.
I’m very affraid that my english isn’t so good. Please excuse me for that.
Michael,
Your English is very good! Hadeco bulbs are becoming scarce here in the USA too, as one of the nurseries that carried many of their varieties stopped selling this year. Since Fluwel and Royal Colors also don’t sell Hadeco amaryllis, you are left with Amazon.com searches and more general holiday gift catalogs. Often Hadeco bulbs are sold for sale as potted, forced plants here, maybe in Europe too. Maybe someone from Hadeco will read this and offer advice! It looks like they are mainly selling ‘Miracle’ this year, but ‘Honeymoon’ is noted as a 2018 available variety. Good luck and thanks for using Emaryllis 🙂
Hello Michael!
Hadeco here… thank you for your interest in our bulbs.
Many retailers in Europe do sell Hadeco amaryllis but mainly this is during November and December.
You can order for your home or as a gift for others. Choose from the complete range of Hadeco amaryllis directly from the farm! Please visit http://www.myamaryllis.com
We combine shipments into sea freight containers from South Africa and then post them from Holland to you.
Last winter, there was a issue with ABC’s Ruby Gem, which turned out to be Gold Metal. ABC just contacted me and offered a “free” bulb this season to make up for last season’s mixup. They are carrying Hadeco’s Cayenne, which I ordered.
It was very good of Amaryllis Bulb Company to offer the correct variety the following season. Let us know if this one blooms true to type! Thanks for letting others know about last season’s issue as well.
Dear friend,
Nice to meet you.
We are a bulb importer from Hong Kong. We have import permit. Hong Kong is a small place, So we can’t make large order as other Import over 2000 bulbs per year with different types/species.
Now, we are preparing the autumn/winter sales.
Would you mind send your quotation of minimum order and price?
I hope we will have a good cooperation.
Best Regards,
Calvin
Thanks for all the good info. I am an amarylis enthusiast. I was plaged by a red fungus that wiped out my entire collection. I tried everything. Any advice.
IF
Patricia, First re-examine your cultural conditions, wet and cool are favorable to red blotch (Peyronellaea curtisii) and not amaryllises. Many physical injuries cause a reaction that turns leaves red, but if you are sure you have this fungus try spraying with a fungicide containing thiophanate-methyl as active ingredient. You may need several applications during the growing season. Repot in fresh media and remove the outermost dry bulb tunic to prevent re-infection from spores on those surfaces. Warmth, excellent air exchange and air circulation help prevent this difficult fungal pathogen from returning.
I was given three bulbs last summer, two from my great Gram-in-law after she passed and one from my sister. I have no real idea what cultivars they are, since I did not see them in bloom. I kept them in my southern facing picture window all this time. They went dormant during the fall and winter months. In January they came out of dormancy (or so I thought). Leaves began growing so I began watering them again. One bulb continued to grow, put up a scape, and bloomed beautifully. The other two seems to have stalled, one has a leaf tip about 2 inches tall and the other has 6 12in long leaves. They have not showed any more growth for about a month. Both bulbs are round, fat and green, and have grown some roots. Have you ever had a bulb start growing and then just stop? They seem so healthy I am confounded.
Rosie, I have seen amaryllis stall for no apparent reason fairly often. Once the daylight hours exceed 12 hours a day, they should all come into growth. Just remember that the stalled bulbs need minimal watering, and no fertilizer until actively growing. It’s so nice to hear that you are taking care of these “passalong” amaryllis bulbs 🙂
That is good to know that once the long summer days come they will get going. I have been reading your site since I got them and did searches to learn how to care for them. This is definitely one of the most fun and informative sites for Amaryllis/Hippeastrum. 🙂 I’ve spent hours looking through the blog posts and photo library! After my first blossomed I tried to identify it, but being one of the solid Reds makes it kind of impossible to my inexperienced eyes. It did have a fragrance though! I am being very careful with the watering. I have to be because the tiny one (is lucky to be alive) is in a small square glass vase with coconut coir. I have no idea who would of sold/gift it to my sister like that. I don’t have any other pots to put it in yet, but I will. I would be surprised to see it bloom, its smaller(17.5cm) and was in poor light quite a long time before I got it. Oh, I am well and truely hook line and sinker for them now. I’ve adopted two box kits from a local store over two weeks ago. Both have roots and one appears to have two scapes peeking. 😀 And I want even more.
Well, I found out what was wrong with them today. I got a clay pot with drainage for the small one and new soil for them both. When I took it out the littlest one’s basal plate was rotting out all around the middle. There were even fungal spores! 🙁 I pulled and scraped out all the spongy material I could, removed bad roots, and used a child’s toothbrush to clean the whole bottom really good. I let it dry in a window for a while. I dusted the bottom with cinnamon before potting it. I did Not water it as the soil was slightly moist already. It does still have several live roots.
The bigger one wasn’t as badly rotted, but it was starting to. There was a wad of rotten material in the bottom of the pot and I guess as soon as the roots tried growing through it, they started dying and stopped growing. Same deal, I cleaned it as best I could, let it dry, and dusted with cinnamon before potting it up with new soil. I hope and pray they will be all right.
It sounds like you have done the right things, and they should grow much better in new soil. They are pretty tough!
Have you ever known an amaryllis to go dormant for 18 months? I bought a bulb that shipped to the states from Iran. It leafed out but did not bloom. Then it went dormant for a good 18 months. Now it has finally decided to leaf out again. The bulb is good and solid, the leaves look great. I just wonder why it went dormant for so long.
One year yes, but never 18 months! With a huge change in environments and bare-rooting we now know that they can wait that long. Thanks for sharing your information with the Emaryllis world 🙂
Thanks for the reply – I hope my bulb likes its new country. It is supposed to be Royal Velvet, so now I just need to wait, who knows how long, until it blooms and I can find out.
Christie, please share your results when it blooms!
Ahh, sorry Adelaida, Emaryllis is just here for informational purposes. Some of the varieties I have photographed over the years are commercially extinct. A few cultivars are only available for 1-2 seasons, while others like ‘Apple Blossom’ have been easy to purchase for many decades. The best selection is by way of mail order companies…which ones depends on where you live. Thanks for your interest!
I love the photo of the H. Thai Thai blooms that you got! Thanks for posting it in your gallery!! While it looks like just a few of these bulbs were in the mix, it definitely is just as promised.
Emaryllis, this is such a wonderful website. Fun & informative for those wanting information on specific cultivars. It’s helping me chart the waters. Good work amd well done!
Thanks for enjoying this so much that you want to purchase. Emaryllis.com is here for information purposes only, sorry that none of our amaryllis varieties are for sale. Probably Royal Colors in the Netherlands is your best bet, as they ship internationally.
emaryllis – can you provide a timeline of when do you start withholding water and begin the programming process?
Also, if one lives in an apartment and has limited ability to provide the cool temperatures, is it better to withhold water later – in September perhaps or even later? Do you have any suggestions for the apartment dweller to find a cool spot?
I have begun withholding water now — mid August – and may have to just leave the pots on my windowsill as I can’t think of another place that might be cooler. But I am worried that I started too early.
Hmmmm Derya, it sounds like you have issues common to many an indoor gardener. I would continue to grow your amaryllis for at least another few weeks. August drying down is aimed at those looking for December blooms, a steep challenge in your case. Let the bulb keep gathering energy for now. In late September or early October try to force a dormancy by drying down. Dwindling daylight hours might already be slowing the plant to a crawl anyway. I take it you have no balcony to let it experience seasonal cooling. A windowsill may be the coolest area in your case, but the floor of a closet on an outside wall can do the trick. There may be a utility (furnace) room that vents outdoors and experiences something close to outdoor temperatures…in this case leave in that spot until freezing weather bears down.
In my climate, freezing conditions often hold off until late October or early November, so I can get at least a few weeks of the cool period accomplished under a covered porch. No matter what, amaryllis will likely still bloom next spring if they have made at least 4 leaves over the past summer; missing out on the cool programming just means leaves may emerge and become long (maybe needing support) before a flower scape emerges.
Thanks for bringing your question to team Emaryllis 😉
Thanks, E! I think the best place will be the windowsill. But will keep watering and feeding for now and stop in early october. The light is already changing up here and I have noticed a slight yellow in some of the leaves (even before I eased up on watering). I always buy one or two new bulbs anyway just so I have some flowers around the holidays and in January.
The varieties above are grown as cut flowers by vanderEnde; for pots are the stems too long. As garden amaryllis is it OK in the 8 – 10 USA climate zone. Royal Colors presents ecspecially for pots.
Some of us love the cut flower varieties, even if they are tall! For most people, potted varieties that are compact do work better of course. Thanks for stopping by Emaryllis.com 🙂
I raised amaryllis bulbs indoors for the first time this year and chose H.’Terra Cotta Star’. They are indeed gorgeous but the stems are weak. I have two bulbs. In both cases once the inflorescence emerged fully the stems toppled over at the junction with the bulb. If the breeder is out out there, could you work on that for the future please?
Thank you.
(author of “Visions of Loveliness:great flower breeders of the past”)
Greetings Ms. Taylor. Yes, the fact that many of these are naturally tall sees them perfectly suited to the cut-flower market, but less so to the lower light of the average home interior. There are more compact varieties that bloom on shorter, sturdier scapes. Hadeco of South Africa in particular focus on this trait. Dutch hybrids such as ‘Mambo’ and ‘Floris Hekker’ were selected specifically for pot culture as well. The “cybister” hybrids, owing to the lightness of their blooms offer a way to have the elegance of great height with less likelihood of toppling. Thank you for your comment!
Great resource, thanks! I own up to being a hippeastrum obsessive – can’t throw one away! Got many babies, and seedlings for the frst time this year. Problem is I have a victorian terrace full of plants and struggle to porovide enough sunlight for my overwintering hippeastrum (they spend the summer in the greenhouse)so I’m investigating extra artificial lighting to keep the leaf growth healthy until I can put them outside in April/May. Any advice or suggestions of where to find out if anyone has experience to share? Thanks B
Hey Bernie, the least expensive option is outfitting 48″ wide storage shelving with 48″ fluorescent light fixtures. Cool white bulbs do fine by amaryllises, just keep them close to the foliage, and at least four bulbs under each shelf. There are many more expensive options, LED lights are still pretty expensive, and sodium/halide lamps are bright, but use a lot of energy.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’m experimenting with some LED bulbs (2x36w)on a timer that gives the bulbs a longer day after they have flowered until I can get them out in the greenhouse around April/May. The foliage was much healthier last winter so I’ll let you know if I get better flowering overall this year. So far I’ve had bulbs flowering from sep/oct which is great as the flowering season is lengthened and I’m getting one or two on the go most of the time over the last few months instead of getting so many at once that the impact is less and I run out of places to put them. The only downside is that my home office is now pink (LED blue and red light) in the early evening!
It sounds like you are doing great, and yes I do the same shuffling routine to try to get a succession of bloom under very limited space constraints! Let us know how you think the LED lights perform, I think there will be better versions with the ability to tune the light temperature so they don’t make your home look as though aliens have taken residence 😉
LOVE your website!!!! Thank you for providing us “Amaryllis Addicts” such extraordinary resources as well as the photo identification pages. I’m hooked:)
Hello! Please help me figure it out. There is an image of the Firecracker hippeastrum on your site. It is orange and has narrow petals. Produced by Hadeco. But on the originator’s website, under the name Firecracker, a completely different flower is presented! It’s red, it has a different flower shape, a different petal shape. There is confusion. A mistake has crept in somewhere. I really want to understand this issue. Thank you for the answer!
