I'm new to this forum and just wanted to make a short introduction to myself. I'm a university student in the north-east of Germany and the little space my shared flat has to offer is taken over by my Hippeastrum plants (and a few other ones). I started crossing by pollinating my regular white one with my parent's red one when I was still living with them. From that on I fell into these splendid plants and even though my windowsill space is overcrowded I'm still ordering new ones. I just wanted to show you a snapshot of my plants before they moved in their winter residence ;)

On top there's my cross (I guess it's something like 'Christmas Gift' x 'Royal Velvet') from May 2007, I hope they're ready to bloom!
The unlabled is 'Sydney', in the black pot there's (you might have guessed it) 'Minerva'

And I wanted to ask you a question regarding my H. reticulatum: I got it via Ebay from Thailand and it hasn't moved since a month. Here are two pictures:
Fungus on the base plate
Bulb at the moment in a honey jar ...
What can I do to make it advance? I've raised the temperature in my room but still it doesn't to anything ...

By now, I'm sure you know my feelings on mediums, so I won't go there.

I will tell you how I would have handled the bulb in question, though. I would have cleaned off the basal plate, and dusted it with an anti-fungal powder. Then, I would have planted it in a small clay pot with a porous medium. (Those are just my preferences, however.)

Some bulbs simply take a while to get moving above the soil line, and will spend time growing a good root system first. I can't see the sides of the glass container in the photograph, so I'm not sure what the roots look like... they may be growing into their new home, and this may be where the bulb is putting its energy right now.

It also could be that the bulb is resting. I have a tiny Hadeco Peach Blossom bulb that rested for an entire year before deciding to grow its first leaf. It currently has two beautiful green leaves, but it took forever to get growing! I almost gave up on it!

Other than being patient, I'm not sure what you can do to hurry it along. I assume it's being fed? In which case, I'd say, just be patient... if it has decent roots, it should begin growing soon. The bulb, itself, looks healthy... and if the fungus is taken care of, then it's only a matter of time before leaves appear.

This type of question is more Maria's field... or perhaps another of our esteemed, more experienced growers can help... anyone?

Again... welcome! Stick around... the forum is about to get busy and very colorful, as members begin to show their newest bulbs and lovely blooms!

Welcome!

In my experience with these retics, if you acquire them at this season (cold) like your pictured one, no leaves and roots, they will take a while to show growth (leaves). This does not mean that they are not developing though. I did the very same thing last year and acquired some of these bulbs. They did nothing for me the whole winter but their bulbs stayed healthy and firm. They would grow some roots now but would grow leaves when the temperature gets warmer and the air more humid (spring). Once they are established and grown for a season, they will be fine and will handle the cold dry winter months better. My established reticulatums are actually still awake and growing leaves right now.

I would recommend very careful watering at this stage of your reticulatum bulb and try to keep in the warmest place in your growing area. Water a little bit more and fertilize once leaf growth shows. Reticulatums here in my growing conditions like lesser watering (dry-ish roots)but humid conditions (some moisture in leaves...slight misting helps). Kinda hard to provide in the Northern climate but not impossible. Good luck!!!

By the way, you have a very good amaryllis forum in Germany named "Exoten"(?). I tried to go and join them there once but had a hard time translating. I have a few German amaryllis friends that are members there. It would have been nice to chat with them in their amaryllis "home". If ever you get to visit that forum, please send my warmest "hello" to Hans Werner (moderator) and "Fishing Dentist".

Your hippeastrums are looking healthy and clean and so ready to go to their winter sleep. Good job!!!

Right, so i'll keep the temperature up (it'll cost me a more to heat the room up to ~20+°C, but should be better for myself too ... I tend to heat as little as possible)

I'll keep an eye out for fungicides, but I'm always a bit wary with chemicals. I grow most of my Hippeastrums in the room I'm also sleeping and working in. Till now I never had to use any kind of pesticides ...

I've been checking these forums for some time now and did often see some varieties here I didn't knew of before.
I try to approach the care of my plants with a more scientific point of view. I'm also doing lots of botany at the university (at the moment genetics, so my own crosses also serve to reconstruct Mendel's Laws ;) )

Thanks for the nice welcome and the quick replies! I have a lot of pictures of my blooms from this year, if you're interested?

Bottom heat usually helps with root growth, seed germination, and a myriad of other plant issues.

I keep a heating pad ready for use with seeds, cuttings, rooting, and twin scaling of bulbs. I bought mine for about $24 at Harbor Freight, but anywhere that sells seed starting equipment should have them.

And, yes! We're always interested in seeing bloom pictures! Please do share! :-)

Orange Sovereign in the bright afternoon light. Sadly the glitter didn't really made it on the photograph.
I got this Minerva bulblet from someone on the Exotenforum.
This double, I guess it was Nymph, was sent to me instead of Picotee. I don't like doubles at all, so I gave it away. The seller now sent me a replacement, hope that one turns out to be Picotee.
Sydney is my favourite red-striped one. My biggest bulb, it produced 11 leaves. I hope there will be more next year! It produced 3 scrapes! Here's a closeup.
I guess my favorite breed is Amputo. My 3 bulbs sit in one container an seemed to like it, One did produce 2 scrapes.
Also in a big community-pot, the small, multiple-flowering Supreme Garden. I especially like the green star in the center.

Those pots are actual hanging baskets, they're more or less a half sphere and work quite well for multiple bulbs.

