Amaryllis - Hippeastrum

[Lemonboy]

@SpookyShoe Yours looks to be the real deal too. There are so very many Apple Blossom imposters these days that it's getting very hard to find.

Actually, I bought the bulbs, three of them, several years ago at Home Depot. They were labeled "Pink Garden Amaryllis."

I've been calling them Apple Blossom, because I assumed that is what they were.

Big box stores often sell crosses as named varieties with anything grown from bulbs or rhizomes. I've gotten irises before that were similar to what I was looking for but we're smaller and didn't have the blooms I was expecting. They buy them from discount vendors and sell them eve though they know there's little chance they are what the labels claim.

[SpookyShoe]

Blooming right on time for outdoor amaryllis, around Easter. These are Tinkerbell.

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[SpookyShoe]

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It's not coming across but this amaryllis is a vibrant orange color.

[karstopography]

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One of my mom’s Amaryllis patches. She says these multiply.

[SpookyShoe]

I bought the plant at a CVS about 3 weeks ago. It had three large stalks on it. The tag said it's called "White Candie."

After it finishes blooming, I'll put the bulb in the ground. The bulb will cycle to bloom outdoors around Easter, just like all the other amaryllis bulbs in the in my area do. It won't bloom this Easter since it's already bloomed around Christmas 2024. I'll have to wait to see the blossoms again until Easter 2025.

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[SpookyShoe]

This is another of the potted bulbs designed to bloom around Christmas that I purchased from Walmart. The tag said the variety was Ice Pink, which is a saturated dark pink color. Mine are a pastel pink. The bulb that I ended up with is probably some generic pink variety.

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[SpookyShoe]

Another variety of Walmart bulbs I bought to bloom around the holidays. This one took a while and the variety is called "Glee." I had to bring it indoors because like a lot of other people right now we are experiencing abnormal cold.

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[MissS]

Another variety of Walmart bulbs I bought to bloom around the holidays. This one took a while and the variety is called "Glee." I had to bring it indoors because like a lot of other people right now we are experiencing abnormal cold.IMG_20250121_134010832.jpg

This is only a generation or two removed from the species Hippeastrum 'Papilio'. Does this one have 2 blooms on a stalk or four?

[SpookyShoe]

Four. What does this mean?

[CtGrower]

I love all of the Amaryllis! They brighten up a cold and dreary day here. Thanks for sharing!

@MissS What do you do to have yours bloom for 9 years? I sometimes can get them to bloom 2 years, but that is it.

Diane

[MissS]

Four. What does this mean?

I love Papilio and played around breeding with her. To get 4 blossoms per stem means that she was bred with one of the hybrids. It takes about 3 generations to get to 4 blooms per stem. I was wondering because the breeder did a great job at preserving Papilio's form as well as her coloring. My guess is that they bred her to one of the white cultivers to get such nice saturated coloring. Papilio has those nice little butterfly wings at the bottom that usually are lost when crossing her. This one still has them.

[MissS]

@CtGrower When repotting, it is important to inspect the basal plate at the bottom of the bulb where the roots form. When it becomes thick and hard, the plant has trouble making any new roots and dies. If the basal plate is thicker than 3/4" I cut it back to the base of the bulb. New roots will easily grow from there now. If you keep the basal plate young and healthy, feed your plant and give it what it wants, the plant will grow for years and multiply as well.

[SpookyShoe]

This morning I went to Houston Garden Center to see if they had any snapdragons. They didn't. However, they had dozens and dozens of amaryllis plants to sell. I didn't buy any because I have enough. Some of the plants were badly mislabeled.

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[SpookyShoe]

This is the last of my Christmas amaryllis to bloom. It's one of the bulbs I bought at Walmart in December. I somehow managed to lose the name of the variety.

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[MissS]

That's a beauty. I love the red stamens and full saturated color of it's throat.