Hi Cheryl,
With the way you have it stored it should last at least 6 months.It could be longer but I've not tried.
If you have time to sit and watch a flower open it's a wonderful thing :)
At the beginning,the anthers look plastic\smooth. A split develops on the side and the anther will peel itself back and turn inside out.After an hour or so the pollen grains look "fluffy". Thats when I try to collect. It's not vital that it be done at just a particular moment but try for soon after it fluffs.
Usually this happens in the morning but if it's cloudy or cool it may be later in the day as sun touches the flower.
You can put pollen on the stigma before it's fully open but it's a good thing to go back and redab. Smoosh the pollen down into the center of the little arms. It will give you a better seed set.The stigma should be sticky when it's ripe & will pick up any pollen floating by.
It sounds like you are doing just fine and you will have a nice batch of seeds.
What kind of pollen do you have? Lora

Hi Cheryl! I would pollinate a flower when the stigma's end goes upward and opens it's arms. For me it's a sign that it is ready. In my experience, different varieties differ on the time they do this. Some flowers do this when they are fully open already. Some are faster and ready even before all the petals open. I collect pollen just like Lora...once it's "fluffy" or powdery whenever I have the time.
Lora...Is there a certain temperature that stored pollens require to keep them viable? I am sharing some pollens to some of our dear friends here but am worried it might freeze on the mail. We are having high 40s and low 20s this week and next.

Hi, Lora and Cindeea,

Almost all the pollen I collected was when the antlers looked "fuzzy". I did collect it a couple times when they looked smooth, fearing I was collecting for nothing and maybe I was collecting it at too late of a stage when it was "fuzzy". So, I collected some when it was at another stage too. But then I figured out real quick, how was I supposed to access the pollen from it when it's shiny?
So, almost all of my collecting was when the antlers had the fuzzy look. I have re-opened some packets of collected pollen and some seemed mostly dried. Most have medium or larger amounts of pollen on them. So, I'll be extra careful to try and collect it in the morning, if the antlers have the fuzzy look.
I was a fanatic about washing the tweezers and my hands between collecting and pollinating so I didn't accidently mix pollen.
So far I have collected pollen on my
Exotic Star- Wedding Dance- Red Lion- Christmas Gift- Minerva- Red Giant- Orange Sovereign- Blushing Bride- Pink Accent- Charisma- Carnival-
My Amaryllis's that has a scape and flower bud already on it, for future pollen collection are- Apple Blossom, More Red Giant and also white Giant and red and white variegated Giant-
Aphrodite- Rilona- Solomon-Susan-Sumatra-Clown. I have A Ruby Meyer that someone gave me last year but it's a very small bulb . I don't think it'll bloom for another year or so. I also have a huge Lilac Wonder amaryllis bulb, but no sign of a scape yet.
Then in my garden naturalized in an evergreen orange, native to Florida. Red and white striped and two shades of red amaryllis. They won't bloom until spring probably as they're naturalized.
I also have Bella Donna pink naked ladies. I heard you can cross Bella Donna with crinum lilies. They're called Amarcrinums. I have both Belladonnas and Crinum lilies so, I'm going to try it when they get blooms.
If you and Cindeea send me your private email addy's( so I don't clog up this forum with a super long post) I can send you the list of my pollination records so far that tells what selfed and was crossed with what. My exotic Star that I selfed, aborted. I heard it was sterile but I am still trying. It also aborted on it's buds that I pollinated with another amaryllis' pollen. I have two Exotic Star Amaryllis. The second Exotic Star Amaryllis hasn't aborted the pods so far, so we'll see.
I was going to ask you Lora, if it's bad for the amaryllis to have several of it's flowers pollinated at once, or one after another as they keep opening? I have pollinated up to 3 and some times even four flowers on one scape, and wonder if that's just too much for the flower to handle? Should I leave some flowers unpollinated? I wondered if it was zapping too much of it's energy to form decent pods and be able to support them.
I was able to get lots of pollinating in by crossing so many flowers on one scape with so many different pollens.
I do have some fat pods now . And some that have pods that are swelling and not sure they'll make it yet, but I don't want to weaken the Amaryllis to the extreme, in my over "zealousness" to experiment and pollinate.
Thanks to you though Lora I'm getting better at it and having lots of fun. I learned more from your posts then even an Amaryllis book I bought. No kidding on that. It didn't tell half of the tricks and tips you gave us.
I did use some of the pollen but have some left of each.
I'll be glad to share some pollen and seeds also ( when they are ripe) with you and cindeea.
Let me know which pollen you need and how to send it? Will it dry up in the mail in it's little envelope?
I posted for seeds to swap on the Amaryllis forum. I have already collected seeds from 2 Minerva pods two days ago. I planted 25 yesterday.
I have more Minerva pods getting ripe. Plus other named amaryllis pods.
I also posted for an a amaryllis swap. I want to trade my 2 extra Sumatra, 2 Apple Blossoms and Exotic Star and my Aphrodite, for a Pink Surprise- Hercules, Honeymoon, Pink Floyd, or Melusine and a couple names I forget at the moment but are listed in my other post titled, "Amaryllis to swap". Mine are pretty big bulbs. I'll take pics for anyone to see the size.
Sorry this is so long. If you and Cindeea send me your private email addy I'll send the propagation list. It's too long to type it here.

Thanks, have a good weekend
Cheryl

Question: About 4 hours after I pollenated outside Garden Red with Red Lion it rained. Should I do it again? Anyone know about how long it takes before the fertilization is complete? Thanks, geekgranny=alice

Don't know how long it takes, but I would reapply just to be sure.

good luck!

R.

Thanks R.,

Did reapply pollen and reapplied inside ones too. I think, for now, and while I have only a few open (waiting for about 50 or so), I'll reapply untill there are too many open at once to keep up. Thanks gg=alice