Hi Carl, Let me be the first to applaud your Emerald!! You're correct is is TINY! Mine is about to open and the scape is no wider than the stem......I hope it's as nice as yours! Will be watching for the unveiling of your creations, as that is always exciting to see what you get after all the waiting, as the anticipation builds!! Good luck, Donna

Thanks! The stem is also the most slender one in my collection. I had to try another picture, here with flash the vains in the greener parts are better but the red isn't as deep as it should be.
{{gwi:372128}}

As I wrote, I don't predict anything too special for my own crosses. White x red should become red, but I'm interested how much variation there'll be in these.

Emerald is an absolute little beauty, BK, I'd love to be able to have one like that in my collection. Maybe one day. And your own crosses are already special. It'll be very exciting to see exactly what they do turn out to be.

It snowed again here today, my flatmate tried to showel his car free but then decided that it was the best not to drive today since a lot of cars got stuck. Well, for me, I stayed at home and took pictures:
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Picotee

I thought 'Picotee' would be the first of my plants to bloom this season. It came on the 10th of September and was a compensation for the bulb I first received in April that turned out to be 'Nymph'.
Strangely it needed 4 month to bloom, this may be since it decided to split into two first, as seen here:
{{gwi:372130}}

that's interesting to see about the split bulb Carl -

I think the same thing that is happening to my Papilio:

{{gwi:372131}}

Has about 10-12 leaves coming out of the one bulb at the moment!

Will be interesting to see what happens.

I thought it would look something like that once the leaves spread out when they're longer. I think that's well and all too, they're just taking each other the light away ;).
I got this bulb like that, first thing it did was to grow leaves in those two spots, when I cleaned the bulb I noticed it.

The thing that I'm dissatisfied about is the fact that the red picotee is nearly invisible in some parts of the bloom. I've seen pictures of 'Picotee' where the red line was much more distinct. Mine looks more like 'President Johnson', which I allways thought to be inferior to 'Picotee' ...
Hopefully it gets better the next season.

Carl, that's very interesting about your Picotee splitting - I've never seen that before. Perhaps with your good care the read edge will be stronger next year.
Alana

Hi Carl, Sorry about your Picotee and it's faint red line, but as Alana says, maybe another year it will show a stronger red line. Funny you should say that you heard that President Johnson was inferior to Picotee because I found these pictures on the web and they were so gorgeous I couldn't believe it!

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Sure would love to have one of these!! Maybe yours will look like this next year! Give you something to look forward to. I wonder if anyone out there has a Pres. Johnson that looks like these! I saw one at a nursery this season and left it there!

Donna

Wow, these look very different from the PJ I have seen until now. They're really supreme coloured, not as whased-out as those others. The Picotee's border is really thinner which make her the more elegant, and I don't see that either in mine. My Picotee looks more like a really badly whashed-out Presitent Johnson ...
But I don't want to decide now, I would have loved to make crosses with her but I'll delay that on next season if the colouring is improving till then.

Carl, Very cool on the seedling bulbs and 'Emerald' is very stunning!

Gosh, they're taking forever to bloom. I hoped they'd bloomed till now because I'm now off to my parents for 2 weeks or so. When I'm back, I'm hoping to see lots and lots of blooms. They're now unheated so they shouldn't be gone that quick. Nearly all of them are showing flowering scrapes, I'm really happy.

{{gwi:372136}}

The papilio I ordered appears to be somewhat else, perhaps orange or salmon-coloured with 4 blooms per scrape. I'm going to write to the dealer, I hope to get a replacement.

:-)
Always and everywhere the same sickness!
Always try to get a replacement! This dealers think, they can do, what they want.
But sometimes You get a surprise!
Dont worrie!

My Papilios turned out to be Giraffe, not a bad mistake, but a mistake none the less. Hopefully, you will get a pleasant surprise and not the usual solid orange or red! Your plants all look so vibrant and healthy, all those wonderful buds with their little secrets inside (!) can't wait to see what your creations look like!

Donna

I haven't send an email yet. I thought I might have one still stored, I'm sure I have some paper that came with it back then in my flat. But here with my parents, I've got to find the merchant again. Hopefully he believes me ...

In March I'll post a picture with flowers opened, I promise ;)

I would like to be able to put that many bulbs in one pot to save on the meager indoor real estate I have now. How long are these bulbs staying there? Do you have any problem separating them or are you overwintering them in the same pot?

