Wow Laurier - one year old, huh? Well, I guess they don't call it Rapido for nothing. Alana

Only a year old??? Heavens! Tell us exactly how you cared for this bulb? Soil - fertilizer etc. Thanks, and congratulations!

LOL, Alana, you just took the joke from my mouth!

Congrats, Laurier. That is a very healthy looking bulb/seedling you have there. Please do keep us posted on how the scape develops, we'd love to see photos of your new hybrid!

As far as what is so special about this particular bulb, my best guess is that through the randomness of nature it wound up with only the best genetic material from both parents, and has obviously been cared for quite well.

Phoenix Ryan

This plant is part of an ongoing experiment I'm doing on hippeastrums. I'm a breeder and when I decided to try my hand at hippeastrums, I read that it could take 5 to 7 years to get a bloom from seed. Then I saw 3 to 5 years until I learned that the professionnals of the industry could do it in 2 years. I never saw anything lower than 2 years.

At my age, since I have more time behind me than in front of me, I decided to try to "build a better mouse trap": I didn't have time to waste and I just couldn't afford to wait 2-3 years for a plant to bloom and to decide if I keep it for my breeding program or not.

After studying what these plants needed to grow well, after looking up information about the area where they grow in nature and the conditions they get to grow, I could draw some general rules that I thought maybe could help me getting better results and faster.

I applied these rules and just as I was about to give up on hopes to succeed blooming bulbs from seed in less than 2 years, I found this plant that was telling me that I succeeded, not completely, but to some degree at least. This method needs to be perfected before I can truly rejoice, but there really is a possibility to shorten the time between seed and bloom.

This experiment was done with complex hybrids (around 100 of them), but I have some primary hybrids and species (some 35-45 of them) undergoing the same kind of tests and up to now, it seems to work very well on these too. Unfortunately, because of other priorities in life, these have been more neglected than the complex hybrids but they are still doing so well that I will still be very close to 1 year bloom time if all continues on that way.

It's too early yet to share the whole of what I learned, I still have everything to learn, so many things to try and modify to see if things could still be improved a bit.

Laurier

I am definitely interested in learning your technique, when you are ready to share it with us!!

Phoenix Ryan

Ma parole,Laurier! C'est simplement incroyable! Bon travaille.Les Anges du Jardin sont avec toi lo.
There must be alot of roots on this yearling to produce so many mature leaves.It's amazing how quickly the plant could convert energy to induce spathe formation and strength to elongate to bloom...On Verra T'ze
Paix et un gros merci pour votre informations Mark

Mark, interesting comment you made about root size being related to leaf size, which then increases bulb size, and finally produces a scape. Did I follow that right? So should the initial empahsis be on growing large amounts of roots in a new seedling? I've noticed on the bulbs that I've put in planters for the summer that the ones that have produced the longer leaves (in excess of 36") are the ones in the taller/bigger planters, so I assume the bulbs have grown more roots. I always thought that plants need to be somewhat pot-bound first to then start to grow in size, but that might not be the case. Your thoughts? Alana

Indeed, this is one of my findings among many others, something that is of outmost importance, the roots. A plant is only as good as its root system: bad roots, bad plant, good roots, good plant.

Another finding, and by saying what I'm about to say I dont mean to say that I'm absolutely right, I beleive that saying "these bulbs need to be pot bound" is wrong, very wrong in my opinion.

Let's see how these plants grow in nature. They are not in pot and their roots can wander wherever they want, they are not "bound". If you have a bad growing medium, your bulb has better be pot bound or the roots will most likely rot. If you have a good growing medium, the roots will expand almost at will and you can almost water at will during the growing season.

I plant my 2 cm diameter seedlings in a 14 cm pot and the first thing I know, the pot is full of roots. I found that the larger the pot, the better the root system will be as long as your growing medium is appropriate.

The only reason to me why I would want to limit the pot size to a smaller size is the room it takes, but if I had that room, I wouldn't hesitate to use 15-20 cm size pot for the larger bulbs. The large bulbs I have in 15 cm pots need to be watered every second day during the growing season depending on the weather of course.