I thought a waxed amyryllis bulb would be perfect to give to a nursing home resident. It requires no care and needs only a small space and gives the person something to watch as it grows. Unfortunately, the 2 bulbs that I tried did not grow. All that I got was about two inches of growth. When I removed the wax and suspended the bulb in water they grew and flowered.
Loving all the updates this year, thank you for feeding my addiction! And thank you for the link to the US supplier with Thai Thai and Aurora, I ordered both. The Aurora just finished blooming, so sweet, but the Thai Thai all came up just leaves. The bulbs are super tiny, maybe they will bloom next year and show if they really are Thai Thai…
Thanks for your comments! A few of the several ‘Thai Thai’ I received did the same…all leaves. They all look true-to-type at least. A few also had Hippeastrum Mosaic Virus, so I have rogues those out. Good luck re-growing yours.
What is happening? I ordered 5 bulbs from 2 USA companies. After last season’s labelling fiasco, I am amazed that all 5 were correctly labelled.
Good for you! I definitely see more correct labels this year than some other years. Good thing, as the prices of some are staggering!
Wow! Had a busy few weeks and only just looked back to see what’s posted for the season. What a fantastic plethora of photos and variety’s. The most you’ve ever done in a season? Some stunning colours too. Your bargain bonanza has certainly got me looking and planning for my own bargain hunt! Thanks for all the amazing posts this season!
Thanks, Stella! Nice to have you back enjoying the flurry of content 🙂
That first Amaryllis ‘rescue’ is a beauty! I tend to have the opposite problem, where other varieties end up being Apple Blossom – must be nice to have Apple Blossom turning into other varieties instead. Looking forward to seeing what the others do. I am also addicted to ‘reduced’ plants of any kind, but I figure it’s a cheaper and healthier addiction than most.
It is very common to end up with one of the “big three” no matter what you buy, so it was quite strange to see ‘Opal Star’! The next to bloom should be open in a couple of days, so check back!
“Caught up in the end-of-season sales frenzy, kits were bought in the last day of 2023, and first two days of 2024. This is something E would never advise our audience to get caught up in”
You don’t have to – any time I see seriously reduced amaryllis bulbs, I’m guaranteed to get caught up in a sales frenzy, with or without advice!!!
It’s good to know Emaryllis is not alone!
At least it’s the right colour!
I’m still waiting for any flowers at all – and annoyingly, the bulbs I kept from last year are actually closer to flowering than the supposed ‘flowering in time for Christmas’ pair that I bought new this year – even though I wasn’t trying to get my old bulbs to flower early. Out of those, one has produced leaves and the other is just showing the tip of a scape!
Hmmmm, it sounds like we are having the opposite experience this season. I have only one of my “home grown” bulbs scaping…but then I only brought them in from outdoors a couple of weeks ago. We’ve had a slow and gentle autumn so far! I hope your collection picks up speed!
I’m not usually keen on doubles but this is a stunner! Congratulations on having two box kits that actually have the right bulbs in them – I’m doing well if I even get the right colour.
Whatever the reason for the increase in white, it’s really pretty! I just bought the one box kit this year – so far, it’s produced lots of leaves but no scape. I had a similar issue with one purchased last year from the same place, which never flowered – hoping that one will flower this year!
Very nice! I’m not a Minerva fan but would be very happy with that. And YAY! to the release of the first of your awaited 2023 box kit reviews.👏🙂
Where can I buy these
mbousliman@yahoo.com
I see them at all of the Big Box hardware stores!
Woohoo!!!! Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without a box kit post from Emaryllis. Looking forward to the first update.
Thanks, Phil! Two kits are budded up, so it won’t be long!
Hi Emaryllis, well it’s that time of year again for us Amaryllis addicts to start ordering for the new season. Think it’s come early this year. I’m wondering if you may have some suggestions of scented types to look out for please? “Aquaro” was so lovely, it would be nice to find some others. Looking forward to seeing what’s new on here as the season progresses. Hope it’s a good year. All the best, Stella
Oh, how I wish ‘Jewel’ were still in production. You can still find stalwart double ‘Blossom Peacock’ readily and recently introduced ‘Cape Horn’ has some fragrance along with trumpet type ‘Santiago’. Hybrids with some of the white flowered species should yield fragrant progeny, but these have yet to show up in commerce.
That’s great thanks. online companies put Amaryllis for sale so early, this year, many sold out super fast. Blink and were gone, especially new types. So your list, I will have to look out for next year. I did manage to get a Santiago, (most expensive Amaryllis I have ever bought!) 🙂 It’s now in bud and will see in a week if it was worth it. After getting Amaryllis 99% incorrect last year. So far this seasons buys, different supplier 100% correct, big surprise. 🙂 Marilyn has a very delicate daffodil scent. And also mystica and La Paz flowered so gave them Marilyns pollen, using the tips that you suggested. La Paz…nope. but mystica has 2 growing pods from cut stigma tips pollination, but viable seed will be another matter. I still have 2 Chinese mysteries with never a flower in 7 years. 1 shrunk to an acorn in size, sat for a year in a sunny window no shoot no root, so about to Chuck it, removed it from the pot, sealed in a zippy bag with damp vermiculite, sulphur powder and cinnamon and dumped it on a dark radiator in September. It got shockingly hot, highly humid and sure I’d killed it, few days later went to throw the bag away but it had a brand new inch long root and tiny shoot! It’s now potted up with 2 leaves 5 inches long, is too big for its plastic bottle greenhouse, is back on its windowsill and sulking. I’m at a loss🤷♀️
These things are supposed to need sunlight and air circulation, but this one defies the odds. Do you have any ideas? What can it be in the Amaryllis world? And how do I keep it alive and growing? If you have any suggestions Emaryllis, they would definitely be appreciated please…. Soo the addiction continues lol. Can’t wait to see what your box kits reveal! An interesting mix 🙂
I love your unnamed amaryllis. So beautiful.
I’m not remotely surprised by AppleBlossom standing in for a red and white striped one. I’ve had Apple Blossom in place of a supposed pure white and a red and white striped version so far this year – waiting to find out what my mystery ‘red’ bulb I found in a charity (thrift) shop in January this year will be – although it’s nearly opening and the bud is awfully pale to be hiding a dark red flower!
Yay! Bonanza of new pictures. 02 originals Nice! However this website is fatal! Lol. After the expensive mislabels, Just found some bargains, sold as pot luck … garden types £1 each, indoor £2.50 Couldn’t resist several of each. However I’ve promised to share some. But no doubt there will be more visits to the photo gallery yet. Sigh… I need more windows!
After several years of buying expensive named bulbs that ended up being nothing of the kind (usually just Appleblossom or Red Lion – and often, the Appleblossom stood in for a red variety and vice versa!) I now only buy the super cheap supermarket box kits. I still find the colours are wrong, but at least I don’t get so mad if I’ve only paid £3-£4 instead of £15!
This was my year for mislabeled bulbs, 3 out of 7. Interesting about the Opal Star substitutions. Both my Pinkolo bloomed as Opal Star. My Ice Pink bloomed as a beautiful but NOID double, I suspect that it is a Nymph of some kind. Pale coral background with dark raspberry trim and picotee edge. The seller couldn’t ID it but said that it came from Peru.
There seems to be consensus that mislabeling is as much a problems this season as ever. Sigh. Since you ordered an Israeli variety, they are usually substituted with others from the same supplier. As with my ‘Bagatelle’, check the Amaryllis IL Coming Up page…perhaps you got a pre-release ‘Replay’.
Found the photo of Replay. It could be a possible ID for my NOID. Easy to Grow Bulbs did list Replay this season. Lord knows what they were actually selling, since you say it is still in prerelease. Maybe Replay will be widely available next year, and I will see if the bloom matches the one that I already have. Hope always rules in the Amaryllis collectors world.
Love the new homegrown hybrids, especially the cybister. Commiserations on the yet more mislabels, though interesting. I was seriously thinking to call “the year of the amaryllis”… “Year of the Spamaryllis”! Cynical perhaps, but then tonight a new bud is showing a miraculous actual hint of possible peachy colour and I’m wondering could it really be the desirable “Desire” I actually bought after all? Please don’t let it be yet another “Serenity” thing. We live in hope and wait for the revealing. Patience!🙂
Wondering about your box kit update and thinking, bet one of those 2 turned out to be a “Serenity” thing.😏 Meantime love the new pictures.
Thanks! Just photographing another cybister type hybrid today and hope to post soon. The two box kits are photographed and just waiting for me to do a write-up. You should patent the term Spamaryllis (™) lol!
I might just do that! Lol. 9 out of 10 so far completely wrong, but today I celebrate that finally one has come out at least the right colour…orange! However it’s a bit pale so not sure if really is “Desire”. I’m now waiting on “Naughty girl” to open, but it’s starting to look like some naughty guy may have swapped her out too!
Looking forward to seeing those new cybister hybrid pics. My first year to set seed, so far looking good. The plants seem to choose if they want to grow the pods or not. A couple started to do so but then aborted the attempt n shut down the scape. They decided not enough roots perhaps? The ones growing pods are staying without leaves as yet. Perhaps plants have more intelligence than we know?
Good luck with your ‘Desire’ bulb! The most common reason that hybrids don’t take is a basic chromosome number incompatibility, but there are other factors. Short of embryo rescue and tissue culture techniques you can just accept it or try a few tricks of the trade. Try the reverse cross using the failed pod parent’s pollen on the other variety. Cutting the stigma off of the style, and using the sticky sap it exudes can work by removing the “lock and key” system of the stigma. Using a compatible pollen that is “killed” via microwaving, then mixing it with the desired pollen can also get around the style’s lock and key system. If you know the cross will fail, cutting the scape and placing it in water can prevent the bulb from controlling the shutting off of resources to the failing pod.
“Desire” did actually turn out to be “Desire”. “Naughty girl” was indeed switched. Really disappointed to find “Minerva” instead! That’s really interesting info. Heard years ago about cutting scapes to get seed production but didn’t say why, so thanks for explaining. So as my second “Opal star” is also now aborting half grown pods I have cut both scapes to see what happens. One looks too late but the other still has 2 ok pods out of 7 starts between them. As for those other things may experiment bit by bit. That’s all new to me. In fact thinking I’d need “The days of a tree” to learn everything to know. lol
Love the new hybrids – Congratulations!
My mystery ‘pink’ amaryllis whose first flower was white with a faint pink overlay is continuing to confuse – the second flower has opened white with a green centre (with a tiny pink dot at the base of each petal) and the tiniest possible amount of pink on the tips. and the third flower is all green & white. Definitely not the very strong pink colour shown on the box, but at least I only paid £4 for it! Can’t wait to see what the ‘solid red’ and ‘red and white striped’ varieties flower as!!!
Thanks, Phil! I’ve got a few more hybrids opening soon so stay tuned! Your pale mystery may be something unique, and you did get it at a bargain! Keep us abreast of the others.