Hi Jet,

I really only have the varieties listed in the first post. Here's how I overwintered them: {{gwi:372137}}

The seedlings have been in this longer pot since ever (May 2007). I started with 150 seeds, 100 of those sprouted. I could leave them in this pot for a long time until I reduced the amount to 20. When I repotted in the middle of last year I again chosed the healthiest ones, I just reduced to 14 even though the pot was still crowded. Dividing those wasn't as bad as I thought. The bigger problem where the leaves that made the bulbs fall over so I had to fix them with tape: {{gwi:372138}}

In general Hippeastrum prefer bigger pots, even if each plant seems to have less space than in a small pot for themselves.

I will choose the 4 ones with the best blooms and put them in such a pot as my 'Amputo' and 'Supreme Garden's ... all the other ones go to friends of mine. I wouldn't want to leave them in this pot for another year. Which means that I'll be dealing with lots of leaves again while unpotting. But I had to have it that way since I've got to check for the best blooms first ;)

I hope that helped,
best regards,

Carl

Concrete Block,

They are really looking GOOD!

I do hope that you can post some pictures.

Ann

Hi Ann,
Thanks for the compliments. I've got to admit that I'm pretty fond of myself getting those to bloom so quickly!
I'm looking for a ride on Thursday to get back to my place as soon as possible. First thing I'll do when I arrive is making pictures, of course ;)

Thank you so much Carl. Your info will help guide me with the small seedlings I have right now.

I'm happy to be of service. Hope your seedlings will do well!

I just came thorugh the door of our flat and of course while I was away some of the blooms already faded away. Sadly I was way too slow for the Not-Papilio, all of those did collapse.

{{gwi:372139}}

wxr#01 scrape with 4 blooms yet to open

wxr#02 scrape with 4 opened blooms: solid light-red with clear green eye. Slender inner ring of petals (especially the lower one), outer ring much broader. 14+cm across. Filaments just green on the origin.

wxr#03 scrape emerged

wxr#04 Two scrapes! First with 4 blooms already gone, second with 4 yet to open.

wxr#05 really short and thin scrape about to open

wxr#06 scrape just visible, lean leaves. Doesn't look to healthy.

wxr#07 4 blooms with great shape, somewhat H. aulicum-like, ~13cm across. Big green eye, slight green stripes in the middle of the petals. Around those the red is darker with veines. Long greener part on the filaments. My favourite till now!

wxr#08 scrape emerged, robust leaves

wxr#09 4 blooms yet to open

wxr#10 scrape just visible

wxr#11 no scrape

wxr#12 short and thin scrape with 4 blooms, 3 opened. Miniature-looking blooms but also up to 13cm across. Darker than the others especially the throat. Whiteish-green eyes and origins of the filaments. Also a keeper!

wxr#13 scrape with 3 blooms already gone

wxr#14 short scrape is about to rip open

wxr#02

{{gwi:372140}}

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wxr07

{{gwi:372142}}

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wxr#12

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You do have some keepers there!! Congratulations!! Was it the white x red cross that gave you all the various shades of orange? I'm sure you will have some pleasant surprises yet to come you may find more than 4 to keep!

Donna

The first picture of each wxr#02 and wxr#07 have been made with daylight, they're more colour accurate.
The blooms aren't as orange as Orange Sovereign (which now bloomed with 5 blooms on one scrape!) but way lighter than the pollen donator ...

I made another picture with flash, but that didn't turn out that great too. The blooms are really less orange ...

{{gwi:372146}}

Carl, They are all very nice! But I especially like wxr#12, It's got a great shape.

Thank you! I agree, but I find wxr#07 a little bit more exciting, they both have their own charm!
{{gwi:372148}}

Number one looks like #07 but has these slight thorns in the throat which I doesn't fancy too much. The green eye and the spots on the petals are more white, somewhat like #12.

Also #04 and #09 are flowering. #04 looks somewhat like #02 and #09 like #12 but with a more slender lower petal.

{{gwi:372149}}

Sydney

This picture really turned out well, what you can see is that the fishbone-stripes in the middle are of darker red than the more orange outer parts. I didn't notice this before!
Sydney is a really rewarding bulb. Last year it had 3 scrapes with 4 blooms each. This year there are two and the first one that's open has 5 blooms! The bulb hasn't shrunken and after Orange Sovereign's weak performance (and lots of shrinkage, probable due to repotting) it's a nice surprise. Next up is Minerva and there and Supreme Garden is flowering but I'll make pictures when more have their scrapes developed when the whole thing looks more pompous!

Sydney really is a beauty!! And that IS a gorgeous picture!!

Thank you, for my cheap wacky camera, yes it is! ;)

Great pic of 'Sydney', Carl! wxr#01 is nice too! I don't see the thorns in the throat?

Oh, this bloom didn't have much of these, the other ones on the stake where more "deformed", but you can see those slight "ears" on the lower petal.

