The bulbs should be fine if you feed and water them as needed... once the pods are ripened and harvested, you can re-pot the bulbs. I don't know if disturbing them now would harm any of the pods.

The bulbs are shriveled because they've expended a lot of energy to bloom, and now to produce seeds. But with the proper care, they will grow plump and large again over summer, and they will recharge.

If they were my bulbs, I'd wait until the pods were mature and harvested before re-potting.

Jodi! I missed you :-) Hey, Jet. Nice to meet you. I've been taking a little "nap" from the forum. I would wait to re-pot until you have harvested the seed pods. Odds are, they probably would be fine with the transplant but you can never be too careful. Seeds are a precious commodity!!!

Hey, Larissa! Miss you, too! It's that time of year when our fancy turns from our bulbs to all the work we have to catch up with outdoors! I know exactly how busy you've been, as I've been just as busy! How goes the business?

As Larissa says, seeds are a precious commodity... and once a pod forms, we always keep our fingers crossed that nothing happens to cause it to abort. Odds are that the seeds might withstand a transplant, but you just never know. I'd wait.

What variety of seeds are we talking about? Is it a cross? How exciting for you! We'd love to see photos of your flowers, if you have any... and do let us know how your seeds turn out!

Hi Jodi and Larissa! Lars, I've only met you from backreading before.

In the few months that i've been here in this forum and into hippies at the same time, I feel that I have been through a baptism of fire. Jodi, thanks for your constant education thru all your post and not glossing thru stuff but being thorough in your instruction and explanation I felt some degree of success in my initial venture into the world of hippies. I have floated and germinated seeds (from ebay), transplanted seedlings that are in their first year(also from ebay), planted and flowered mature bulbs, pollinated and last night for added drama, I had one bulb jump out of it's small pot in the middle of the night. Luckily, on this one plant I had not pollinated yet because the blooms were still fresh. One scape broke all the flowers off and one had 3 left in the scape which I pollinated right after transplanting. I don't know if that will take.

So far I have only 4 kinds of flowers (from a total of 9 bulbs w/c were sold in sets of 3)all from S&H mislabel so technically I have all NOIDs. All are beautiful, in fairness though.

First is this "christmas gift" that isn't. It's a double and I had not pollinated this cause I can not find their equipment. I have 3 bulbs of this:
{{gwi:397259}}

Then The "red roma" had 2 different kind of reds... 2 of this:
{{gwi:397260}}
and one of this:
{{gwi:397261}}

Lastly there's "benfica" that may actually be a sydney.All 3 bulbs are the same... these are huge bulbs with huge flowers and 4-7 flowers per scape. It was one of these that jumped ship last night.
{{gwi:397262}}

Jodi, I've been selfing and crossing them all over the place and since they are all NOIDs I did not bother keeping track of which one got which pollen. Nevertheless, I can't wait to see if I'll get viable seeds.

p.s. I got 8 more mystery bulbs. They all got scapes but they look kind of slow to grow. I don't know if it's because I put them in a bigger pot from the start or they are just "stale" bulbs.

Jet, funny - your S&H Benefica turned out to be Sydney and my S&H Sydney bloomed as Benefica. I think they play musical bags with those bulbs just to keep us guessing. I agree, in fairness, they were nice flowers, but I guess you just can't get too attached to the notion of knowing what you've got before it blooms. Alana

The Benefica I received from Alana has two scapes with seed pods on them. Apparantly, I have repotted it. The scape that bears the older seed pods was slightly damaged during the shipping. I have to provide it with some support. It is still "hanging" there. I can only keep my fingers crossed. The second scape is doing better. Still, all the seed pods are still young. Only time will tell. -GM

I'm only too happy to share my experiences and knowledge... at one time, not all that long ago, I was completely new to Amaryllids of all types... and if not for the generous and experienced gardeners here, I wouldn't have had the encouragement and the information that started me down the road I've traveled!

I think it only fair to repay that kindness by sharing my own experiences and what I've learned... and I want to encourage experimentation and learning! Bulbs are fascinating plants, and the Hippeastrum is probably one of the easiest to learn through growing.

Doubles seldom have all the necessary parts to breed with... you'll notice that the center petals are sometimes more like deformed stamens and stigmas. Every once in a while, you'll run into a double that will have the parts required to pollinate. But in my experience, very few are breedable. Quite a few will exhibit small amounts of pollen, though... and this can be used to breed other flowers. It's usually the stigma that's missing.

I'm sorry that your introduction to Hippeastrums began with so many mislabels... regardless, you have some real beauties there! It's not always necessary to keep everything labeled... that's more of a personal thing. I keep all of my adults labeled, but I seldom label my crosses, unless I'm planning on sharing the outcome. This season, and last, I selfed a lot of flowers, so it was easy to keep track of who I bred.

I'm very glad that my writings have taught and encouraged you... that was my intent! When you love something, it's hard not to share it with everyone! I love bulbs, and I love gardening... and I love all the wonderful friends I've made along the way!

As for your midnight rambler... some bulbs will flower before setting decent root systems... these are the ones that usually dive out of their pots! Once the flowering stage is over, and given good care, they'll set down good roots. Some just take longer to establish than others.

You're doing really well... and I'm happy to see you diving headfirst into the Hippeastrum pool! It's a wonderful hobby! :-)

GM, glad to hear the seed pods are still hanging in there. If they don't make it let me know and I'll send you some seeds from my (several) other Benefica pods. I'm down to 4 bulbs now since it looks like the mushy one survived afterall. I'll have to update everyone with a picture of that one. Amazing how it turned around with advice from the folks here. Alana

I have a question, all I ever see in those pods are flat wafer thin black round seed? Is that what you plant? They too thin to be anything.
Thanks
Paul

Hi Paul, yes, those are the seeds and on this thread below are pictures of how some members germinated their seeds, by floating them in water.

Here is a link that might be useful: germinating seeds by flotation

Thanks, that explains why I have more seedings growing in my flower bed. I just throw them out into my bed as I thought they weren't viable being more like paper than a seed. I did polinate my one red flower with its parent which is red and white just to see if anything would happen. Now I wish I had polinated all of them as I love to try from seed anything. Looks like my meighbors will be happy soon. Thanks again
Paul

That papery sheath is the outer "shell" of the seed. If you hold one up to a light source, you should see a little squiggle inside, or a tiny bump. That's the seed embryo. Not all papery sheaths will contain an embryo... some will be empty. The empty ones are not viable seed, but those with that little thingy inside the outer coating should be viable seed, and can be planted.

Hippeastrum seed doesn't resemble most seeds, as we know them. They're quite different from, say, tomato or pumpkin seeds. They don't look anything like green bean or even Daylily seeds. But inside that papery outer skin is usually a tiny embryo waiting to sprout.

The sooner you can plant them after harvesting, the better. Hippeastrum seed doesn't keep very well, and they tend to dry out and die as time goes by. I'd plant them within the first few months of harvest, and certainly within a year. As time passes, the germination rate will fall off, and less seeds will germinate.