For generations my family has been growing a small, pale orange/pink hippeastrum with flowers about the size of a daylily; based on Google image searches it looks like it is probably Hippeastrum blossfeldiae or H. striatum; we just always referred to it as "wild amaryllis." From a golf ball sized bulb, it blooms 1-2 times a year on 1-2 gently-curving scapes. Each bears 2-4 flowers, and the plant rarely goes dormant.

I was under the impression that this variety, whatever it is, is not hybridizable with the commercially-produced hippeastrums. So when my dad picked the unripe anthers off of a bloom and pollinated it with ripe anthers from a large store-bought scarlet amaryllis (marketed only as "red"), I thought it was just going to fail. The seeds ripened anyway so then I thought it must have must have somehow got contaminated with its own pollen even though the anthers were removed before they were ripe.

We planted the seeds; for about 3 years the seedlings grew to resemble their "mother" plant almost exactly with small bulbs, shorter leaves, and finally a smaller flower scape than commercial hippeastrums. I was expecting to find them identical to the mother, but lo and behold, the first flowers just opened: they are much larger and redder! The stem is thicker, too. Clearly it hybridized after all despite having more characteristics from the wild parentage.

My question is twofold. 1) How can I distinguish between H. blossfeldiae, striatum and petoliatum to identify the mother, and 2) how unusual is it for these to be able to cross? Is this really something that wasn't supposed to happen?

I don't have pictures right now but I hope to find a way to post them here soon.