Haha – red and white striped didn’t flower at all, solid red was Appleblossom and my second ‘red’ (someone else’s unwanted Christmas present) is now flowering pink…so of a grand total of 4 bulbs, none of them have flowered as they were supposed to!
Amazing 4/4 mislabels. Quite an indictment of the industry! Hopefully we can maintain at least a sense of humor about this situation, albeit with a note of frustration.
Commiserations on “table dance” Think it looks like a cat scratch accident in need of serious wound care! 😏 Hope you get the real McCoy next time. I’ve a new “Mont blanc” that I’m sure isn’t.4 Not huge flowers. Slightest daffodil fragrance at flower opening and aspirations to masquerading as a tulip. Flower stays very cupped until it withers. Have you any ideas what this confused creature might be? Not seen anything similar on your website.
Wow! American dream looks amazing! So glad I dropped by to see if there’s anything new. I’m adding that one to my list of must haves. 🙂 I’m not jealous of course… Not half 🙂 It looks perfect. More contrast than Daphne but so much cleaner than those random speckled inbetweeners. Wish it was available in Uk! What size are the flowers? Thanks for giving us amaryllis addicts another beautiful fix. 🙂
It looks like ‘American Dream’ and a spate of other van Geest hybrids are set for autumn 2023 delivery. This one is a “must have.” 🙂 These are not huge like ‘Daphne’ but still large at about 16-18cm. I imagine under ideal conditions they could be a bit larger.
That’s great to know. I also dream that one of my others not yet flowered might just be a mislabel of American dream. We live in hope! ☺️
Love the new pictures! Tantalising wondering just what they will turn out to be. 🙂 look forward to seeing the next update on those. Just wondering if anyone knows a reason why this happened to my bulb? Bought a new bulb that started to sprout leaves just before the buds. However the buds never grew above peeking out of the bulb and now shrivelling up. But the leaves have happily grown to about 20 inches. It’s a 30 cm bulb and 2 buds showed but not grown since October. The buds not gone bad just the energy is being pulled back out of it and aborting the flowering. Wondering if I did something wrong or a problem with the bulb itself? 🤷♀️
Also thanks to this website I’ve learned information about amaryllis I couldn’t find anywhere else on the web… for instance what to do when receiving a mail order bulb with maggots in! Amaryllis sure are like the lottery! This season has been mouldy bulbs, rotten bulbs plus maggots and so far totally wrong colours bar 1. A fabulous red pearl! But I can only do mail order so will keep coming back here when a surprise colour or a problem pops up. It’s a great resource.
Stella, I doubt you did anything to cause the scapes to shrivel. It is not that rare of an issue, and more likely is due to improper handling in the cooling period after harvest. Ethylene build-up in their storage container could “blind” the bulbs, killing the buds. There is also a chance that overdone heat treatment (aimed at killing bulb scale mites) could adversely affect the floral growths, but not the foliage. Hopefully you’ll be able to grow it on and se what it can do next season. Thanks for being an Emaryllis user and Good luck!
Thanks, that’s really interesting to know. Amazing what we get to know on this website! Not heard of that before but certainly makes sense. The leaves of this “ maybe Clown” do have amazing growth! 32 inches tall so far! ( in a sometimes sunny west window) Though not as tall as my 1st “not clown” Moon Scene, 39 inches:-) my third “Clown” attempt 2 weeks after delivery has turned out to be another Opal star….. Opal rocket?? 2 stems both grown to 2 foot tall in just over 2 weeks with 10 flowers! One slight caveat to that though being that the scapes popping out of the bulb in transit got damaged so couple flowers bit crumpled. Plus arriving with outer squishees needing cleaning up, fungal treatment and slimming down I’m wondering if it will self destruct? But that’s the fun of amaryllis 🙃
Hello. I love reading your blog. Last year (oh, this peaceful 2021 with its banal pandemic without explosions and drones) I bought bulbs numbered 08-005-1 and Lemon Cream in several stores. They do have some differences though. What I like about him is that he is a chameleon (maybe my dual nature sees kinship in him) And how do you like this variety? And was it bought already with the name or how else is it licensed?
Oh, Olesya if you are writing from Ukraine you have the compassion of all of us that condemns the brutal and cruel war being waged on your people. It is amazing and uplifting that you can find some moments of calm to appreciate the natural beauty of plants.
This new NL van Geest variety was apparently sold in Europe under its company accession number before the ‘Lemon Cream’ name was registered officially. They are the same variety…but as you say a variable one at that. The bulb I had bloom last summer even produced some flowers with extra petals, almost a double flower! It is still not sold commercially here in USA. I got mine from Vlad at Bulb in a Box.
Please stay safe and warm, and I hope the spirit of the holidays fills you with hope for brighter days. We stand with you.
Yes, I’m from Kyiv, we had two air alarms today, but our guys from the Air Defense Forces protect us!!! Thank you for your sympathy, we appreciate it all. Thanks for the answer, this variety is very interesting… Yes, thanks to Vlad I have very interesting varieties Thanks for your reply, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Let St. Nicholas or Santa Claus bring new varieties, and we will all read your review with pleasure
Hi loving the website and the Myriad pictures! Wondering if it’s possible you can identify a new Amaryllis I just got that just popped into flower today and looks to me a bit like Fledermaus. A big surprise as I ordered apricot parfait. This one is quite pretty but the flower much smaller than I would have expected for what I ordered and quite dark ruby in the centre. I would be happy to send a photograph of it.
Thanks kind regards
Yes, Stella, you can mail a photo or two to info at emaryllis.com
That’s great thanks. this crazy beauty is full of surprises. 4 flowers on first stem and now 6 new buds on a second! Also researching on your website is feeding my growing addiction!:-) it’s like picking a lottery ticket, get a winner by accident and totally hooked! 🙂
So will we be getting any of Emaryllis’ inimitable box kit reviews this season? I hope so – we need something to brighten a grim winter!
Only one box purchased so far…so I can at least promise that much!
Just now seeing this almost a year later! A friend loves to give me plants and plant-related items for Christmas and birthday. She orders on Amazon. A couple of years ago, I got an Apple Blossom amaryllis. It did not bloom until well after Christmas, but has been a reliable bloomer since. How do I stop people from giving me such things???
All gifts are nice, but those that require your care for months or years can become a burden of sorts. I try to convey the specificity of my interest in plants so that others don’t try to give me something I don’t really need or want. It doesn’t always work…and sometimes I just still have to say thank you, and be happy that they are trying to give me something from the heart! PS Ivan is still doing well at the BG! Your gift was much appreciated in that case!
As I see those photos above, these bulbs are in a very small pots. Hippeastrum needs lots of nutrient to grow and flowering. I always give enough big pot to let them grow, and my bulbs bring the best they can. I can’t enclose photos here, but I happily would show how my Hippeastrums look like. All leaves and flowers are perfect and big. I buy derectly from Netherlands, from a reliable company. They sell big bulbs, ship carefully and they have a best price! Lemon star 9,3 euros, Tierre 8,51, Grandise Fantasy 9,32 The bulb size around 30-32 cm or bigger!
I think you are looking at bulb kit photos…I try to grow them in exactly the same pots the list come with to show performance. Yes, Hippeastrum hybrids are heavy feeders, and bigger pots with very well-drained media are great! I grow in mid-size pots due to a lack of space, and putting them out in spring, when heavy rains might oversaturate the media leading to rot. You are lucky to be able to buy directly from NL van Geest, I wish we could buy direct here in the USA! Thanks for writing!
Hi, can I order from South Africa?
Janet,
Emaryllis is for information only, we don’t sell amaryllis bulbs. Lucky for you, Hadeco grows in S. Africa! Thanks for the inquiry!
I was just looking through some Amaryllis websites. Do you know if Royal Colors has gone out of business or have they just shutdown their website to the USA. I certainly wouldn’t buy from them given their past issues, but curious to see what they are selling this year. When I search for http://www.royalcolars.com, I keep getting a message that their site is being blocked by my servers since it is not considered secure, whatever that means.
Yes, sadly Royal Colors is gone. It became I Love Amaryllis (which still has a FaceBook page describing it as a travel company) for the European market, but alas even that company has now stopped selling amaryllis bulbs. It seems Royal Colors was skirting legal boundaries by shipping the way they did, but they are greatly missed by those of us who managed to get some unique offerings over the years.
Well that explains why I occasionally get advertising emails from “I Love Amaryllis”. I always felt that a financially sound company wouldn’t be dodging the proper inspection procedures. I imagine they were struggling to stay afloat for at least 2-3 years. Covid may have been the final nail in the coffin. That’s a shame that they went under, since ten years ago I considered them one of best Amaryllis dealers.
Agreed! They were great early on. I stay away from recommending specific vendors because not all sources operate within other country’s agricultural regulations. The buyer assumes the risk. Inspection by USDA/Aphis is routine in the Netherlands due to their large horticultural industry, so it seems like it would be feasible for a Dutch company to sell direct to North America. The issue is probably that small direct shipments to individual customers are not very profitable.
Hello
I want to identify one of my hybrid
Habib,
If you send photos to me at: info (at) emaryllis.com I will try to ID your mystery amaryllis.
Bill
This year’s amarylllis have finally flowered – and I have a first. I bought three kits, all under £5, and ALL THREE are flowering in the colour they were meant to. My white amaryllis has flowered white (huge flowers on an enormously tall plant, with a lovely green centre to the white), my red & white one has flowered red & white (barely a foot tall – never had such a short amaryllis!) and…drum roll…my third attempt to grow Queen of the Night seems to have worked. Anyway, she’s flowering in the right colour and looks pretty similar to the photo in the gallery. My last two attempts have been white and red & white striped, so I’ll settle for a solid deep red, even if it’s not the right one!
Only had one rebloom from last year so far – the others are still sulking.
Congratulations on your bargain blooms! It sounds like you hit the jackpot this season. So happy that your quest for ‘Queen of
The Night’ is fulfilled at last!
Thanks for your recommendation of the Bulb in a Box channel – loving it!
So glad you like it too, and Vlad will be delighted! He also has a large and very active Facebook group by the same name.
You have my sympathy – none of my box kits have flowered yet (been super-cold, so they’ve all been sulking) but a couple of them have opened partially, and so far, I’m dubious that they are going to match the labels. Waiting to see if my umpteenth attempt at Queen of the Night has been successful.
I really like this site for all the information that is available. I’ve been looking for the “Scarlet Baby” Amaryllis for several years and have been unable to find it. Is it even being produced anymore?
While the registration site KAVB hasn’t stated that ‘Scarlet Baby’ is out of cultivation, it is clear that it hasn’t been sold commercially in about 15 years. From about 2010 on it was used as a marketing name, but substituted with new varieties. It would still be successful in my view; the bronzed foliage and crimped edges of the flowers were nice details. Thanks for using the site!
