I think your photos are great! But what are those next to the amaryllis??? Utterly beautiful.

Anna

Thank you, Anna. That's a Cymbidium orchid, this year's holiday present from my husband.

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The one he gave me last year opened its first flower for this year today!

They are easy, cool-growing, terrestrial orchids. I put mine outside in full sun as long as temperatures are above 40*F, fertilize a bit, and leave them alone. They're winter bloomers--great for those of us in northern climates. They do get big, though.

Amanda

Amanda, your hybrid looks a lot like my "Fairy Tale". What do you think?

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Fairy Tale is correct.

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I assume that this hybrid is one tetraploid (from previously observed crossing behaviour). I never was successfull in pollinating one such which pollen from a diploid, and perhaps there has occurred some self pollination in your experiment with H.papilio (diploid species) as pollen exclusively... intended pollen donor?!

But never say never... that would be at least one major coup if you obtained seeds from this crossing: The rich ornamental structure of H.papilio together with the feature of rich bloom count per stem... GREAT.

Hans-Werner

Thank you, jeromej13 and Hans-Werner.

It's entirely possible that some self-pollination occurred while I was slathering on the papilio pollen. Time will tell, I suppose.

Amanda

My friend, Tünde, in Hungary, got a Fairy Tale from me last year. It brought 4 scapes for her, 5 flowers per scape. And it was a Monster. Her pictures from last year:

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I painted that picture in the background.

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Soultan, to heck with the amaryllis, I love your wart hog painting! Very nice! Being a frustrated artist, I really appreciate others artistic creations and he is magnificient and playful!! Do you have other paintings you could show us? I would love to see them and maybe feel secure about posting some of my immature drawings.

I have 30 plus seedlings of Fairy Tale X Lemon Lime growing right now. It did produce viable seeds from other tetraploid pollens and rejected diploid pollens. Mine produced 3 scapes with 6,4 and 5 flowers. It has leafed out good this year, bulb size now almost as big as large flowering varieties, and had no problems. I'll definitely give this variety an "A".

Here's my Fairy Tale when it bloomed spring 2007...
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Soultan...Your wart hog looks so familiar. Is that Pumbaa? "Hakuna Matata..." (It sounded like that anyway)

The Fairy Tale is beautiful... the Warthog is Disney... It sure looks like the character from that Disney movie... Cool painting, Soultan!

I'd love to see some of your art, Cindee! I've always wanted to draw and paint, but I can't translate what I see in my mind's eye to the paper or canvas...

I just copied a little, tiny picture Disney released LONG time ago. The picture was about 1"x2" size. I just got a huge canvas and made it large. Just to have fun with it... Then I moved, and I gave this picture to Tünde as a Christmas gift. I know that I am not a very good "artist." It was a copy of an artist's work anyway, but this picture is not bad, considering that I have used watercolors to color it. I am not doing paintings anymore. I'd need talent for that. It is fun to copy things, but I get discouraged if I cannot make exact copies... So I will just start writing animated movies instead of drawing. :o)

Since I doubt I could even copy a picture like that onto a canvas, I think it's very good! I only wish I had a little bit of talent in the drawing department... I can hardly draw an idea well enough that someone could understand what I mean by it, like when I tried to explain to my husband what type of shelving unit I wanted for my bulbs... I couldn't even sketch the basic shape well enough! I'm horrible at drawing anything! I had to search the internet for ideas so he would get the idea... that's sad... :-)

Soultan...You will be so surprised at what you painted and what it represents. "Hakuna Matata" is a song created by Elton John and Tim Rice for Pumbaa the warthog. Here are the lyrics and music...

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/hakuna.htm

Yes, I know what Hakuna Matata represents. :o) I love that movie. I cannot tell you though why I decided to paint this particular frame from the collection.

I also started drawing another frame from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, when Quasimodo wipes the tomato away from his face after the mob humiliates him.
I have never finished this painting... Will I ever?

I wish I could draw or paint. Em-em is the artist of the family. Special children I think has a better view of the world than we do. For them everything is beautiful...

I always say that whatever I could draw is not art. :o) Art starts when I could not do something. That is special.