Lovely photo..you did a great job capturing the red color!! And, that gorgeous red sheen in the throat...outstanding!! You know, you could try putting papilio pollen on Red Pearl..probably won't work, but you could try. I have some seeds from papilio x Benfica and they are growing well.. it's basically the same cross.. I think. Just make sure you remove all the Black Pearl's pollen before it curls up, you can cut a straw and slip it over the tip so you don't mess up your job..Just ignore me if you weren't planning on playing bee, I guess I get carried away...

Donna

Beautiful! I got a Black Pearl (hopefully) bulb this Christmas. I can't wait till it blooms.
Clare

Of course I was going to play bee.
The papillio x Black Pearl (papillio as the mother right?) flower shriveled 2 days after the pollen was applied... the other way hasn't shown anything yet.
Mike

Mike, In my case it was Benfica that was the seed parent..I used stored papilio pollen. I had also selfed two Benfica pods and gave those seeds away. The resulting seeds from that cross.. Benfica x papilio.. were extremely hard to germinate and when they did they just didn't want to grow. I did plant about 10 or so of them and they just sat for the longest time but finally sent up what looked like a single blade of grass. I now only have 6 that look like they will grown on. Finally after a long time they did start to send up more leaves..very slim leaves like most papilio crosses. There are surely better things to put papilio pollen on, but this particular year (last year) I had so many pap flowers and so much pollen I put it on just about everything! This year none of my papilios have shown the slightest indication that they might bloom. You can store your pollen in those little mini zip lock bags for several months in the fridge and some people even freeze it. I haven't done that yet...Good Luck with what ever you attempt and don't get discouraged..out of about 10 crosses last year, I only got 2 that yielded viable seeds. Many times they will give you a healthy looking seedpod that is filled with damaged seeds..they like to string you along until the very last moment before they announce that it is a failure!
Of course, when mixing ploidies as with my cross, you are just about doomed to failure..but, all you need is a couple of seeds to grow, you never know what surprises are in store for you. And of course when dealing with red, I think that the dominant color red probably wipes out most anything else the other parent brings to the table..but the papilio shape might be passed on..I'll let you know in 3 years..!
{{gwi:450527}}

Donna

Donna...the seedling on the very left has a good chance of not having "Benfica red" flowers. Watch it.

Maria,

Does the pigmentation give idea to flower coloring? I know that Amaryllis belladonna seed is indicative to the coloring of the flowers.