I didn’t realize this year wasn’t a great year for amaryllises. I guess I got lucky! I pre-order 4 different sonatini and got them. The exciting bit was they arrived at the end of October and they looked ready to go! Now, considering I bought 3 of them for my mom’s birthday at the end of November, I was really happy I have my very mini-fridge I bought for keeping amaryllises cool. I caved on Nov. 20th, took them out, potted them, and gave them to her that day. They are growing quite well and, as of today, I can see the petals for one bulb on its two scapes. One bulb is taking its sweet time but that is fine. 🙂
We’ll see if I got the kinds I ordered which are: Belladonna, Brightspark, Joker, and Lemon Sorbet (that one is for myself). I had good luck last year with the one bulb I ordered for myself. I ordered a Thai Thai and it was correct.
I wouldn’t say it wasn’t still at least good, save for retail nursery prices and some delayed shipments here in the U.S. I think mail order firms had already set prices before covid related impacts had really reared their head. The loss of Royal Colors as a source of direct shipments from Europe also makes for a less exciting year for some unique sourcing. Also Hadeco’s MyAmaryllis.com does not seem to be shipping, and they have offered some of the harder-to-get South African grown cultivars.
The South African grown Hippeastrum are amazing! They are definitely ready to start showing off earlier than most. You made some nice choices, and I bet they will come true to type.I hope your bulbs bloom brightly, thanks for using emaryllis.com!
Poor thing! I’m glad you rescued it – it was a noble deed!
I’ve had several amaryllis like this – chiefly due to my cheapskate nature which means I wait for the ‘posh’ box kits to be heavily reduced before buying. They sometimes flower surprisingly well – I just stick them on a high shelf so I can look up at the flower – and often plant the bulb slightly angled to compensate and then repot it upright once it’s flowered!
I was looking for a bookshelf that wasn’t entirely full…I think a well elevated perch will be the only way to appreciate this one. Hopefully it makes a second “normal” Scape later!
No – the two cheapest were labelled as ‘from Holland’ but that could just be where the kits were made up, and not necessarily where the bulbs were from. No reference to origin at all on the slightly more expensive one – just the supermarket branding. (That one did come as a named variety, although I’ll be surprised if it is what it says on the box – I’m usually doing well if the flower colour matches the picture on the box, so it is a bit of a lucky dip!)
Yay! Life is always better when I see Emaryllis has a new blog post (-:
You just made my day, thank you!
I’m ONLY buying super-cheap grocery store/supermarket kits now. Last year, I mail ordered 3 bulbs from a ‘specialist’ nursery at around £10 each (that’s around 13.50 in USD) because I didn’t think I could get any locally. One arrived so mushy with red blotch it was worthless, one grew & failed just before flowering and the other grew & failed just after – all had to get thrown out.
A few weeks later, my husband found some cheap kits at the supermarket (costing the equivalent of $3.50 USD). All three flowered really well and I’ve been able to grow them on for this year too.
So far, this year I’ve bought 3 box kits, (costing between $6.50 and $3.50 USD), all of which had MORE growing media than I needed, pots with drainage holes (and saucers), no sign of red blotch, no sign of starting into growth while in the box AND all with 2 inch long healthy roots. I’m never buying from a specialist nursery again!
It’s so wonderful that you are getting solid results from the cheapest kits! Do your cartons disclose the country of origin for the bulbs?
“The color class will probably at least be solid white”
I wish I had your confidence. I’ve had white amaryllis bloom pink, striped amaryllis bloom solid red and dark red solid amaryllis bloom pale red & white!
My experience with this brand kit has usually been good when it comes to at least ‘Minerva’ being correct (even ‘Mambo’ was a very close facsimile!). The bulb supplier has three white varieties in production, so if they can’t get the color correct, it means the switch is happening in the packing plant…which I’m sure does happen!
Good evening!
Do you know where is it possible to buy a Santos Amaryllis. I can’t find it anywhere 🙁
Great collection!
Olga, I wish ‘Santos’ was still marketed too, as do many other amaryllis fans. It had a commercial run of about 10 years. It was the only modern striped foliage hybrid to make it into large scale production. It seems to be a strong grower and easy bloomer, so it should have stayed in production for much longer. There is always a chance that a Dutch grower still has it and will consider producing it again, but those chances are slim. Since you mentioned this cultivar, I will update the photo of ‘Santos’ in our gallery to show a bit of its unique foliage! Thanks for writing.
Great if from Melbourne Australia. Lots of fabulous hippeas flowering in mid September. ( our spring) .
Continually use this amazing resource
Thx michael barrett cliviaman
So nice to have friends down under! Of course we love Clivia as well as Hippeatrum. Happy spring to you, as we are just ending our growing season up here. Thanks for using emaryllis.com 🙂
Where can I FIND for PURCHASE…the AMARYLLIS FOSTER???
Oh, I only wish I knew how to find Hippeastrum fosteri for sale. It is a beautiful species with a lot of potential for breeding work. Good luck in your quest!
I have an amaryllis that bloomed and the bulb dried up. I lifted the top off and there was several small green bulbs under it. Will these bulbs turn into plants? What do I have to do to get them to produce flowers?
Yes, the offsets took over when the main growth died (sometimes this is from Narcissus Bulb Fly if grown outdoors.) You could just leave them as a clump for another year, or separate them and replant each in its own small pot, bringing the nose of each little bulb just above the soil surface. Fertilize and keep evenly moist through the growing season. Since they will be too small to bloom the first or even second year they could be grown on during the first winter or two indoors in a sunny window, or better yet under plant lights to extend daylength. It takes some patience to grow them on for bloom! Once they reach blooming size, they can be treated as outlined on our Amaryllis Care page.
Help would be appreciated about growing from seed. I have seen some hints about “floating” them and then transplanting. Is this necessary? Also, how long do you let the seed “dry” or lie dormant before planting? I have some capsules about ready to pop, and need to know whether to store or plant right away. If planting directly (I plan to use pure coir to start — I live in a very dry climate), how deep should the seeds be covered?
Many thanks!
Hi, Meredith,
Hippeastrum seed are quite easy to germinate. When the pods begin to split, I cut them and drop them into a paper lunch bag. Within a few days the seed will spill out; they are ready for planting immediately. You can hold them for a few months in dry conditions if necessary.
The floating method is used to gauge viability for a large quantity of seed, or to test old seeds…for you it introduces an extra step and a delicate transplanting operation. Just sow on your media and sift a fraction of an inch/centimeter over them and firm them in. Putting the seed flat in a plastic bag or container will keep the humidity high and assist in germination. You should have grass-like seedlings appearing within 2-3 weeks! Once they are done germinating you can acclimate them to normal humidity levels. Good luck!
4082 looks just like Bambara! Are the blooms > 7 inches?
It does indeed look a lot like ‘Bambara’. It just seems odd to sell in a manner of new, unregistered names by using a numeric code. So, it remains here in purgatory! Yes, it was around 7″ diameter.
Jeff, After looking at all of my photos of both 4082 and ‘Bambara’ taken over time, I agree with you. I still have to wonder why it was marketed without the cultivar name, as there is no patent or trademark to infringe on a variety so old. Thanks for pointing out the obvious “similarity”!
Please tell me why doesn’t the double white amarillas don’t make seeds…. How can I make them more please…. If there is no seeds
Double amaryllis petals are often formed from the sexual parts of the flower. If the stigma and pistil become petal-like they will not function to transport pollen cells to the ovary for seed development. More often though, the male parts (anthers and filaments) are what become “petals”…sometimes with some distorted anthers still bearing some pollen. Breeders take advantage of having many plants to work with, the odds are better for finding a double flower with functional female parts.
Beautiful flower! Are there any available? I’m in the UK and I would buy some bulbs.
Do you know the background of this variety? It looks a little bit as H. papilio with that long thin stem. Thanks, Eduardo
Eduardo, I’m not at all sure of the breeding background of this one.Many of the species have thin scapes compared to the big hybrids! You will be pleased to know that Park Amaryllis is ramping up production of these smaller to mid-size varieties, so availability should become steadier in the next few seasons. Have a look at their recently updated site that includes several that do look H. papilio influenced:
https://www.parkamaryllis.com
Hi, Emaryllis,
This photo of ‘Wild Amazone’ looks very different from the photo by the same name at https://www.amaranth-amaryllis.com/en/midi-amaryllis/58-wild-amazone-amaryllis.html
Yours looks more like ‘tarantula’ at https://www.ende-flowers.nl/nl/assortiment/amaryllis
But I’m a complete tyro, so please correct me!
Meredith,
I recently changed to the photo with the mauve background, which will make it look a bit different than the black backgrounded photos on NL van Geest’s website. They also tend to underexpose a bit, oversaturate a bit, and use a warmer color balance. The shape and form seem spot on. ‘Tarantula’ has much thinner tepals and smaller flowers, as it is a more direct descendent of H. cybister. I attempted to purchase ‘Tarantula’ as a cutflower but they were unavailable late in the season. Hopefully I can add that one to the galleries next year!
Could you please say more about “pollen shedding means a bulb in trouble”? I had a couple of Charisma make a real puddle of pollen on my floor this year. What should I do for them? Thanks!
Meredith,
Amaryllis bulbs (whether potted or “grown” as waxed bulbs) without functioning roots results in stunting and commonly pollen grains shedding before the flower even opens. I’ve usually tried to reach the anthers with a pair of manicure scissors, then rinse with a gentle stream of water to remove any already shed pollen in the flowers. In healthy flowers, the anthers are usually an aesthetic plus, and the grains will only come off when brushed.
Thanks Bill ! This article was just what I needed. I melted off the plastic ” prison” as Pritch called it) with a lighter 😂 and chipped away at the coating. Then I potted the bulb in moist potting soil. It hasn’t bloomed yet. I just couldn’t stand not putting it up . . The flower bud looks to be deflating a bit but I’m hoping to save the bulb. . .
Happy to help, Lani! I hope you succeed with it next year…it may only hint at its possible performance on this bloom.
There is something very reassuring about taking time out from the current craziness our world is in to read an Emaryllis kit report. Thank you for brightening my day!
So nice to hear that! I have seen the visitation numbers going up lately, so hopefully others are also enjoying a pleasant distraction:-) Thanks for the comment!
I was interested to note your comment about the absence of red blotch in these kits. Over the past 3 years, I’ve noticed red blotch (and an absence of live roots) in the expensive garden centre boxed kits (as well as a tendency for the flower to look nothing like the cultivar advertised on the box). The cheap supermarket kits have all been free of red blotch and all but one has had at least some live root. Plus good drainage holes. As far as I can see, the only advantage of the expensive kits is the named cultivars…but as they’re usually wrong anyway, I’m sticking to my £4 nameless box kits in future!
One of the main reasons for the move to growing in Peru in particular is that the climate naturally discourages fungal diseases, and these are often the least expensive, mass produced bulbs. Perhaps that is why the bulb kits are much cleaner of late, but whatever the reason it is a welcome development!
How frustrating! Can’t say I’m surprised though – far too often my expensive named amaryllis bulbs have ended up looking nothing like the name on their label! I now have a rule that I don’t spend over £5 (that’s under $7 USD) – at least that way, I haven’t wasted too much money if they are not as advertised!
In spite of restrictions, I was able to get 2 box kits from my local food store and mail ordered another 3 bulbs – waiting to see how they will flower. Also waiting for last year’s ‘Christmas Star’ to flower – it didn’t bloom last year, so I have no idea if it will be Christmas Star or not – if not, this will be my THIRD non-Christmas Star.