My 2 cents only...

Laurier

One of the things I know from my work with desert plants, is that when a plant is stressed, it will make every attempt to reproduce, in order to ensure the survival of the species. Now, I'm not sure if this carries over to hippeastrum or not, but I imagine to some degree it does. I've seen many folks post on here about how pot-bound bulbs are more reliable bloomers and produce offsets more readily (in other words they are attempting reproduction). So my guess would be that gardeners who are focused more on reliable blooming are in a sense creating a very controlled stressful environment for their bulbs by keeping them pot-bound. Just my theory, I certainly would appreciate hearing anyone else's opinion.

A question we might need to ask ourselves is if we're stressing a plant to the point that it's blooming in an all out effort to save the species, is the plant going to put forth the best genetic material in the seeds it produces?

I think I prefer Laurier's approach. I'd rather have gloriously healthy plants that have all of their needs met and are free to grow as they please and bloom when and if they see fit. The results pretty much speak for themselves in Laurier's photo above.

Phoenix Ryan

With one plant only, it could be said thay it was only luck and good genetics. But with a second plant with a scape, luck and genetics can't be the only factors anymore I suppose. Indeed, I found a second plant of a different cross with a flower scape too, and this one is not even a year old yet, it will turn 1 year old on August 11th, and the bulb is smaller than the previous one.
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On the left is the new plant, a cross of (Charisma x Fairytale). On the right, the same one as pictured above, but 3 days later, its easy to see that the scape is much taller than it was.

I have created a section on the hippeastrum page of my web site so any one can follow the development of these plants if they would like to do so. If the scape don't abort or the flowers dry up in the spathe, I will post pictures of the blooms here.

Thanks for looking!

Laurier

Dear Laurier,

In research, the most carefully designed studies have an alpha of 0.05, that is that out of 100 cases, you will see the desired effect in 5 just by chance or for reasons that can not be explained entirely. So my Hippi friend and care-giver extraordinaire, it could be that these wonderful cases are just by chance. When you get more than 5% blooming this early, it is considered significant. It's wonderful no matter what...and I can't wait to see what your secrets are; however, chance may still be a factor. PLEASE PROVE ME WRONG!!! We all look foward to seeing lots of scapes on these young bulbs so that we can apply the practice to our own! I have 100s of seedlings and all are thriving, but none are doing anything close to yours. My first crosses took 3 years (standard) to bloom.

Thanks for posting Laurier....I am green with envy!!
Kristi
Spring, TX

Geezzz Laurier! I'm sending all of my seedlings to Quebec!!! Congratulations and I applaud you for such good work. I have read somewhere that crosses of miniatures mature faster and bloom faster than large flowering varieties. The question is...Does it matter??? The important thing is to see the results of your hard work. Hybridizing in the North is a LOT harder than in warmer states due to our cold winters. And for you doing this up there in Quebec sure is very impressive. Whether it is just luck or not, I would still consider this is as a major achievement! This is actually, the very FIRST documentation of a bloooming hippie in just 1 year from seeds that I have seen/read.

BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!

Well I'm impressed... what are you feeding these plants and why aren't you sharing? ;oD

I never grew a seedling... but even my bulblets don't grow this fast, except for one-- Royal Velvet, which lizalily tells me bloomed for her (sent to her in a trade) this summer-- which even for that one, puts it at just over a year.

Well done, Laurier

I'm still after an answer from the more knowledgeble among you, what is the shortest time you know of from seed to bloom? Maria says she has never seen/read anything like 1 year, would anyone else have an idea? Thanks for any input!

Kristi, thanks for your input, but that raises some questions in my mind. To bloom for the first time, a bulb needs to be of a certain size. In her book, Veronica Read says 14 cm around and more. Mines are 16 cm around and to me this is one of the reason why they are blooming, because they have reached the proper size to allow them to bloom.

So I ask everyone again here too, has anyone anywhere ever heard of someone bringing some 150 seeds out of some 200 to a bulb size of 14 cm around and more (blooming size according to V. Read) in less than a year? Thanks for any input you may have!

