Amaryllis belladonna

[Heinie]

All your Amaryllis belladonna flowers are so beautiful. I cannot wait for mine to flower again in February/March next year. That is why they are also called the March Lily.

[anita]

Haven’t had time to post much recently but thought people might be interested in some pics of the Amaryllis belladonna clones I have been collecting.
Amaryllis, often called Easter Lilies in Australia as they flower in autumn just before Easter in the Southern Hemisphere, grow well in South Eastern Australia. There don’t seem to be many named varieties around but if you wander around the older suburbs and in rural regions you can spot dozens of different kinds. Varying in colour, shape, size of infloresces and flowering time.
I started with three different old clones that were already in the garden of the late 1800s home we bought 10 years ago and now have 6 pink varieties and 2 different whites. I’ve bought two but I’ve got most of them by knocking on doors in suburbs within proximity of where I live.
I suspect there are dozens of clones in Australia because during colonisation ships used to come to Australia from the UK via South Africa and I’ve heard that these bulbs were picked up on the way. They will also grow from seed and while they are not weedy enough seeds grow to provide variations in colour.
Collecting these plants is a rather slow business as they loathe being moved. I’ve found that they generally take three years to flower after being moved.
We seem to get enough sun here in Southern Australia that they will grow in full sun or even part shade and I have ‘experimented” with growing some under deciduous trees and found that they will flower quite happily in the shade so long as the bulbs get plenty of sun while in active growth.
I’ve found that regardless of the weather patterns the bulbs are very consistent in flowering times, regardless of rainfall events.
I’ve put together a list of the clones and their flowering times and descriptions as I thought it would be useful information.
I strongly suspect the smaller growing plants are the actual species and the larger clones I have are various hybrids but all are fertile, so it just confuses me.
A. belladonna pink 1 was one of the clones that was in the garden when we moved in. It is always the first to flower, showing above ground in the second week, of January. This picture was taken on Jan 21. It’s a very soft pink, with usually about half a dozen flowers to an inflorescence, which is usually pretty one-sided. It’s relatively low growing usually about 50 cm high or so.
A. belladonna deep pink 2, is one of the few I’ve bought… it is supposed to be a multiflora hybrid, which I understand involve crosses with brunsvigia backcrossed to Amaryllis. It is always the second clone to flower. February 14 this year, three weeks later than the first clone. This time gap is consistent between the cultivars each year. It is much taller, well over a metre, has many more flowers in each umbel, 10 to 12 and tends to have flowers radially distributed. It is the deepest pink I have and about the deepest pink I have seen apart from the ones that Fermi has shown on this and the SRGC forum.
A. belladonna pink 3, flowers around the same time as deep pink 2 (photographed on February 18). I got this one at a “car boot” sale, the woman who sold it to me said there were hundreds on the farm of her daughter in Victoria. I bought the bulbs dormant but thought them worth trying because they are enormous, about the size of a two year old’s head. I suspect they are also an old brunsvigia hybrid.. they start out a very pale pink and darken with age but retain attractive venation through the flower. The flowers are much larger than either of the previous pinks and they would be close to 1.3 m tall. There are many more flowers to a head than pink 1 but they do tend to face in the one direction. They also have a quite different foliage habit to the other bulbs, they almost fountain out of the top of the bulb rather than flopping. I thought they might have been a Crinum hybrid because of the variation in the foliage, and the similarity in this “fountaining” habit to crinum. But Rafa suggested that the Crinum hybrids bloomed while the leaves were present and this is definitely blooms while the leaves are still summer dormant… but it is quite different in growth habit from the other two clones and tends to produce fewer but larger seeds which have a very strong tendency to start growing leaf shoots while still encased in the seed pod. This is only the second year the three bulbs I bought have flowered. As mentioned before these bulbs loathe being moved so it was a two year wait from time of purchase to flowering. They seem to be offsetting quite quickly with daughter bulbs emerging in the couple of years I’ve had them. However on both occasions it has flowered a few days later than the deep pink. I haven’t mentioned before but all the amaryllis grow amazingly quickly. I scan the ground daily when these bulbs are due up and I can still miss a day and they are 14 to 15 cm high.
A. Belladonna pink 4. This is another smaller (50cm) and very pale pink clone. It flowers several weeks later than pink 1 every year. This was photographed on February 18. The flowers again tend to all be held to one side of the umbel. The camera can’t show it but this is a paler pink than var pink 1.
A. Belladonna pink 5 Again a smaller variety and one that was in the garden of the house when we bought it.. it is always the last to flower. This year starting to bloom on February 29 with plants remaining in bloom well into March. Although it looks in most ways similar to cultivar one.. these clumps which are within two feet of pink 1 always flower 6 weeks later.
A. Belladonna pink 6. This clone was saved from an old home nearby that was undergoing demolition..  I saw the bulldozers parked outside one afternoon and jumped the fence to dig some bulbs that night… The bulbs were dormant but I had watched them bloom in the abandoned garden for a few seasons and I couldn’t bear to think of them being bulldozed. I searched by torchlight and got two bucketfuls and now wish I’d saved more… dozens perhaps hundreds of others growing in that garden went for landfill… it just makes me feel sick to think of all the lovely plants in that garden that were just bulldozed when they could have been rescued and rehomed. (Old camellias and many, many snowflakes and jonquils) This is another tall (120cm) but pale pink variety. It looks similar to pink 3, but remains pale while the other’s colour intensifies. There are close to a dozen flowers in each umbel. For some reason this one has flowered in its first year after moving – perhaps because it’s grateful for being rescued!! It’s photo was taken on February 9, so it may be one of the earlier flowering varieties. I’m not sure yet as I’ve had it only one year. This variety sets a lot of large seed. See pic. Again from the size of the bulbs and the height of the stems, I suspect this is a hybrid.


