You can upload a photo to a site such as photobucket.com and then include the link or paste a thumbnail image to your post.

Thanks!

That's ok. "Most" of us know what an aborting scape looks like. Posting pics here is actually easier said than done. For me anyway. I have been posting and sharing pictures here for years. Those were the days when I was not too busy. Now, it just takes too much of my time. I still try to post pics sometimes but dread the process of going to photobucket and then here.

Night Star is a Dutch grown variety. It has been harvested since August/Sept., pre-cooled for 8 weeks, and then sent to bulb suppliers before we buy them. It has been around 10 months since it was uprooted and dried. That's almost a year for the helpless bulb without any nutrition.

Your Night Star is "tired"...."stressed".

Stressed "Hippeastrum bulbs" WILL NOT put it's left energy into pushing out a scape and flower. NOR will it bear seeds if ever. Instead, it will abort it's scape or reject pollinations to save it's fluids (whatever is left in the scales) to produce leaves and roots. That is how a hippeastrum bulb works. In other words, your Night Star is just acting normally as any hippeastrum bulb would do...to survive. So don't panic or worry and just let it do it's own thing. What's important right now is that the bulb is firm and healthy, leafing and rooting out. THAT is actually what it needs to survive and not a flower that would deplete it'e energy more.

Your fertlizer is fine. Actually it is looking to be a good one for hippies. What brand is it?

Feed...feed...feed (right amount)your hippies while they are actively growing and leafing out. Give them as much light as you can now. They need to grow leaves and roots to recover and build up that bulb again. Because ONLY through developing healthy leaves (at least 8 for a mature bulb), will you be almost guaranteed for a bloom next season. Veronica Read (a Hippeastrum expert)clearly explains that in her book, Chapter 8 "Structure and Development", page 159-178.

Papilios August 2008 encouraged to leaf out.

Papilio II August 2009, 2 scapes in mother bulb, 1 scape in attached bulblet., planted in a 10 inch pot.

Healthy leaves...healthy roots...healthy hippie...beautiful flowers. NOTHING else will be as important as these to make your hippeastrum bulb flower. I do not believe that getting your hippies rootbound will make them bloom. I wonder who came up with that idea??? Not the experts and commercial growers for sure!!!! Hippie growers that are in the cutflower production surely wants flowers. But they DO NOT grow hippies in pots. They grow them in the ground of the greenhouses, given perfect growing conditions and make them leaf out really good to ensure LOTS of scapes to be produced. Stressing them out would be the last thing they would do to their crops. More flower scapes produced per square meter of growing area means more $$$. I myself had to repot all the hippies in the collection to the next size pot, including the seedlings every season. Now that is what's keeping me so busy right now. They could grow so much roots in one season when they are happy with their growing conditions.

Hope that helps Marlon. Good luck! Take good care of your Night Star now and it will pay you back with beautiful flowers next season.

A cybister pic for you Marlon. I didn't mean to ignore you on your request on your post for cybister flowers. It's just I'm busy, busy, busy. You can also try to use our search engine. Just type "cybisters" and you will be amazed of how much pictures we have shared in here.

And flowers for everybody..."Valentine's Day in July"
Hippies growing happily, waking up and flowering in their own time. That's GilmarI (red with white eye)that I have had since 2006. It must be happy and content growing in an 8 inch pot.

Happy Hippie gardening to all!

MariaVA-- what is the flower in the second-to-last photo, kind of in the back, off-center to the left? Its amazing. I love its color.

Rocky

Marlon, Rocky Mountain Ryan brings up an excellent point that the aborted scape may only be a symptom of another problem that may be visible to our experts in a photo.

Phoenix Ryan

Phoenix Ryan