Agreed, Philippa! Price doesn’t predict better outcomes for amaryllises. There are some pricey suppliers that generally have good sized bulbs and rarely have major labeling errors, but there are less expensive firms that do just as well. It is those really inexpensive bulbs (and kits) that come off as the most amazing value.
Sigh! Three strikes and we’re out here too – ‘Christmas Star’ is not fully opened yet, but I can see enough to know it is NOT as labelled – streaked/veined pinky red with a green/white midrib and green/white tips. Just glad I only paid £2 for it, out of the end-of-season bargain trolley. If I’d paid the full price of £15 (over $20USD) I’d have been really annoyed!
When it’s fully open, can I email you a pic to see if you can ID it for me?
Well, you are a savvy shopper! Its a lot easier to take a mislabel when you havn’t parted with too much money. Please do send your photo along for ID whenever you’d like.
I found out what happened to my shipment from Royal Colors. The bulbs were intercepted and destroyed by the Dept of Ag. plant inspection station at the Miami Air Cargo facility on Dec 16th. Today I received the empty box, sealed with US customs green tape and an interception notice. Royal Colors is not getting the proper permits. I contacted them to see if there is a chance that they would refund my money. What a shame that it has come to this.
Oh, boy….no good! My tracking status is still shown as “In transit” but considering it was mailed around the same date as yours, I am not counting on it arriving. I actually wanted to place a second smaller order a few weeks back, and that’s when they stated that they are no longer going to sell outside of Europe. They cite the cost of phytosanitary certificates as the main issue. You are so right…what a shame. I hope you and others get refunds if they did not succesfully get the bulbs to customers.
Considering that Sonatini dissappeared this year, and now Royal Colors, the amaryllis world just got a bit smaller.
I’ll post back here when and if I get a package…empty or otherwise.
Thanks for the heads up, even if it is bad news.
Never heard back from RC on my intercepted order. Guess they are pulling out of the “outside of EU” market.
Not even a “no” on a request for refund? Not the best business practice. I too received an empty (and very beat up) box about about a week ago. My box was intercepted at JFK for no phytosanitary certificate. Contents destroyed. The box was marked as though it was a “gift” and merely stated “garden products” as the contents. I might try asking for a refund for the bulbs themselves (and not the shipping) to see if that gets a response. A sad and frustrating situation.
Did you receive an order from Royal Colors last month? Mine was supposedly shipped Dec 6th but has never arrived here in Florida The RC website now states that they are not shipping out of Europe after Oct 2020. I suspect that it got turned away again from US customs. Unfortunately they don’t take responsibility if something happens with shipping. Reminds me of two years ago. Any idea what’s going on?
Hi There,
Is there any way you could post a picture and description of which crosses are involved in ‘Devil Smile’? It’s a Komoriya hybrid and there’s very little information of it on the internet.
Thank You
Hello Jose. I haven’t grown any of the Komoriya hybrids, but they certainly are striking. Looking at some photos of ‘Devil’s Smile’ online I can only make a semi-educated guess. It looks like two flowers per scape, so likely a primary cross (two species involved) or perhaps a more complex hybrid back-crossed to a species or primary hybrid. Because they sell both Hippeastrum papilio and H. corriense, it could be a simple cross of those two, but when I see the flower it really suggests that H. psittacinum might be involved. That’s about as close as I can get based on (as you say) little online about this hybrid. Thanks for writing in and Happy New Year!
Hi – I would like to share some photos of anonymous Amaryllis to see if anyone can identify them, would this be possible?
Sure, Paula! Try attaching them to a post and we’ll have a go at ID. If it doesn’t work, attach them to an email to info(at)emaryllis.com
Thanks for visiting the site.
Hey, what’s your 10 must-have amaryllises? Thank You!
Agne,
It is impossible to come up with a Top10, as it would vary from day to day! I think one could build a nice starter collection of colors and forms with the following: Exotic Star, Chico, Magnum, Naranja, Neon, Glee, Rapido, Doublet, Temptation, and Spartacus. By tomorrow I would probably have a completely new list…but with Exotic Star and Chico still on it…the species charm of those is hard to beat!
Good afternoon. If possible, add information about the varieties Polar belle, Scarlett belle, Exotic nymph to the catalog. Thanks!
Hi, Alex. Thanks for using the site. This season we will hope to profile ‘Scarlette Belle’. The others were scarcely available in the USA. The one copy of ‘Amazing Belle’ that we obtained did not bloom true, which was disappointing. I hope we can have all three of your requests fulfilled next season!
Question, a bit off-topic, but I really need to know. I see in the photo of the cleaned up bulb that a basal plate of about half an inch thickness (? or maybe 3/8″?) has grown. It looks a little thick, proportionately.
I’ve been told that thick basal plates can stunt hips’ growth; that it blocks their uptake of nutrients. Is that indeed the case? I am in the process of repotting my collection now. Ran into one bulb – smaller than it should be – with at least 3/4″ basal plate. I trimmed that plate and dusted with cinnamon, and am letting it cure for a few days. I know the bulb will put out new roots eventually, and bloom again too; but at the same time I worry about the loss of living roots, even though I have received bulb shipments that have no living roots, and the bulbs have been solid.
This trimming is what I’ve been told is a good idea. Do you agree? What is the function of that plate, and is its becoming thick really an issue?
By way of contrast, I’ll just note that the thicker plates seem to occur, in my limited observation, on bulbs that aren’t making offsets. I haven’t seen them on those which seem to naturally want to produce offspring.
Or… is it something in cultural practices that pushes any bulb one way or the other?
I really want to understand this. Hope you can help me.
Joan,
There probably hasn’t been specific study on the physiology of this in Hippeastrum, but I’ll take a stab at it. Horticulturally, it has been demonstrated that trimming down an old, large basal plate can create much better root production, and improved plant vigor as a result. I do this regularly when repotting just as in the case you mention. It feels like you will be setting the plant back, but as you say, they are quite capable of recovery and regrowth.
The basal plate is the compressed stem of the plant. As the bulb grows, leaf bases (leaf scales or cataphylls) are left behind and slough off after serving as a tunic and the stem becomes longer, tougher and nearly woody. Root formation is likely encouraged by hormone production (auxins) from the active growing point. As the bottommost part of the basal plate becomes farther from the growing point and less conductive, it stops receiving these hormones and stops initiating new roots, and old ones die off. At this point, new roots are only able to sprout from the uppermost part near the bulb itself, and only from the outer edges. Removing the tough, older basal plate exposes tender, conductive tissue under the entire surface of the bulb, which can now root from any part of that surface in addition to the outer edges.
I don’t know how this works out for Hippeastrum in nature, but perhaps constant production of offsets means that the older mother bulbs simply get squeezed out in many cases. The complex amaryllis hybrids certainly grow more quickly and therefore this intervention is more likely to be needed for them to remain vigorous in cultivation. Genetic variation means that some hybrids seem to rarely require this intervention, where others do.
I hope this helps. Thanks for checking out Emaryllis.com!
Yay! Welcome back Emaryllis – I’ve missed your posts over the summer! Can we look forward to some more bulb/box kit reviews this season?
I’m having to forego the box kits this year as I can’t go out to the shops, but I’ve just ordered ‘Mont Blanc’ and ‘Orange Souvereign’ as loose bulbs from a mail order site. Be interesting to see if they end up flowering true to label, as the box kits hardly ever do.
Welcome back to you as well! I’m sorry you are being limited by the current situation. Mail order is a great way to get bulbs, and even box kits. I haven’t been overly adventourous either, but have tried to get as much as possible in far fewer trips than usual. Box Kits are definitely coming along, hopefully initial posts to go up next week. A few cutflower varieties will be added to broaden the site a bit more also. Thanks for following the site 🙂
If there isn’t already a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Amaryllis, there should be! These poor bulbs make me sad.
Right?! And now, to take it a step further, they are making hardware to hang them upside down as ornaments.
Noooooooo!!! Right, I’m off to found the SPCA now!
Any tips on obtaining rare hippe bulbs in the US ?
Hi Jeff. The only source with significant variety in the U.S. is Telos Rare bulbs in California.
http://www.telosrarebulbs.com/SAmerican2.html
Thanks for checking our site and happy collecting!
Good day!
I hope you are well.
I would just like to find out whether you can help me, if I would want to register a new Amaryllis hybrid, how does one go to work? I am from South Africa and I don’t know who to contact regarding this. Can you please advise?
Greetings Fredrich,
The international registrar for Hippeastrum (and many other bulbous plants) is KAVB in the Netherlands. They used to want some bulbs to grow on as part of the process, but I think that requirement may no longer be in force. Here is a page from their site with a link within to the registration form:
https://www.kavb.nl/english/registration
I have never bred anything that I felt was good enough for registration, so I am excited for you! Please keep us posted on your progress, I hope that your hybrid(s) can be featured here on Emaryllis.com some day!
Stay well through the pandemic.
Kindly,
Bill
hallo Fredrich
Hope you are well from where in south africa are you.Iam also from south africa,and love my cybisters.
Thank you that was most fascinating. I wrote an article on Fed Meyer for the Melbourne Clivia Group. He was a most remarkable plant breeder.
Thanks for reading! I wish I could have met him for an interview as well. I didn’t know he also bred Clivia, but that should come as no surprise!
Hello! I need help…
After my amaryllis bloomed three gorgeous flowers, I trimmed the spent blossoms, and let the green leaves continue to grow in bright light. They really must of liked the location, temperature, and watering because the leaves grew so tall I had to prop them up with a plant spike and gardener’s velcro, otherwise the leaves would just fall over. It just got so out of hand.I started by cutting the leaves that would fall over the easiest- they were on the outside anyway. That only helped for a little bit before all the leaves were just falling to the ground. I got annoyed and I snipped all the leaves off. I know that this was the wrong decision to make… i should have just propped up the leaves with a stick.
I can’t believe I did that. . I know cutting off the green stops the bulb from getting all it’s energy, so does this mean the bulb will die? Or did I just force it in to dormancy?
Thank you!
Skyler, I hope everything turned out well. Normally they will just keep growing as long as daylight hours and temperatures are to their liking. Growing them in brighter light should help keep the leaves from being as long and floppy. Trimming back their length would be a better option than removing them entirely.
General comment- an overnight soak in warm water increases root growth amazingly well. This was a tip from John Vandenberg years ago when I was a commercial grower
Thanks! I have sometimes done a brief soak, but overnight would lead to soaking in water that is too cold for me.
I picked up a boxed kit at Lidl yesterday for £2.79 – no labelled varieties but they come in a choice of pink, red or white. My white one proved to be a 27cm circumference bulb with no sign of disease or sprouting and some fat, healthy roots. It came with a sturdy grey plastic pot (with great drainage holes) and matching saucer and LOADS of coir. Obviously don’t know how it will flower yet, but compared to the £9.99 ‘de luxe’ boxed kits I’d seen earlier in the day at the local garden centre (small, shrivelled bulbs, suffering badly from scorch, with no roots and hardly any growing media), this is already looking like great value. And bearing in mind 50% of my garden centre named varieties didn’t flower true anyway last year, I think I’m sticking with Lidl’s unnamed bulbs this year!