A. belladonna White 1. Was rescued from the same garden as pink 6… This is such a stunning plant the thought of all its clones being dumped makes me rage for the waste! It is the first year I’ve had this in flower.. again they’ve flowered the first year in the garden which is so unusual for these bulbs.. The photo was taken on February 18. This again is about 1.2 metres tall. The inflorescence is large and the individual flowers are large. They are a particularly beautiful creamy white with a hint of green in the throat, which enhances the white. The flowers are distributed radially around the stem… they are quite stunning and I’m so glad I managed to save these. I wish I had saved more. These are planted in the back garden and on the late summer evenings they seemed to float in the garden as the stems are invisible at twilight. Like all the other varieties they are fragrant. Next year I’ll make notes on the fragrance of the different cultivars. I only really started to note the differences in fragrance this year.

A. Belladonna White 2. This variety I purchased as Hathor, sometimes I’ve seen it spelled Haythor. Hathor/Haythor is supposed to be a multiflora hybrid (Amaryllisxbrunsvigia backcrossed to Amaryllis). It is not as tall as White 1, being just under a metre. It has about a dozen flowers to the infloresce and they all have a lovely golden throat. This cultivar flowered on February 25. It somehow looks more frilled or ruched in a group than the preceding white which has a very clean elegant look. Both whites are lovely in their own ways.

I hope others find my observations interesting. I’ve got to screw up my courage to knock on a stranger’s door to ask for another plant… they’ve got an amaryllis in the garden that comes up white but then rapidly changes to pink, as the flowers are opening over successive days there’s a combination of white and pink in each flower head. I suspect it’s the old cultivar I’ve read about called Appleblossom because of this striking combination of white and pink. The house went up for sale last week and I’m concerned the new owners will call in landscapers for an overhaul, not understanding what old treasures are in the garden.

[Maggi Young]

Anita, what a great post, thanks!

[bulborum]

I don't know
but I missed this post 

What a fantastic collection Anita

Roland

[WimB]

Because Roland bumped this thread, I found it too. 

Wonderful Amaryllis, Anita. I didn't know there were that many different clones! I wish they were more readily available over here!

You should go and ask for a piece of that 'Appleblossom'...in Dutch we have a saying "Nee heb je, ja kan je krijgen" freely translated: "a "no" you have, a "yes" you can get"

[bulborum]

Or
If you don't shoot
you are sure you have nothing

R

[WimB]

Or
If you don't shoot
you are sure you have nothing

R

  "Niet geschoten is altijd mis!" 

[arillady]

Anita what a great posting - I too missed it.
I can understand your frustration and sorrow with the loss of so many old plant treasures when the bulldozers come in. I do so wish new owners would leave the garden for a year to see what they have in their care before just getting rid of the lot and then buying in the supermarket no soul plants.
I seem to have quite a few Belladonnas too but I have not made notes on them nor made note on photos which are which.
Great work saving those that you have. I must visit you some time when I head to town.

[anita]

Hi Wim, Roland,
Thanks for the kind words. I still haven't asked about those 'appleblossom' amaryllis but after nearly two months on the market the sign has been taken down without the house being sold. So I still have a chance.
Pat,  give me a bell before you next head to 'town'.
I agree with you on the wait a year strategy. I wish more people would do it.
Cheers Anita

[anita]

More Amaryllis musings from Adelaide.
I'm coming to the conclusion that in our seriously hot Mediterranean climate Amaryllis belladonna doesn't mind a bit of shade. I started down this track when I noticed bulbs in old gardens flowering well in shade and that bulbs in my garden continued to flower even when overgrown by shrubs. I then planted a row in a spot that is pretty shaded through summer although deciduous trees to the north (remember I'm in the Southern Hemisphere) allow plenty of sun through in winter. But the bulbs definitely aren't sunbaked during summer. There's shade from the trees and also the agapanthus leaves but that doesn't seem to bother the bulbs, which after an initial two-year sulk after transplanting have been blooming more vigorously each year.