Wow! You sure do have a lot of bulbs... and a lot of blooms to look forward to! Please take some photos, so people like me can live vicariously through your flowers! I have so few this year.

Great growing, Lizalily! I can't wait to see the fruits of your labors! Please try to include pictures of the arrangements you make of cut flowers... I loved those last year!! You're such a great floral artist!

I am so jealous...52 buds WOW!!

I only have four different varities and I think they probably are all pretty common. I do have two of the aphrodite that you mentioned but they not bloomed yet. I just recently planted 3 each of Minerva and Hercules and I can not wait to see them b/c my Grand Prix was beautiful and it was the very first one I had ever grown and I was hooked. ActuallY I still have one Grand Prix that should be blooming soon too. I can not believe how fast I became addicted to these beauties. I am already wondering where you all get the beauties you have. I still visit white flower farm and I am using great self control over the sale they have. Next year if these come through again I will definetly be getting some more. I can not wait to see your pictures.

I would love to see pics of your forest of amaryllis :-) I wish I had as many as you do! I'm going to cross my fingers and pray that I have what it takes to grow some seedlings :-)

You'll do fine, Larissa... there are several different ways to grow these babies, but I found that the best and easiest way is to plant them in a flat using a good quality potting mix, like Schultz's. Keep them moist and don't allow them to dry out. I used one of those seed starting flats with the greenhouse cover that they sell everywhere in early spring.

I also found that it was easier to grow them outdoors after the weather breaks... natural sunshine and warmth did the trick for me. I left them in the flat all summer, and trans-planted them into pots when autumn arrived. Then, I just wintered them over under lights.

You can also float them in water to germinate, but I found it a little bit tricky to trans-plant them from water to soil... they didn't like the transition too much. I lost a lot using this method.

To each his or her own, though... whatever works best for you! I just found it easier to treat them like regular seeds I'd grow for the gardens or patio pots. I think it worked out better because they had the entire spring and summer to grow in the sun outdoors.

Good Luck! There's a ton of info here if you do a search for germination or seed starting.

Kimmie... I'm glad to hear that you're becoming a Hippeastrum addict like the rest of us! The more, the merrier! It's probably best to start with just a few... so you can learn all the cultural techniques for good growing and blooming. It's hard not to get carried away, though, and buy tons! I began with 2 bulbs, and the first year I got hooked, I ended up with over 50! I had to learn quick! If it weren't for the help of all these wonderful people here in the forum, I would have failed, for sure! Welcome to the club... I think next year will be a big one for you! :-)

I agree with Jodi -- whatever works for you. Going by what I learned here, I tried several methods. What worked the best for me was to make a "soup" out of potting mix and water in one of those plastic containers that bakery products come in that has a cover. Then "floated" the seed on top. As the liquid gradually went down, the seedlings were already planted and ready to go - no repotting yet. When they got a few baby leaves, I planted them in their own two-inch peat pots and put them in a nursery tray with a cover. They're still in that now under lights. When it warms outside, I'll move them to their own four-inch pots.

Thanks for all the great advice! The "soup" method seems very enticing. I'm thinking about just using seed trays and starting them with all the rest of the seeds we get for the greenhouse. I have a lot of pods so I may try lots of different methods.

Just straight up planting them is looking pretty nice. I'm so nervous of damaging baby roots. I just want to get started already. Do I HAVE to wait until the pods crack open or is there another way of telling if they are ready or not?

I guess I should explain my "52 buds" to the newbies. I have a business selling cut flowers. I started growing amaryllis when I read that they make good cuts. We (I work with my best friend) were looking for something to keep our customers through the winter. Therefore, I generally buy bulb varieties 3 at a time. That makes enough flowers to use for some beautiful church arrangements and still leave some for me to enjoy!

I bought just about 100 bulbs last year...my first to go nuts with them! (Last year I had both knees replaced and was desparate for new color adventures during my convelescence! I was also too weak and bored to resist temptation, LOL). I am afraid I spent about $1000 on this new hobby which I am still paying for on my credit card! In the meantime, the bottom fell out of our economy and I sold far fewer flowers then usual (And raised fewer too, because of my surgeries). So I am still paying for those beauties along with interest! I do not regret any of them except for a few sale ones that taught me not to buy late in the season! I ended the year with 100 bulbs, about 80 of them new last year. This year I went only for the ones that I did not have yet, and some of the new ones from S.A., and a few replacements for bulbs that were too sickly to live last year and gave me only a tantalizing hint of what they were capable of. I summered my bulbs outside under insect-proof fabric, with good results and lost very few...only those already struggling. I think I repotted 97 bulbs and since then have lost a few that were barely hanging on.

I hope eventually to master this and be producing my own varieties for sales to our small local public. Hubby has promised me a bigger, permanent greenhouse by next winter and I am excited about having a real one! My fold up plastic one died in our very unusual 14" of snow that came too soon after our winter vacation for me to focus on getting it down (Besides, I could never remember how to refold it!)

I am thinking of cutting away the good plastic and using it to build cold frames for this spring...I usually have it packed with plants from Feb through May. I start all new dahlias and lily bulbs in pots to get them tall enough to withstand our slugs before putting them out, as well as rows of seedling flats. Maybe this will be the year that I start all the seeds in the ground and hope the ducks have eaten the slugs and slug eggs. In fact, I think I will go out and turn them into the garden now....

When the pods begin to split open, they're ripe... then, you'll want to cut the pods off the scapes, and allow them to dry for a few days in a safe place. I usually place each type of seed pod in a different little dish, with a label of what it is, and place them on a high shelf so they don't get knocked around. I store them in little covered containers, out of the light and heat... as you'd store any seeds. I'm sure you know what I mean.

You can hold the paper thin seeds up to a light source, and if you see a little squiggly thingy inside the sheath, it's most likely a viable seed! That little squiggly thing is the embryo! You check them sort of like you would candle eggs to check for embryos. I'm sure you know all this, too!

Like I said, I had better luck just planting them in flats like veggie and flower seeds... I didn't want to disturb the tiny new roots. If you have access to a greenhouse, and I think I remember you saying you do, your seeds will take off and grow into tiny little bulbs in no time!

The whole process is a blast... from start to finish! I love the fact that Hippeastrum flowers are so easy to pollinate! I just wish some were not so quick to abort, and I wish some crosses could be made regardless of ploidy.

In any event, you'll have fun... and it's so exciting to see the seeds sprout and become little bulbs! The only downfall is having to wait a minimum of two years to see blooms, usually longer. Two years would be with optimal care and conditions. I'd say it's more like three years.