CHAD (Compulsive Hippeastrum Acquisition Disorder) is extremely contagious and there is no vaccine!! Even limited exposure to another infected individual almost certainly results in near immediate infection.

WELCOME TO OUR GROUP!!! Your NOID is very pretty. Check out emaryllis.com to see if you can find a match!
:-)
Kristi

PS...what are your other "plant obsessions"!?

Gardenweb certainly isn't a good place for those of us that suffer CHAD, though for me it's Chronic Horticultural acquisition disorder being addicted to more than one group of plants.
Cacti/succulents, tropicals, brugmansia....I'm just an addict. LOL!
So far it seems all the $5.98 boxes Susans are Lady Jane so your chances are good.
Tally HO!

The $3.98 box I bought from Lowe's has turned out to be Lady Jane. The scape is really short, but it is a beautiful bloom and the color is vibrant. The other two buds are small and may not open fully. I am really happy with it and hope I have some other surprises with the other bulbs.

Thanks for the welcome.

Kristi, I searched emaryllis.com and saw some similar but none just like that one. My other obsessions are clematis and brugmansia. I have a small amount of brugs and am increasing them through rooting some cuttings. Can't seem to get enough clematis as have over 60 varieties and have started several others from seeds and cuttings.

beachplant, I also have lots of perennials and collect mini hostas, penstemon, and huecheras. Ha, I think I have both CHADs.

Today I stopped at Lowes and brought home 15 bulbs as they were marked down 75%.
$1.25@ Susan, Christmas Story, Star of Holland, Oskar
$2.50@ Prince Carnival, Roma, Denver, Vera, Red Lion, Minerva, Apple Blossom, Lady Jane, Aphrodite, Pasadina, and Donau
Most have one or two scapes, all are good bulbs, some with many roots, others with very few roots.

Clematis are also often mislabeled so I am used to the anticipation waiting for bloom to see if the plant I have is the one on the container. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised and other times disappointed, but it is always interesting.

bama gardener, how nice that you got Lady Jane. Mine is opening and coloring up more each day. There are four buds on the scape, two larger ones and two very small ones. It does not have a short scape.

So, how should I refer to these bulbs on this forum: amaryllis or hippeastrum or another shorter slang word like Hippies?

mnswgal, welcome! Sounds like you have quite a nice collection of all sorts of plants! And sounds like you got some neat new bulbs! BTW, we refer to these wonderful bulbs using all of those terms :)
Michelle

Wow, your Lowe's is awesome, mnwsgal. I went back to mine yesterday. Here's what I found:

The 3.98 "take-out" boxes were all gone.
No markdown on the 9.98 fancy container kits.
The 5.98 boxes were marked down a whopping dollar to 4.98, and the bulbs were in rough shape. Most of the boxes I checked had pale scapes curling around in there, many with half-open or already-spent blooms. Bulbs looked shriveled, with lots of red spots. Some of the outer boxes had dented or bent cardboard.
The "half-dead" cart had a few of the 5.98 bulb kits marked down to 3.00 because they had bloomed out in the boxes and the flower scapes were cut down to stumps.

You got a super deal! I hope they are all healthy and gorgeous, and that you get the "Lady Jane" you are after.

-Edie

Congrats mnws - and welcome. Sounds like you got a great assortment of bulbs for you new obsession - so nice of Lowes to enable you. We're looking forward to seeing your pictures. Don't forget to pollinate your blooms for seeds too ;-)

Alana

Wah!!! I wish I had a Lowe's up here in Canada! Supermarkets don't seem to be carrying any at all this year :(

Anna,

I've also noticed that most stores aren't carrying anything this year, Wal-mart usually has a great selection of fall planted bulbs and Hippeastrum but not this year!! They've got Red Lion, Apple Blossom and Minevra, they had a few different kinds of tulips and a few daffodils, I was very dissapointed :( On the other hand Lowes had a very nice selection this year!

My not Susan is a single orange. Will see if DH can take a photo tomorrow when it has opened more. This was the $3.98 bulb from Lowe's.

From my bargain bulbs I have a Susan ($5.98 box) and a Lady Jane ($9.98 box). They have all been cleaned up and dusted with Captan and root hormone and will be planted tomorrow.
Hopefully one of them will be a Lady Jane.

Most of the bulbs needed very little clean up but Red Lion had a rotted stem deep inside and is now a much smaller bulb.

Here is my Not Susan #1. It is more orange than the photo appears on my monitor.