Sounds like you picked up some nice bargains, Phil! It is very true that spending more on a bulb kit does not necessarily mean a better bulbs waits inside. Let us know how they turn out!
It’s grown really well – two scapes with beautiful big flowers…in red & white! So not the ‘white’ I was promised on the box, but very beautiful.
The ‘white’ amaryllis turned out red & white, which you have kindly identified as ‘Ambiance’. I guess Lidl were half right! Still a pretty flower though. And a good strong plant. If I can keep it free from scorch, I’ll rebloom it next year.
My ‘Half & Half’ from last year (which was supposed to be Christmas Star!) is flowering again and looking beautiful. I picked another ‘Christmas Star’ out of the garden centre’s bargain bin in January – be interesting to see what this one flowers as, but at £0.99, I’m not too bothered if it’s wrong!
Hello, My name is Elida .
I would like to know if sell amaryllis bulbs ?
I do not sell bulbs, I buy bulbs and then rate them for all to see!
Hello. We’ve recently had an interesting hybrid trumpet bloom (H. Aulicum cross) and wanted to send you pictures to see if it would be of any interest to anyone. It seems to be evergreen, only has 2 blooms per stem but has a lovely clean up facing trumpet with nice color. It’s also producing nice offsets. I was shocked that the cross took and truly expected it to be one or the other parent plants but it’s obviously a hybrid. Thanks so much!
Me gustaría comprar de todos
Hi i just ask whats ID Name of this Red Amaryllis? thanks
Ooo, I’ve never seen Jewel before. I like it. It has understated elegance. And it is kind of like a daffodil with the center clump of petals. If I see one for sale, I think I’ll have to buy one, even though I’ve already narrowed down the purchase I plan to make for next year (leaning strongly towards Benfica because I want a dark red amaryllis with blossoms the size of my face this time around).
On April 27 & 28 at Apopka Art & Foliage Festival in Apopka, FL You can find information on planting & growing large flower hippeastrum bulbs in limb forks of large old Live Oak trees in both South & North FL. Ask Bill or June at the Amaryllis Spectacularis booth(15th year). You can use your own bulbs.
Amaryllis Study Group
What a pleasant surprise. Minerva is certainly the old reliable amaryllis, out preforms the modern replacements.
Agreed! I think ‘Mambo’ (the most common sub the past several years) just dind’t perform as well under the same circumstances and I was happy to see it offered this season as a large sized bulb in the dry bulb trade, that way it can shine in its own right.
I’m impressed you got the variety that the box promised. So far, my box kit results this season have been one blooming true to what it claimed on the box, one blooming with a totally different variety and one not blooming at all…and my Queen of the Night which didn’t bloom last year has finally flowered…and is very definitely NOT the Queen!
Unfortunately, your experience is all too common. I hope that every once in a while it is a pleasant surprise that you find! Do you know what your NOT Queen of the Night has turned out to be?
Thanks, Emaryllis, for your wonderful site in general and espacially for this post on a very sad aspect of “cultivating” Hipeastrum.
It’s a nuisance, to say the least, and I wonder how anyone can take pleasure in watching a flower killing itself by blooming to death – but this “trend” is obviously unstoppable. In fact, here in Germany, those waxed bulbs have seemed to gain popularity during the last three years or so.
A lot of people, however, toss their bulbs anyway, once they have finished blooming, and that is equally sad.
I have rescued a lot of these bulbs, which are usually given to me when the flowering season finishes. Now I happen to have lots of space, but even I can’t keep all these “Minervas”, “Red Lions” or “Christmas Gifts”. So I try to grow them healthily and then give them away at the start of the new season, hoping for the best. Maybe you’ll find someone you can give your Olaf to, and hopefully it will be someone who will take good care of it. It is very predictable, though, that it will take the plant two or even three seasons to recover completely – I’ve seen it happen!
Best wishes and happy growing!
Thanks for writing in from Germany, Tom. The trend seems to be gaining here as well. The ‘Olaf’ seen here is currently rooting into a new pot, and seems pretty healthy, so it will be grown on. I have very limited space, so must make decisions each season on what I can keep. First, I eliminate most of those with virus infection, then more common ones that I have several bulbs of. Some get donated to local gardens, as most of my friends would rather give me their amaryllis plants than receive any more from me! Happy growing to you as well Tom!
Good to hear these news, Emaryllis! Love from Germany to you and to everybody who is visiting your beautiful site (which enabled me to identify one of my amazing dark Hippeastrum as “Queen Of The Night” – thanks to your Gallery! Happy growing!
Tom
Hello , I am wondering if your H Machupijchiense is correctly named , in the http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com you can see the stamens are red , this isn’t the case on your picture (I have the same flower than you , still seaching for it’s ID , finaly might be an hybrid)
Agapanthe, To be honest I am not 100% sure that the species is correct. I have thought it might be H. miniatum, variegatum, fuscum and others in its related Peruvian group. It is what is sold in the U.S. as H. machupijchense, and that is what I am standing by for now. Thanks for your comment!
I was foiled again. I had the opportunity to purchase that same Jewel kit so I did. I even grabbed one already blooming, but I was in Such a rush that I failed to make sure it was ‘Jewel’! *facepalm*
‘White Nymph’ found her way to me after last year’s ‘Popov’ substitution. I am both irked and yet pleased with it. Can’t say she isn’t beautiful!
‘Summertime’seemed to have a revival this season. I’ve seen a few postings of it on facebook. 🙂
I recall it being the substitute for ‘Carnival’ a couple of years ago. Odd that it seems to be in such high production now, probably because any trademarks have expired.
Perhaps, or pink and striped is really popular now.
They really do out there substitutions. A pink and white instead of a red and white? I can’t even…do they purposely Tell their Packers ‘put whatever as long as the orders get on the truck!’?
Who owned the original trademark on ‘Summertime’?
‘Summertime’ was registered 1977 to Harry Deleeuw Company, now known as Hadeco.
Omgosh I’ve had my eye on that one too. So pretty!
I think this is the first cybister type I’ve really really liked. I hope I can acquire one someday.
Rosie, I think you are in luck as Brent and Becky’s Bulbs carried this last season, and it looks like they will offer it again next season.
Oh I hope so! Gads, I need a list of links for all the various places to order from.
Rapido really does look gorgeous though.
Agreed!
I’m looking forward to this write up. 🙂
I don’t know the source of these not Bogotas, but I keep wondering if it’s a Maguire bred. The Maguire farm closed and sold off its stock. Would it be far fetched to think commercial growers nabbed some?
I doubt they would have made their way from Australia to the Netherlands. These bulbs are surely from a Dutch breeder. It’s possible that it will be officially released with a name next season since it has made it to early stages of production. Then again, its tendency to sometimes make only 3 flowers per scape, and the rather dull coloration could mean that its use as a substitute were just a a way to rid a grower of a crop that they knew would not sell on its own merits. Time will tell!
I’m leaning more to the idea of a “pre-release” than the latter.
I think three buds are lovely, it’s balanced and each flower has the chance to glow without being crowded by its sibs.
I disagree that it wouldn’t do well on its own. We each all have our own preferences. Not every person loves Bold-in-your-eye coloring. I certainly do, but quieter coloring are appealing to others.
It’s definitely true that there are no ugly amaryllises! In commercial trade though, there are standards. I think this one makes a beautiful cut flower because its delicate coloration means it blends with others well. That said, whenever cut flowers are sold, or bulbs are touted for their floriferousness, scape numbers and bud counts do matter. Only a few really special cultivars (like ‘Exotic Star’) will appeal without four or more flowers per scape. Hadeco’s site demonstrates this concept really well. Let’s see what the next season brings!
You are more right than you know. I went poking through your reference sites and park amaryllis has a new release that looks very much like this one.
I do find commercial standards for bulbs rather harsh. I mean for most Consumers those standards are ideal. Hardy, easy, grow to certain sizes and more buds the better.
I feel that there’s a market being ignored. Many people enjoy a challenge. Bragging rights for getting something difficult to thrive. There are lots of successful finicky plants in house and out with dedicated followings.
Personally, I’d rather have three great flowers per stem than 5+ mediocre flowers. I turn my pots not just to keep the stems straight but to enjoy each blossom.
These kind of substitutes are kind of sad. This kind of marketing is misrepresentation of the merchandise. I don’t get how it is allowed?
I mean when I order plants from a place and they can’t fill what I wanted, I have the option of accepting a substitute instead, or waiting on backorder. At least I know what I’m getting when I get it and don’t have to wait 6-8 weeks to find out.
I really think that these bulb suppliers and companies should be more professional. The constant deceit is really offputting.
Sadly it is a problem throughout the bulb/root/rhizome industry. Since the per bulb cost is so high for amaryllises, it is that much more of a bummer.
Nice to know about Honeybee, it looks cute!
The prepotted bulbs I’ve seen this year all seem unhealthy. Granted, my purchases were bottom of the market at $5 each so I probably couldn’t expect much better. Scorch and thrips were my adversaries this season. I’ve treated my bulbs and so far no more issues.
What do you think could be ailing your Honeybee?
Hippeastrum mosaic virus is my first concern since there are some off-color streaks on the scapes. We’ll see what happens when the leaves grow out. This looks like it might need to be coddled more than most, but at least the color and dwarf nature of it are unique-so far!
Some are worth a bit of coddling for sure.
Were the scapes coming up when you bought it? Could be packing and handling damage. I hope it’s not mosaic virus. That would really suck. 🙁
Opal Star is a hidden gem in the outdoor landscape. I have several and they have naturalized into large clumps that produce lots of flowers. Blooms without fuzz or bother, getting only rain and a rare topdressing of fertilizers.
That’s nice to know. ‘Opal Star’ does seem to be vigorous and healthy. I doubt it is hardy where I am, but you must be in a warmer zone.
That’s the kind of plant I love to have in my outdoor garden. No fuss type that thrives with little aytention. I’m too far north to plant hippys year round, but I did put mine out for the summer last year. They did good and are blooming for me inside. 🙂
The only reason the third dry bulb was the correct Apple was because the poor thing was blooming. A very sad, but fragrant performance. I wonder if the bulb will even recover.
I did purchase two kits, about 8 weeks apart, both were labeled Stargazer. The first one has bloomed…a very small solid red with a slight nod to the flower. I was very disappointed at first, but it’s a new variety to my collection. I think it’s Firecracker and it’s second scape is opening. The second kit is without a scape even nosing up yet, just a few leaves.
I have several more unknowns I’m waiting on, but all in all I can only count on being surprised.
Keep us up on the progress Rosie! ‘Firecracker’ would be an unlikely find as it has been out of production for a while as far as I know. Feel free to send a photo for ID to info(at)emaryllis.com
I will do my best!
You’re probably right about that. I will email photos to you once this 2nd scape blooms. Only days away from opening!
This exact same kit was available at my local nursery too. Alfresco and Dancing Queen were the other offerings next to Jewel. I’m wishing I could of gotten Jewel as I find her appealing and I’m all for the fragranced varieties.
Yes, those were the three offerings that I saw as well. There are so many nice double white amaryllis (‘Alfresco’ being one of them) that ‘Jewel’ may not be around much longer. I would snap one up next season if they are offered. There may be just enough of us to keep at least one grower producing her! Thanks for dropping by, and Happy New Year.
