Give it a little time... the pollen will appear. When they first open, the anthers look smooth, as if there were no pollen... but it develops rather quickly. You'll see it very soon, and then you can begin the fun of breeding!

thanks for that jodi i think i'm getting just a bit excited. same with my vermicomposting i keep checking my worms to see how much they've eaten.

BTW worm tea has done wonders for my bulbs GO WORMS

I have a friend that vermicomposts... she swears by her "worm tea"!

We have an aviary with ducks, chickens and peacocks... we use their dirty pool and drinking water on the gardens as we change it for fresh. It makes a huge difference in the roses and other plants! GO DUCKS!

It sounds like we're rooting for sports teams! LOL! In reality, they're compost teams!

I've always been a big fan of natural fertilizers... they grow things naturally without weakening a plant's immune system, no man-made chemicals, and the plants really seem to grow faster and better!

I compost as much as possible! I have several huge piles and two small fenced rings filled with garden waste, horse and goat manure, aviary cleanings, etc... next spring will mark the third year those piles have been baking in the sun, and I've already been able to pull many wheelbarrows full of beautiful "black gold" from under them! The gardens love it!

Getting back to pollen and pollination... have patience! The one big lesson growing and breeding Hippeastrums will teach you is patience. From seed to bloom is a minimum of two years... more like three or more, depending on the conditions and care given.

It's all very exciting, though! From choosing and growing the bulbs, waiting for the blooms, to pollinating and waiting for the seed pods to form and ripen, then harvesting and planting... it all takes time, but it's all a wonderful experience!

I began last summer with two bulbs that I'd had for many years, came here to find some information, and ended up with a huge Hippeastrum addiction and a collection of 60 or so bulbs! I plan to buy more this fall, too! But, I've learned so much, and I've made some great friends! And I picked a second addiction for Orchids!

So... sit back and enjoy the flower show for a few days... then pollinate! I try to enjoy the blooms for a few days, and before they begin to fade, I make my crosses. Sometimes, you can wait to pollinate until the flower is showing signs of beginning to fade. That way, you get the most out of it! Then, within a short time, you'll see the seed pods begin to swell and form. They'll take quite a while to grow and ripen. Once they begin to split open, you can cut them off the scape and harvest the seeds!

Have fun! And... GO WORMS!

yep the pollen has now appeared, i'm going to post a picture of the flower as I have no idea what it may be called, i purchased it unlabelled from a nursery, it was quite cheap only a couple of dollars so i figured it was worth it.

i'm currently studying horticulture and over the last year or so have really become enthusiastic with propagation and composting. I take cuttings of everything and collect seeds and grow plants for everyone. There is something very satisfying about growing something from a seed and watching it mature sort of like my kids i guess. i've just joined the trees for life organisation here in australia and am growing trees for property owners to revegetate.
anyway i'm off to take a photo and post it here

We just had our State fair the beginning of this month, and there was a couple there that sell the worm castings and have a machine that makes the worm tea. I got quite interested and found they only live about three miles from me. They said they had a 70-year-old lemon tree that wasn't doing very well. (Well,I have a 40-year-old lemon tree that's not so hot as well as numerous other citrus.) They claim their tree took off with the worm tea and is now loaded with lemons, so I figure what do I have to lose. I have no problem with the yard and gardens because the ground here is live with thousands of huge earthworms with castings all over the surface, but the potted plants are another story. I'm rather excited about the prospects of all my citrus becoming specimens.

if you do decide to get worms you need to make sure you puchase composting worms not earthworms. its amazing what the castings and associated worm tea can do to your plants. i'm about to use the castings to raise seeds as they retain mositure very well. worm is just the best fertiliser around.

Well... if you think about it... worms are everywhere in the gardens, constantly tunneling and eating, leaving castings behind... of course, there's a better balance of everything in nature, but it kind of makes sense that worm castings and worm tea would be great fertilizer... and great for composting... the worms are always working, just under the garden's surface!

We've had excellent results using the duck poop soup from our Muscovy ducks. It's just manure, diluted by the water they swim in. Instead of tossing it when we refill their pools, we water the beds with it. I'm kind of glad they poop in their bath water, so to speak! LOL!

Kitty - do you grow your citrus trees in a greenhouse? 40 years sounds really old for a fruit tree! I always thought fruit trees were rather short lived, as trees go. Although, citrus may be different than other fruit, like peach trees, for instance.

evoluke - great idea, growing trees for others! Nice project! I think if I would have gone to college, I would have studied horticulture... either that, or art. Or both! It would be fun to combine the two, and paint garden scenes! Unfortunately, I can't paint or draw, at all... I can't get what I see in my mind to come out through my hand on paper or canvas. I wish I could... there is so much beauty in plants and flowers and the nature that surrounds us, I'd love to be able to capture it through art.

When you begin pollinating and crossing your Hippeastrums, be prepared for some failure... not every cross or pollination will work... or a pod will begin to develop, only to abort halfway through the process, etc... these things happen. Ultimately, we're at the mercy of Mother Nature when it comes to breeding and genetics.

Don't be discouraged by this, though... many of your crosses will work out fine, and nice seed pods will develop! Of all the pollinations I did last year, less than half gave me viable seed. Most of the seed came from self-pollinations of hybrid varieties. None of my Cybisters gave me seeds, and I was very lucky to get a pod from my Exotic Star bulb. Some varieties are more prolific than others, you'll find.

The hard part is figuring out which varieties are diploid, and which are triploid, I believe. I get confused by ploidy. Maybe I mean tetraploid! Anyway... there aren't any complete lists of which varieties are what, so part of breeding these bulbs is a guessing game! It is fun, though, and quite the learning experience! I can't wait to get a few new bulbs this fall and start crossing them... and next spring, when most of my other bulbs will bloom, I should have some nice pollen saved to use!

The season will be upon us before we know it! It's all just so much fun!

so now that my hippeastrums are in flower is it just a matter of collecting the pollen on say a cotton bud and wiping it on the stigma and hoping nature takes its course. how soon will i know if it has been successful? are there changes that happen quickly?

I never even bother with cotton swabs... using a pair of sharp pointy scissors, I just snip off one of the pollen-loaded anthers, leaving about half the stamen attached to hold on to... and gently rub or dab the pollen on the tip of the stigma. One anther can actually be used to pollinate more than one flower. If more pollen is needed, cut off a second stamen with anther attached.

I've never actually counted the days following pollination, but you will see the pistil, right below the flower, begin to swell. It will continue to swell until it's roughly the size of a small walnut, and from there, it will take some time to ripen. It's ripe when it begins to split open on its own.

Be ready for growing seed pods to abort in mid growth... it happens sometimes. I like to think of it as Mother Nature's way of culling out the weak and problem seeds before they reach maturity. The pods that do make it to maturity will begin to split open... at that point, you can snip off the pod and set it aside on a shelf to dry for a few days. I'd keep it out of direct sunlight.

When your seeds are dry, you can plant them! Don't wait too long... like over a year... to plant them, as they lose viability with passing time. Fresh seeds have a higher germination rate.