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Looks like Naranja on emaryllis.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Orange substitute

mgal, i, like you , am a new CHAD member as of this past month.Plse tell me about your use of captan and rooting hormone. is the latter in place of putting the hippies on heat? does the captan have anyth to do with narcissus bulb fly? is that something you worry about? i've been reading about it but haven't found out if it's common in new england.............
thanks much,
mindy

also mgal,w/your brugs, do you overwinter them in a cellar? and do you cut them back and to where? some of mine don't have a V. Thnx much.

Mindy, Captan is not a preventative for the NBF. Captan is used if you have peeled off rot or have any sites on your bulb where you have had to "operate". Sometimes it is necessary also to cut your basal plate back to a healthier size for your bulb to grow new roots, and in this case.. and actually, any case where you use Captan,.. let the bulb dry for several days to a week to callas over and then you apply a dusting of captan, (some people make a paste) and most always, the Captan keeps the rot at bay. It's great stuff and I wouldn't be without it. I had a spot on one of my Papilios where it was red and smushy. May have been the start of Stagonospora curesii.. that I scooped out with a spoon (went several layer in) let it dry and dusted with Captan,(this was several months ago) and it healed beautifully! This was above the soil so I didn't have to pull the bulb...

As far as NBF, I lost at least 10 bulbs this year to that disgusting over sized maggot! I am going to have to try a granular systemic next year on all my plants...it's one thing if they get a bulb that can easily be replaced, but some bulbs are rare and precious and not replaceable and other than keeping them inside or in an enclosed screen-house for the summer (which is not an option for me) I will give the granules a try. The worst thing about the maggot is that you really don't know that it's in there as the leaves continue to grow normally until the time that the larvae has eaten so much of the bulb that it starts to rot right through to the neck. At that point the leaves start to look a little stressed and you decide to pull the plant and take a look and it's too late!!

Donna

And yes, you do have NBF in New England. Talk to Chaz about that! I didn't think I had it here in the PNW but I found out!

I did a lot of research on it this fall when I found my daffodil beds infested with it, and it was also in hyacinths interplanted with it. It sounds like covering the plant during the time the fly is active and laying eggs is the best preventative.

Donna, what a p*sser. phooey.what manner of systemic treatment( when, etc) are you planning?
best,
mindy

it sounds like the easiest thing to do, summerwise, is to keep them in my plant room (which gets emptied come summer)to keep the nbflys away?

Mindy,
Next spring or early summer when the temps moderate enough to put the pots out for the summer, I will use a granular systemic with imidacloprid. I don't have the name on the tip of my tongue, but I read it on another forum and wrote it down somewhere. You won't need it until next summer, and in the meantime, I will look it up. I always hesitate to use a poison, especially a systemic which will affect all aspects of the plant, the flowers and the pollen, but since all my plants with the exception of one or two will have bloomed inside this winter, I won't worry that the pollen may be affected and harm the bees and other pollen loving insects. If I get a summer flower, I'll bring the plant inside until the flowering is over. I would hesitate to use this on bulbs planted in the ground for this very reason. The bees have enough problems of their own without me poisoning them. But as all my bulbs are in pots as I'm sure yours are also this shouldn't be a problem for us...This was really a problem for me this year, as I pulled maggot after maggot out of some of my bulbs. They're quite large and they can devastate a bulb..my husband couldn't believe his eyes when he first saw them. I usually keep my bulbs in different places all over the yard, including 2 decks and every location had a couple of eaten bulbs. I had a group of about 6 bulbs that earlier in the season had a thrip or some other sucking insect problem that left white marks on the leaves and we (husband) sprayed them and drenched them with a liquid systemic with imidacloprid and it did the trick.. all subsequent leaves were clear and no NFB. But, the liquid is a pain in the neck to use and messy and not feasible for 150 pots, so next year it will be granules.

Donna

Sorry, Mindy, I wrote up an answer early this a.m. but must have forgotten to hit submit.

Keep in mind that I am a real newbie to being a serious grower of these wonderful plants. I used captan and rooting hormone after reading other postings, including the FAQ 2. Donna and Liz have answered those questions.

Re: Brugs. I am fairly new to brugs as well as have only grown them for two years. Mostly I lurk at the brug forum picking up info. Will, mantorvillain on the Brug forum, brings rooted and potted cuttings as well as fresh cuttings to our MN GW spring and fall plant swaps. Got my first three from him two springs ago. I overwinter them (dormant) in a cool dark room in my basement. I have lots of room so have only trimmed them enough to fit in the room or to shape.

This fall Will brought me several potted cuttings and many fresh cuttings that I am rooting in water. I traded a potted brug (to another friend) from cuttings I rooted from my plants last winter.

Are you the one who posted a photo of a white variegated brug in a container earlier this fall?