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Supreme Garden


{{gwi:372151}}Sydney

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... turning double?

They're all beautiful in my eyes Carl!

How could something that resulted from so much loving and caring be ugly???

Now forgive me for missing some posts as I have been in and out of the forum. What cross are these seedlings from?

Thanks in advance!

I agree with Maria: they are all beautiful. I especially appreciate the color and form variations in your seedlings -- great evidence that WxR yields so much more than "just red."

Amanda

Well, they are just that: Red. If it looks like they're all in different shades, that's just my bad photography! They're all deep (but not dark) red with a slight bit of orange.
I guess it's difficult, but I'm sure that a lot of caring could result in something ugly ... but that's of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder. ;)

Maria: They're all from a cross (ok, three different blooms with the same parents) of an unnamed white with an unnamed red one.

Give them one more season Carl. Take away all attached/developing bulblets and let the main bulb develop as much as it can this season. (Ouch! But you got to do this) Feed, feed, feed. Once you put them to rest again next winter, try to maitain the temps in 50-55F. This would definitely give improvement on their flowers next season. Most seedlings don't show their best in their first flowers.

You have done a very good job already! Good growing and more good luck!

I guessed so myself that the flowers will still darken ... but I'm not sure what else will improve ...

This all is just more of an experiment. I started getting interested in Hippeastrums by putting pollen from my parents flower on the one that was reblooming in my room (I think I already had it for a couple of years but never cared for it too much). I quite fond of myself for getting those to flower quickly even though they haven't had good conditions at fist and developed slowly.
But now I have a couple of flowers I just admire more than a single coloured big one ... so I'm not sure whether I will continue breeding with those!

Are you sure that cutting off all the bulblets will really help the mother bulb? I always read that they just respond to that in producing more bulblets ...

Another Oooops!!! Sorry to have missed your question Carl.

Yes, this is for sure to help the main bulb of your seedlings that tend to give out offsets. Charles (Hadeco) has adviced me this in one of my inquiries on how to go along with my seedlings that are taking forever to mature here in my growing conditions.

Producing bulblets is a genetic thing. A bulb will constantly give out bulblets if it is in it's genes to do so. But IF we are talking about seedlings that you want to develop/mature faster, taking of the bulblets once you see them growing makes the main bulb concentrate it's energy in it's own development instead of sharing the food with the bulblets.

Well, I always had the idea that the new developed offsets are taking as much resources as the big ones. These have at least often their own roots!
But I might be wrong there ... nevertheless, I'm rather leaving them be. They are my ownly Hippeastrums to produce bublets apart from Supreme Garden.

I'm planting the four of them I'm keeping in one bigger container, and I hope the offsets will soon produce bublets themselfes. Imagine such a pot in full bloom ... that'll take some time but it will definetly improve their "performance" too ;)

That's your choice Carl. I just explained why taking out of bulblets from seedlings help the main bulb develop faster. I do have a lot of seedlings that do this, including papilio crosses. Which is understandable as the seed parent of this particular papilio cross LOVES to give out bulblets.

And of course, a pot full of scapes and flowers is "Hippie Perfect"!!!
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Maria,
Perfect; Will they remain in the same pot till next year.

ARIF,

This picture of this Lovely Garden was taken last summer. It is right now still sleeping in my unheated garage. It shall be potted up to the next size pot once it starts to wake up.

I have Supreme Garden, as I wrote. I bought them as two clusters and some of the weaker bulbs had problems growing new roots ... I think. They where in a thick sandy soil and I had cleaned them as good as possible, but I guess I'll have to do that again in the remote future since there'll be a lot of dead roots cramped unter the bubls. Something like your pot was what I had in mind ... they just look stunning blooming together.
Your Lovely Garden look like they're having bigger blooms than my SG and your bubls are obviously well fed and are enjoying much direct sunlight!

No blooming Hippeastrum here, but my deformed Schlumbergera I already wrote about on this forum is blooming again!

{{gwi:372154}}

{{gwi:372155}}

On the first pic, there's a bulb bought as "H. reticulatum" sending up a first leaf, It's way over a year since I bought it! The leaves look more like 'Mrs. Garfield', at least the stripe is not as solid as in the "H. reticulatum var. striatifolium" pics I've seen ... sadly I don't think I will recieve blooms from this one in the near future, the bulb has shrunken too much.

Also you can see my crosses from '09 but they didn't grow for some time, now they're getting new broader leaves. Most of the "Sydney x Amputo" crosses didn't made it, so I'll just regard the ones still alive as most valuable ;)

And then there's my Passiflora amethystina in the back which lost a lot of leaves due to a Mealybug infestation. I had hoped for it to flower, but that'll have to wait until next year.