Happy New Year to you too. I’m so happy to see a new blog entry! This season has been wacky for me. I’m still batting 4/5 mislabeled bulbs! You’ll never guess what beauty I got while trying to acquire Apple Blossom though!
Happy New Year and thanks, Rosie! Yes, this looks like a normal season with lots of mislabels. What did you get in place of Apple Blossom? Was it a box kit or dry bulb you bought?
A dry bulb. Well, the first one I got came up a Telstar. Not even close right? But the next attempt is even more out there. I knew something was funny with its extremely vivid scapes and narrow folded leaves. Badum I got an Opal Star! I never thought I would get a variety like that here.
Very popular “not Bogota” this season, but it’s not looks like Princesse Claire
Katerina,
Thanks for your good eye! I agree. After the second “not Bogota” bloomed it seems clear that this substitute has fewer flowers, less rounded form, and less red coloration. I have changed my front page post to reflect this, and will make a blog post about it in the near future. If you think you know what cultivar this is, please let us know!
Why, for several months, there are no photos of Hippeastrum species on your site. I am a fan of your side for a long time,
which largely helps me to identify varieties, and I have 65 species of Hippeastrum hybrids + 4 botanicals in the Vitatum type
and every indication of the origin of the variety is valuable to me.
I praise you on Polish forums, and here is a ‘zonk’, please explain
this situation and if in the future you can count on the return of a photo .. Andi
Thanks, Andi for the praise in any forum in Poland! I hope you are happy with the fixes to the site and its improved functions. I hope we never face an issue with the galleries in the future, and thank you for voicing your concerns.
Hi, Lately I have not been able to view the Photo Library. Is there a problem with the website? Thank you.
Hi Tony,
My apologies for the current situation. A solution is around the corner. Thank you for using the site, and I promise it will be up and running normally asap!
What has happened to the Photo Library?? It has been COMPLETELY BLANK for weeks! I referred friends to view what I had given them as bulbs and nothing! Will this be fixed?? When? It’s a useful resource
Charlene, Thanks for using the website, and my apologies for the gallery pages being down. At first the titles and descriptions went missing, and soon after the galleries became invisible. The Emaryllis website tech guru knows what the problem is, and will address it soon. These are the vagaries of an open source platform!
Any idea about what’s going on with Royal Colors?. They aren’t currently shipping to the USA. Claim a customs’ issue. They had that problem several years ago. I ordered back in June, was told my order shipped Oct 30th. Still haven’t gotten it. Were you able to get your RC order yet?
Hi Barbara,
Unfortunately I have had two orders refunded by Royal Colors this year. I’m not sure that any regulation has changed since other companies that import into North America haven’t been hindered this year. Most bulbs are sent to a company that imports (and has import permits), then distributes from within the U.S. Since RC ships into countries directly, the problem may be that they are circumventing the needed import permits to receive the bulbs from a foreign country. This is just a guess, but I hope the issue can be resolved as Royal Colors has been a great source for a unique variety of amaryllis cultivars.
My Royal Colors order arrived today, It had been shipped Oct 30th, returned and reshipped on Nov 22nd via another courier. The bulbs are surprisingly healthy, given the fact that they have been in transit for over 2 1/2 months. I hope that RC can straighten out their USA customs issues, since I will sure miss them as a supplier in the future.
That’s great, Barbara! Had you already been refunded? If so, I wonder if there are some stray boxes that may yet be delivered to those of us who had placed orders as well. Thanks for letting us know!
I was never offered a refund. I didn’t heard anything until I contacted them at the end of Nov. So my order may have been an early one that got into the mail, before they cut off shipments to the USA. And it still got returned to them once. I doubt if anyone else will get bulbs. Go to the RC website, inventory is very high for being the end of the year. RC has gotten stuck with bulbs that should have gone to the USA. No matter how you look at it, this is a real shame.
Oh, that is interesting. My orders (placed in May and September) were both refunded, so I hope the bulbs made it back home for someone else to grow. I imagine the U.S. is a significant market for RC, so they will undoubtedly make every effort to iron out any regulatory issues. Let us know how your bulbs prosper, and thanks for the update for all readers here in th USA.
Barbara, I just got one RC box today, also shipped Oct. 30. Mostly things are OK, but some had sprouted out and there were damages. The box looks like it was kicked around a lot during its journey!
I noticed, today, that RC has removed the notation on their FAQ section that they are temporarily not shipping to the USA. In the absence of that “disclaimer” I have to believe that are now shipping to the USA. Since the bulbs come into NYC, and with the severe cold in the North, I would be hesitant to order bulbs this late. But it does sound like progress has been made with their shipping issues. I also saw that you are getting bulbs directly from Hadeco. I will definitely try that bulb source this year.
Barbara, Royal Colors now has the U.S. listed in both their FAQ and in their dropdown menu in the shipping section of the order form. Good news, if late in the current season. Let’s hope for trouble free shipping next season! Ordering from Hadeco was a smooth process in my case; most of the bulbs were correctly labeled and it is the only way to get some of their newest creations.
I experienced the same. I placed an order and had priblem with custom so I canceled delivery. They said the bulbs were delivered but never receive the bulb. I was offered credit. Checked from them the code to use credit on my order and no response at all. I plan to check pay pal ir my visa regarding this when I arrive in US as I am still out of the country.
Any news on last year’s new Thai Thai variety being available this year??
Cheryl, It looks like they have not been shipped to the U.S. this season, but should be available next season. Check the Hadeco My Amaryllis website next summer to see if that cultivar is available by direct order.
Hello!
Please change your picture for “Ambiance”
Kind regards
Haweha
Done!
Is it common for a box kit amaryllis not to flower in the first year? I bought Queen of the Night (according to the label) at the beginning of December and it has produced loads of healthy leaves, but no sign of flowers. It has had the same treatment as my two amaryllis from last year which I started back into growth about the same time – one of those is flowering and the other has two well-developed scapes, but just leaves on my new one!
Phil, typically these bloom quite well, if not true to name. If the bulb is making only leaves, it was either “blind” beacause the flower initials aborted (this can be caused in many ways) or it was not cool conditioned. In the latter case, it may yet bloom, as spring is the normal flowering period for Hippeastrum. Don’t give up!
Thanks! If the flower initials aborted, does that mean it will never flower? Or is it worth keeping it till next year if it doesn’t flower in the spring?
They will bloom in the future. Most Hippeastrum hybrids make one bloom scape per three leaves. That is why I always look at the number of fleshy leaf bases on the top of a dormant bulb at purchase…more leaves = more flowers!
Can you tell me what the difference is between Orange Sovereign and Naranja? They look exactly the same to me. What is the difference?
‘Orange Sovereign’ is only used as a marketing name these days, the original cultivar was close to scarlet in color, and huge! You probably are looking at two bulbs of ‘Naranja’ which is one of the best orange flowered amaryllises in the trade today, along with its sibling ‘Tineke Verburg’. I am hoping that the ‘Orange Sovereign’ name will be used to market ‘Souvenir’ in the future, as it is also stupendous!
Ah, well that makes sense now – thank you! Some of these Amaryllis flowers look so similar that I sometimes wonder why they bothered to give them different names. But I guess it is important when breeding for certain traits.
Come on what else have you got in bloom? I miss your blog posts.
I have a rather interesting mixup this season through a local greenhouse. They got in a small, but lovely selection of very large quality bulbs. I’ve bought two, labeled Rilona and White Nymph. Neither are right. Lol the “white nymph” I knew wasn’t white from all the color on the scape, but I thought perhaps it would be a red or pink of that family.
Nope not even close! XD
It’s Popov!
Yikes, Rosie! So many mislabeled bulbs have been reported this year, its disheartening. Older named varieties are so often substituted with robust growing newer types, and ‘Popov’ is a very strong grower.
Thanks for missing the blog posts, it has been a very busy year for the author, but I do apologize.
I wonder if the demand is exceeding the supply, or if it’s merely human error during harvesting and packing.
What’s funny is that the other Whinym there are blooming the correct variety.
I am actually very pleased with the Popov. It’s gorgeous and scents the whole room!
I can’t figure out the Rilona sub though. The blooms are about 5 1/2″ and a somewhat deeper red-orange color, very regular and beautiful form.
I understand, I just wanted you to know that your site is very appreciated. Sometimes it can feel like no one cares, but we do! 🙂
Thanks for the kind words Rosie! You may have an example of ‘Naranja’ for ‘Rilona’, or perhaps the smaller but very regular ‘Desire’. Both are excellent growers in high supply these days. I’m glad you like ‘Popov’, it is an excellent selection, and the scent is subtle but permeating.
I was also foiled at getting Sofia from Royal Colors. Last year I was contacted ahead of time, and offered a substitution for Sofia. This year, as happened to you, Picasso was sent, labeled as Sofia. I don’t expect this kind of dishonesty from Royal Colors. Shame on them. In regards to a previous email, the Hadeco Cayenne from Amaryllis Bulb Company was Cayenne.
Emaryllis,
Do you usually keep the amaryllis you have photographed?
Very few, Rob. I keep a few for breeding stock and some of the varieties that I favor and are no longer sold. I have very limited space, so when a lot of new amaryllis varieties get released, I part with some of the others.
I see. Perhaps you can find a way to reintroduce those varieties that are no longer in circulation.
Ahh, if only I had the space to grow them all!
Perhaps you need to develop a network of Amaryllis foster homes to grow and reintroduce those varieties that are no longer in circulation.
Ahhh, if only Emaryllis didn’t have a very busy day job! It would be nice to develop an ark of sorts for the cultivars that often disappear just as they are introduced.
Hi! I’m a very great fan of this website and love them! greatful! Congratulations!
I love Amaryllis and have many of it!
Do you know where I can buy Hadeco Amaryllis bulbs in Europe? I wish to had a bulb of hadeco’s ‘Honeymoon’
As I was a child, there was hadeco bulbs in trade here. And I have had a ‘honeymoon’ since a long time in bloom in my children room.
I’m very affraid that my english isn’t so good. Please excuse me for that.
kindly regards,
Michael
Michael,
Your English is very good! Hadeco bulbs are becoming scarce here in the USA too, as one of the nurseries that carried many of their varieties stopped selling this year. Since Fluwel and Royal Colors also don’t sell Hadeco amaryllis, you are left with Amazon.com searches and more general holiday gift catalogs. Often Hadeco bulbs are sold for sale as potted, forced plants here, maybe in Europe too. Maybe someone from Hadeco will read this and offer advice! It looks like they are mainly selling ‘Miracle’ this year, but ‘Honeymoon’ is noted as a 2018 available variety. Good luck and thanks for using Emaryllis 🙂
Hello Michael!
Hadeco here… thank you for your interest in our bulbs.
Many retailers in Europe do sell Hadeco amaryllis but mainly this is during November and December.
You can order for your home or as a gift for others. Choose from the complete range of Hadeco amaryllis directly from the farm! Please visit http://www.myamaryllis.com
We combine shipments into sea freight containers from South Africa and then post them from Holland to you.
Last winter, there was a issue with ABC’s Ruby Gem, which turned out to be Gold Metal. ABC just contacted me and offered a “free” bulb this season to make up for last season’s mixup. They are carrying Hadeco’s Cayenne, which I ordered.