It is so wonderful to see you here, and yes, betonkloz is translated to Concrete Block and my dear friend has been sharing private messages with me for a few years on the German forum.

Carl, I am so pleased that you have joined this forum!

Sooner or later, I will have more time to talk to you. I just received the news that my mother is dieing from pancreatic cancer. She is too ill from complications to let her know that.

It is so very wonderful to see you here!

I am sort of at a loss of words because of the other things in my life, but I am excited that you are here.

Thank you, Thank You, Thank YOU!

Stay and enjoy! Your English is superb!

Ann

I'm sorry to hear about your mother, I guess you've got a lot of things on your mind but plants and I'll sure keep you in my mind. I hope you're holding up well and I wish you all the best!

I enjoyed your photographs and what you are doing with your amaryllis! Keep up the good work and I hope to see you chatting with us often!

I started out on this list 3 years ago and now I have around 150 amaryllis and 60 seedlings I am raising. THere would be many more but I work on the plan of survival of the fittest. My goal is raising flowers for my cut flower business, a very small local one.

You deserve more than three, and I am sorry not to be able to visit your German forum as often. I miss that.

I guess that we all have to go through periods of our lives, where we feel that everything is out of our control.

But, somehow, we survive! It brings a smile to my face that you joined gardenweb and decided to contribute.

SO! YES! You deserve three thanks and many more!

Now, tell us more about your Amputo seedlings. I am curious because the translation from German to English on your home forum left me at a loss...

Ann

Carl, nice bulb that you have. And did I understand correctly that you have Amputo seedlings? That's one bulb I wasn't able to successfully cross. What did you cross it with? (and welcome, by the way) Alana

Carl, i looove your flower pictures. Simply gorgeous!

@Ann: Nothing special here. I didn't succeed in pollinating the Amputo with the varieties I wanted to cross. It was the last to flower and I didn't preserve most of the other pollen.
Luckily the Sydney emerged the third scrape at that time and was happy to receive the Amputo pollen! Of my Amputo x Sydney cross none of the seeds germinated. But I did sent some to "ty" from the Exotenforum and at his a few of the seeds did.
My Sydney x Ampute seedlings are doing fine but are the smallest.
Here are my crosses from this year, "weiße" is a friend's unnamed white one, which had very fine red lining (I guess because of the good feeding):

Carl, the heating pads I have were purchased along with seed starting flats. They came with a clear plastic cover, like a mini-greenhouse for seed germination. I imagine you could find one where ever plant and garden supplies are sold. The pad is the exact size of a flat, and I find them perfect for helping roots to grow, or for rooting cuttings, and for seed starting.

Any source of mild bottom heat would work, as long as it's not too warm, I think. The heating pads are rather convenient, though, and I'm glad I found them.

Poorly equipped garden sections are a problem here, too. If I can't find what I'm looking for at one of the stores, I usually look it up online. I don't like paying the shipping charges, but I suppose it can be worth it when it comes to the convenience of having things delivered right to my door!

Last winter, we set up a large seed starting area in the basement. I wanted at least one table to have a bottom heat source for starting picky seeds and some of the seedlings we had ordered, but I couldn't afford to buy a large table sized professional heating mat, like the ones used by large commercial greenhouse growers. So, we used a rigid heating mat designed for use in pig breeding operations. (I'm not sure what the right name for that would be.)

It's a large orange plastic item with heat coils running through it, and we attached it to a thermostat so we could adjust the heat. It worked out very well for our application, I'm happy to say. I think a heat mat designed for reptile tanks might work, as well... as long as the heat can be adjusted, and it's not too warm.

Interestingly enough, items from farming and/or the pet industry can be utilized in gardening, and be just what we need! Take the fir bark reptile bedding that I use as part of my medium mix... who would have thought that reptile bedding would be exactly what I needed? I certainly didn't!

Anyway, I wish you luck in locating a small heating pad... I will say that I'm glad I found one for my own use... it really seems to help with coaxing root growth in reluctant bulbs, and for seed germination.

Probably the easiest way to locate something unusual is to Google it... and then see where the results take you. Or, if you are at all handy, you could devise your own plant heat mat from one used for people... simply make sure you can adjust the heat, and make certain that a bit of moisture won't hurt it. The pharmacy and health industry will have heating pads... and I even think that some can be used as moist heat... although, I'm not sure of what temperature range one of those pads would have... they surely have a low setting, though. Or, you could devise a buffer between the actual pad and the bottom of the pots or flat.

All it takes is a little bit of imagination, and a real need for the item in question! :-)

The pine bark will hold a certain amount of moisture, but you will have to water more often than if you use a more water retentive medium. You can soak the pine chips over night, and then drain them, before mixing into medium, but it's not entirely necessary.

You will also want to feed a weak solution of liquid fertilizer often, too. I feed at about half, or less, strength every time I water.

The nice thing is that you have total control over all moisture and feed. There will be little to no soil collapse, so the medium will last a long time.

If you want more moisture retention, you can add turface or vermiculite to your mix... these are both more retentive than just the perlite and pine bark.

Here's a website on Bonsai that discusses the different ingredients of inorganic mediums... it also lists the different brand names for other countries, so you may find something you can utilize. Read the entire page... it has listings and pictures of product packaging from almost every country around the world, including Germany.

That's a really great idea! Necessity is the mother of invention, they say!