Hippeastrum 2008

[Hans J]

Hi all ,

Today has flowered here for the first time a self sowing plant from year 2005:

Hippeastrum striatum

 Greetings
Hans

[Alberto]

Hans, I knew you are great!

Ciao
Alberto

[Hans J]

  Grazie Alberto 

[Maggi Young]

Is it usual for such a plant to take only three years to flower from seed? It seems fast!

[Hans J]

Maggi :

Yes it is unusual fast - I have other seedlings from this batch -there is no sign of flowering .

I give this plant every day a portion of TLC 

[johnw]

Today has flowered here for the first time a self sowing plant from year 2005:

Hippeastrum striatum

 Greetings
Hans

Hans  - This looks very much like one we grew as a gift seedling. The flower stems are about 50cm at most. If regularly watered and potted on it blooms 4 to 6 times a year which we thought was quite remarkable. Does yours behave the same?

H. elwesii from Grimshaw seed bloomed here in under 2 years as well. A lovely dwarf species, one a nice pale yellow and the other apricot.

A friend bloomed a Smithers Nerine hybrid from seed in 14 months. I was astounded but the flower was not worth keeping.

johnw

[Hans J]

John :

My plant is raised from seeds ex Brasil -the stem is only 22 cm high - this is the first time flowering .

Hipp. elwesii must be a wrong name -it is Rhodophiala elwesii ....but I have also seen Zephyranthes / Habranthus with this name -there must be a lot of confusion .

I have ealier sown seeds from AGS,NARGS,SRGC named as Rhodophiala -the most was wrong named - mostly it was Habranthus tubispathus .....

[johnw]

It must be the shock of 20c today as I made several mistakes.

The H. elwesii came from Harry Jans as seed in 1996, sprouted in 1997 and bloomed in just under 5 years - my mistakes. Thankfully I have a good inventory on the computer that frequently makes me a liar.

Harry says: "My plants are grown from seed too and and it took me a long time to flower it.  My original seeds came many years ago from Gothenburg Bot. Garden. It is a very nice plant, and I still have it. (It is not very hardy! but can
stand a few degrees of frost)".

Here is a picture of #1 from several years ago. What do you think it is?

I have the following Rhodophiala but have never had them bloom; long skinny bulbs. How do you grow them and get them to bloom?  I have been shy with the fertilizer and mulch the long necks with gravel (in cool greenhouse).

Rhodophiala araucana cw - Archibald #95-144277
Rhodophiala advena - NARGS #97-5410

johnw

[Hans J]

Hi John ,

After my knowing is the plant on your pic a Rhodophiala !
Please look for the links and you will find there a lot of information :

http://www.bulbsociety.org/GALLERY_OF_THE_WORLDS_BULBS/GRAPHICS/Rhodophiala/Rhodophialalist.shtml

http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Rhodophiala

http://www.amaryllidaceae.org/Rhodophiala/index.htm

My seedlings of Rhodophiala are to small for flowering – from mature plants I have R. bifida + R.chilensis –they flowers regulary .
I have also seedlings of R.elwesii ( from AGS ) – but if you have anytime seeds of your plants I would be glad to swap with you .

Regards
Hans

[Hans J]

John ,

Before few minutes I have received from a nice friend following :

Rhodophiala has spathe bracts fused on one side, leaves flat adaxially, perigone funnelform, styma trifid or 3-lobed

Hippeastrum has spathe bracts free or shortly connate proximally, and leaves are more than >2 cm wide

I hope this will help you
Hans

[johnw]

Hans - Thanks for your research, I will try to id the plants.

If they bloom this year I will certainly cross the two and/or self them and send you the seed.  I can't check the date on the photo under properties but based on the 2 previous pictures my guess it should bloom very soon.

The leaves are indeed narrow  - .4 to .5cm  wide. I am having problems with the word styma, is it German for stigma? You say 3 lobed for Rhodophiala.  If it is stigma then the picture shows 4 lobes.  No sign of buds yet but they are always a surprise so must come quickly.

One year I crossed the Hippeastrum that looks like striatum with the H. (?) elwesii. Unfortunately I didn't grow the seed but seeds were produced. I gave some to a friend and I saw her seedlings several years ago which were tiny with almost hair-like leaves. I phoned her today and she may still have a few but also may have them mixed with the striatum-look-alike  open-pollinated seedlings at this point. Of course of this cross is impossible it may very well have been selfed seed.

johnw

[Hans J]

John :

Sorry -But I can say nothing to this definition of my friend .
The german word for stigma is "Narbe".

I suppose you mean mm or ? ( you write : narrow - 4 to 5 cm wide ) .....

Please let me know if you succsessful with pollination !

Best regards
Hans

[johnw]

John :

Sorry -But I can say nothing to this definition of my friend .
The german word for stigma is "Narbe".

I suppose you mean mm or ? ( you write : narrow - 4 to 5 cm wide ) .....

Please let me know if you succsessful with pollination !

Best regards
Hans

Hans - Yes .4-.5cm (4-5mm)

I will let you know if I get blooms and seed.

If not I will be transplanting this summer and can send a bulb if they've split.

john

[johnw]

Hans - This one here certainly looks like your H. striatum.  I keep these fairly evenly moist aside from a bit of drying out bewteen waterings and they can bloom every 2 months throughout the year. The colour is a bit faded as it is almost over.

I thought it was going to be a miniature one when I got it!

johnw

[Paul T]

Sorry for contributing to this so late.  Still slowly catching up on everything in the forums.....

Rhodophiala and Hippeastrum grow quite differently.  While Hippeastrum grow as a bulb around the surface, Rhodophiala often bury themselves up to a foot down into the soil.  You can easily grow Hippeastrum in a small pot while you'll virtually never flower Rhodophialas in anything but larger pots, and the bulbs usually end up migrating down to the bottom.  R. bifida flowers for me here most years and I have a pink hybrid (bought as a pink bifida but it has up to 7 flowers per stem) that flowers religiously.  Both these, plus a few different seedlings I have grown all have the elongated bulb as they are trying to push themselves deeper, but have a rounder bulb once they are down to a cool depth that they like.

Hopefully some of the above information is of some use, and if there is anything else I can provide just ask.

Another that looks like a "miniature hippeastrum" is Habranthus estensis, which I've posted pictures of a couple of colour forms of elsewhere in the forums.