And So It Begins Anew. . . .

I found someone to take the majority of my virused bulbs to grow on for seed production in a dedicated greenhouse. The lucky thing is one can get seed from virused bulbs that are clean of the virus and he is wanting to work toward a strain of hippies that are immune to the Mosaic virus.  I am pleased to be a part of this endeavor and not have to destroy all of my bulbs.

I also have 6 virus free bulbs coming from him, mostly miniatures and one double flowered variety I've been wanting but hasn't been available.  On order are:

• Belladonna - Mini
• Bright Spark - Small
• Cupido - mini
• Emerald - Cybister Hybrid
• Harlequin - Double
• Lemon Sorbet -Mini, and
• Trentino - Mini

I also picked up a couple of boxed offerings from one of the discount stores that offered a % of the sale to the Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure. those two are PINK DIAMONDS and APHRODITE. (I have had to toss one of the two small APHRODITE bulbs as it began looking suspicious for the virus, better safe than sorry). These are being kept separate from all the others.

Up-date on LITTLE STAR, instead of taking a long rest the mother bulb has begun to push up 2 bloom stems that I hope to be able to make crosses on using stored pollen as well as a couple of self pollinationed pods.

Newest seeds sown are from a self fertilized pod on Matterhorn, a lovely large white, one of only 3 round flowered seedlings I have growing right now and all are upstairs under the lights of the small plant stand in my office.  It will be 3 to 4 years before I see any bloom on any of them.

Will post images of the new bulbs as they come into flower.

Ciao!

Summer 2011 Disaster Strikes


This is so hard to write. All these beautiful images are all I have left of 75% or better of my mature hippie collection.  Hippeastrum Mosaic Virus has hit my collection and hit it hard.  All of the plants that were in the basement (wintered there) are infected, including 2 different sets of seedlings. Only a few plants remain unaffected, but away from the new babies.


This is what is left and appears to be healthy:

1. H.papilio
2. SANTIAGO
3. EXOTIC STAR - 2 PLUS SMALL PUPS
4. RED LION &
5. MINERVA (I suspect they may also be infected, so they are away from the others)
6. GREEN DRAGON (actually two plus one has 10 or so pups)
7. LIMA, but it hasn't been growing really well so I will have to watch it closely.
8. BABY DOLL
9. H. roseum
10. APHRODITE - 2 babies

I have kept LITTLE STAR in spite of the virus and hope to be able to self it or cross it onto something so I can grow a clean population of it from seeds or at leas a cross.

The following crosses are doing well:

These are all miniature or Cybister type Crosses -

1. BABY DOLL X ESTELLA (3)
2. EXOTIC START X CYBISTER ROSE (4)
3. RUBY MEYERS X papilio 
4. CYBISTER ROSE X CHICO
5. LA PAZ X SANTIAGO (3)
6. H papilio X CHICO (12)
7. LUNA X self (12)
8. CHICO X EVERGREEN (3)
9. LEMON STAR X self (1)
10. EVERGREEN X TIRAMISU (6)
11. JUNGLE STAR X EVERGREEN (4)

These will be full, round flowers and BIG!

1. MOONLIGHT X CHARISMA (8)
2. CHARISMA X MOONLIGHT (5)

I was also fortunate in getting two huge seed pods on MATTERHORN, so hopefully they will finish ripening as a cut flower in water and I can try to grow some of them out. with the exception of H. papilio and Santiago, I have none of the parents.

Later I will post a list of what was lost. If I hadn't found that Amaryllis can grow happily with 4 to 6 hours of direct sun I wouldn't have discovered the virus as it doesn't show itself on plants grown indoors or in full shade.