It was very good of Amaryllis Bulb Company to offer the correct variety the following season. Let us know if this one blooms true to type! Thanks for letting others know about last season’s issue as well.
Dear friend,
Nice to meet you.
We are a bulb importer from Hong Kong. We have import permit. Hong Kong is a small place, So we can’t make large order as other Import over 2000 bulbs per year with different types/species.
Now, we are preparing the autumn/winter sales.
Would you mind send your quotation of minimum order and price?
I hope we will have a good cooperation.
Best Regards,
Calvin
Hello Calvin,
Emaryllis.com is just a hobbyist site, we do not sell any bulbs. Nice to hear from Hong Kong!
Take care,
Bill from Emaryllis
Thanks for all the good info. I am an amarylis enthusiast. I was plaged by a red fungus that wiped out my entire collection. I tried everything. Any advice.
IF
Patricia, First re-examine your cultural conditions, wet and cool are favorable to red blotch (Peyronellaea curtisii) and not amaryllises. Many physical injuries cause a reaction that turns leaves red, but if you are sure you have this fungus try spraying with a fungicide containing thiophanate-methyl as active ingredient. You may need several applications during the growing season. Repot in fresh media and remove the outermost dry bulb tunic to prevent re-infection from spores on those surfaces. Warmth, excellent air exchange and air circulation help prevent this difficult fungal pathogen from returning.
Is the Flag Amaryllis and the Star Amaryllis the same plant?
I’ve never heard of either. I know the term ‘flag’ can often refer to some irises though.
I was given three bulbs last summer, two from my great Gram-in-law after she passed and one from my sister. I have no real idea what cultivars they are, since I did not see them in bloom. I kept them in my southern facing picture window all this time. They went dormant during the fall and winter months. In January they came out of dormancy (or so I thought). Leaves began growing so I began watering them again. One bulb continued to grow, put up a scape, and bloomed beautifully. The other two seems to have stalled, one has a leaf tip about 2 inches tall and the other has 6 12in long leaves. They have not showed any more growth for about a month. Both bulbs are round, fat and green, and have grown some roots. Have you ever had a bulb start growing and then just stop? They seem so healthy I am confounded.
Rosie, I have seen amaryllis stall for no apparent reason fairly often. Once the daylight hours exceed 12 hours a day, they should all come into growth. Just remember that the stalled bulbs need minimal watering, and no fertilizer until actively growing. It’s so nice to hear that you are taking care of these “passalong” amaryllis bulbs 🙂
That is good to know that once the long summer days come they will get going. I have been reading your site since I got them and did searches to learn how to care for them. This is definitely one of the most fun and informative sites for Amaryllis/Hippeastrum. 🙂 I’ve spent hours looking through the blog posts and photo library! After my first blossomed I tried to identify it, but being one of the solid Reds makes it kind of impossible to my inexperienced eyes. It did have a fragrance though! I am being very careful with the watering. I have to be because the tiny one (is lucky to be alive) is in a small square glass vase with coconut coir. I have no idea who would of sold/gift it to my sister like that. I don’t have any other pots to put it in yet, but I will. I would be surprised to see it bloom, its smaller(17.5cm) and was in poor light quite a long time before I got it. Oh, I am well and truely hook line and sinker for them now. I’ve adopted two box kits from a local store over two weeks ago. Both have roots and one appears to have two scapes peeking. 😀 And I want even more.
Well, I found out what was wrong with them today. I got a clay pot with drainage for the small one and new soil for them both. When I took it out the littlest one’s basal plate was rotting out all around the middle. There were even fungal spores! 🙁 I pulled and scraped out all the spongy material I could, removed bad roots, and used a child’s toothbrush to clean the whole bottom really good. I let it dry in a window for a while. I dusted the bottom with cinnamon before potting it. I did Not water it as the soil was slightly moist already. It does still have several live roots.
The bigger one wasn’t as badly rotted, but it was starting to. There was a wad of rotten material in the bottom of the pot and I guess as soon as the roots tried growing through it, they started dying and stopped growing. Same deal, I cleaned it as best I could, let it dry, and dusted with cinnamon before potting it up with new soil. I hope and pray they will be all right.
It sounds like you have done the right things, and they should grow much better in new soil. They are pretty tough!
Have you ever known an amaryllis to go dormant for 18 months? I bought a bulb that shipped to the states from Iran. It leafed out but did not bloom. Then it went dormant for a good 18 months. Now it has finally decided to leaf out again. The bulb is good and solid, the leaves look great. I just wonder why it went dormant for so long.
One year yes, but never 18 months! With a huge change in environments and bare-rooting we now know that they can wait that long. Thanks for sharing your information with the Emaryllis world 🙂
Thanks for the reply – I hope my bulb likes its new country. It is supposed to be Royal Velvet, so now I just need to wait, who knows how long, until it blooms and I can find out.
Christie, please share your results when it blooms!
How can i buy your amaryllis? How much?
Ahh, sorry Adelaida, Emaryllis is just here for informational purposes. Some of the varieties I have photographed over the years are commercially extinct. A few cultivars are only available for 1-2 seasons, while others like ‘Apple Blossom’ have been easy to purchase for many decades. The best selection is by way of mail order companies…which ones depends on where you live. Thanks for your interest!
My Ruby Gem from ABC also turned out to be Gold Metal.
Thanks, Barbara the confirmation is much appreciated!
I love the photo of the H. Thai Thai blooms that you got! Thanks for posting it in your gallery!! While it looks like just a few of these bulbs were in the mix, it definitely is just as promised.
Thanks a lot Kristi! Under brighter light there is even more rose coloration…it really is a gem.
Emaryllis, this is such a wonderful website. Fun & informative for those wanting information on specific cultivars. It’s helping me chart the waters. Good work amd well done!
So glad you find the site useful and fun!
Lovely collection, I have a few I don’t know the names of, how can I send a photograph for you to tell me the names
Hello Brenda, just send them to info(at)emaryllis.com and I will have a go at naming names!
Hi.. I want to buy your amaryllis special double , please help me to buy your collection
Thanks for enjoying this so much that you want to purchase. Emaryllis.com is here for information purposes only, sorry that none of our amaryllis varieties are for sale. Probably Royal Colors in the Netherlands is your best bet, as they ship internationally.
emaryllis – can you provide a timeline of when do you start withholding water and begin the programming process?
Also, if one lives in an apartment and has limited ability to provide the cool temperatures, is it better to withhold water later – in September perhaps or even later? Do you have any suggestions for the apartment dweller to find a cool spot?
I have begun withholding water now — mid August – and may have to just leave the pots on my windowsill as I can’t think of another place that might be cooler. But I am worried that I started too early.
Thanks, E!
Hmmmm Derya, it sounds like you have issues common to many an indoor gardener. I would continue to grow your amaryllis for at least another few weeks. August drying down is aimed at those looking for December blooms, a steep challenge in your case. Let the bulb keep gathering energy for now. In late September or early October try to force a dormancy by drying down. Dwindling daylight hours might already be slowing the plant to a crawl anyway. I take it you have no balcony to let it experience seasonal cooling. A windowsill may be the coolest area in your case, but the floor of a closet on an outside wall can do the trick. There may be a utility (furnace) room that vents outdoors and experiences something close to outdoor temperatures…in this case leave in that spot until freezing weather bears down.
In my climate, freezing conditions often hold off until late October or early November, so I can get at least a few weeks of the cool period accomplished under a covered porch. No matter what, amaryllis will likely still bloom next spring if they have made at least 4 leaves over the past summer; missing out on the cool programming just means leaves may emerge and become long (maybe needing support) before a flower scape emerges.
Thanks for bringing your question to team Emaryllis 😉
Thanks, E! I think the best place will be the windowsill. But will keep watering and feeding for now and stop in early october. The light is already changing up here and I have noticed a slight yellow in some of the leaves (even before I eased up on watering). I always buy one or two new bulbs anyway just so I have some flowers around the holidays and in January.
The varieties above are grown as cut flowers by vanderEnde; for pots are the stems too long. As garden amaryllis is it OK in the 8 – 10 USA climate zone. Royal Colors presents ecspecially for pots.
Some of us love the cut flower varieties, even if they are tall! For most people, potted varieties that are compact do work better of course. Thanks for stopping by Emaryllis.com 🙂
Update August 2016…Royal Colors has added one of these varieties (‘Sofia’) to their offerings. Still I say…more please!!
Thank you for the helpful comments
Judith
I raised amaryllis bulbs indoors for the first time this year and chose H.’Terra Cotta Star’. They are indeed gorgeous but the stems are weak. I have two bulbs. In both cases once the inflorescence emerged fully the stems toppled over at the junction with the bulb. If the breeder is out out there, could you work on that for the future please?
Thank you.
(author of “Visions of Loveliness:great flower breeders of the past”)
Greetings Ms. Taylor. Yes, the fact that many of these are naturally tall sees them perfectly suited to the cut-flower market, but less so to the lower light of the average home interior. There are more compact varieties that bloom on shorter, sturdier scapes. Hadeco of South Africa in particular focus on this trait. Dutch hybrids such as ‘Mambo’ and ‘Floris Hekker’ were selected specifically for pot culture as well. The “cybister” hybrids, owing to the lightness of their blooms offer a way to have the elegance of great height with less likelihood of toppling. Thank you for your comment!
Great resource, thanks! I own up to being a hippeastrum obsessive – can’t throw one away! Got many babies, and seedlings for the frst time this year. Problem is I have a victorian terrace full of plants and struggle to porovide enough sunlight for my overwintering hippeastrum (they spend the summer in the greenhouse)so I’m investigating extra artificial lighting to keep the leaf growth healthy until I can put them outside in April/May. Any advice or suggestions of where to find out if anyone has experience to share? Thanks B
Hey Bernie, the least expensive option is outfitting 48″ wide storage shelving with 48″ fluorescent light fixtures. Cool white bulbs do fine by amaryllises, just keep them close to the foliage, and at least four bulbs under each shelf. There are many more expensive options, LED lights are still pretty expensive, and sodium/halide lamps are bright, but use a lot of energy.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’m experimenting with some LED bulbs (2x36w)on a timer that gives the bulbs a longer day after they have flowered until I can get them out in the greenhouse around April/May. The foliage was much healthier last winter so I’ll let you know if I get better flowering overall this year. So far I’ve had bulbs flowering from sep/oct which is great as the flowering season is lengthened and I’m getting one or two on the go most of the time over the last few months instead of getting so many at once that the impact is less and I run out of places to put them. The only downside is that my home office is now pink (LED blue and red light) in the early evening!
It sounds like you are doing great, and yes I do the same shuffling routine to try to get a succession of bloom under very limited space constraints! Let us know how you think the LED lights perform, I think there will be better versions with the ability to tune the light temperature so they don’t make your home look as though aliens have taken residence 😉
LOVE your website!!!! Thank you for providing us “Amaryllis Addicts” such extraordinary resources as well as the photo identification pages. I’m hooked:)
Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Gwen
Bravo! Perfect. Wonderful website. Fully and detailed steps to follow. Thank you so much.
Mam Carmen do you still sell double amaryllis bulb? Thank you so much.