Laurier

PS I think that what I did is a world's first, but I would just like to ensure it is, not just brag about it and falsely state things that are wrong.

Greetings Laurier,

I was very impressed when our dear LoraÂs Pink Floyd x Emerald seedling bloomed in just 22 months.

Your accomplishment is simply astounding! I have never heard or read of a briefer period of elapsed time from the sowing of seed to scape production.

Je pense que vous êtes un maître jardinier, le grand champion, et détenteur du record du monde.

Salut à vous mon ami!

Cordialement,

Blanca

All I can say is wow!!! wow!!!
Great job!!
I too believe healthy plant first.

Blanca, Pink Floyd x Emerald should have been fabulous. Did she post pictures? What did it look like?

Laurier, I have just started with seedlings this year and so the ones I have are only several months old. I cannot comment about length of time to bloom. I only know that I've observed that seedlings put in their own larger pot seem to grow in size quicker than those keep together in their original germination container. I assume this is part of your observation as well.

Alana

Hi Alana,

Here is a link to Lora's post. She is an amazingly creative and talented hybridizer and very much missed here.

Cheers,

Blanca

Here is a link that might be useful: Lora's Pink Floyd x Emerald

Laurier,

Congratulations for achieving this impressive feat!

Please keep us updated.

Hatta

Blanca, thanks so much for looking up that post for me! I got completely sidetracked reading that one and other associated threads, I forgot to come back here and thank you - so sorry. That sure was a great read though. When I have some down time I need to go back and read some of the posts from before I joined - what a great wealth of information.

Alana

Thanks everyone for your comments. I have more news!

First, the first flower should open tomorrow if all goes as well as they have been going these past few days.

Second, I just discovered a third plant with a flower scape, one that was also started on August 11th 2008, a cross of (Charisma x Picotee) this time, so that accounts for 3 different crosses blooming in just a year. Judging from the scape on it, it was there all along with the 2 previous ones, it just went unnoticed all that time. I wont post pix here because there are too many that were taken during these past few days, so the best would be to visit my web site to see the progress made in the last few days. I will only post here the pix of the first flowers when they open.

Third, in the last few days, with the help of a very good friend, I did a lot of researches to make sure that this was in fact a world's first. With all what I did, all the persons I got in touch with, I can't but reasonably conclude that this is a world's first, that is to successfully go from seed to bloom in a year with a hippeastrum. And that is happening 3 times (out of 90 plants in this batch), not only once.

Fourth and last, I've written down all what I did during that year all the steps, everything. It has dates, tables, pictures, etc. Sorry, it will not be published here though since I'm up to 12 pages right now and I'm not through yet. Of course, it is in French for now, it will need to be translated in English later on, but that may take a while since English is not my native language. When, where and how will it be published? Sorry, I don't know yet, but I'm working on it!...

Thank you all! More to come!...

Laurier

Laurier mon bo C'est tres bon ca lo! Ma parole Suis plein d'excite pour tue.Le premiere,2e et 3e fois au monde ? C'est vraimant clair que L'Ange t'ait rendu visite! je voudrais voir tes fleurs quand Ils fleurissants t'ze.Toutes simplement maginifique! Bon travaille et je te souhaite beaucoup plus de surprises a l'avenir.
Une grosse merci pour votre informations. A++ Mark

363 days, 2 days short of a whole year, the first flower from the cross (Charisma x Fairytale) finally opened today. Not very fully opened yet, but enough so we can see what it is going to look like. Not an exceptional flower in any way, the "exceptional" is more in the story that lies behind it.
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Enjoy!

Laurier

Finally, here is the official picture taken a few minutes ago:
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Laurier

Laurier C'est juste parfait comme ca! Je l'adore Je peux pas attendre pour voir les autres Laisse maintnant faire une partie lo LO Mark

BUMP!!!

Let's remember and celebrate these days with Laurier!!!

Pity no details are available of his method any more. I am sure he would have been sad also to see this happening.