And I picked up one more today and will have 3 after yule

UH OH...sounds like you are hooked!! WELCOME to the group! Like Josh said, wet feet probably do in more bulbs than anything else! Those look like really fat buds. Wonder if it will be a double bloom....any bets? :-)

A question I'm an avid seed collector and do plan on pollinating my blooms but with such a huge bulb how long between seed germination and first blooming lol

Lol the reason I asked is the bees and other pollinators worked over time this year and I even got some clematis seed and now have found out they might take up to 2 years if at all to germinate

Another question if a bulb produces leaves first will they produce scapes or perhaps not

Seed to first bloom may be 2-4 years...patience is a requirement!

Double as in not 6 petals but usually 12 or more in layers. They may provide pollen, but typically aren't the seed parent.

I've the patience of a saint or as my wife says I'm to patient lol

I'm making supports out of bamboo skewers and jute twine lol don't want the bloome tipping look sorta like square tomato cages and the one Minerva lol the scapes ID say are 20 inches and opening the Minerva that is to be part of the Yule prezzis for our next door neighbour is all leaf no scapes yet and I'm wondering if the bulb was mixed up

You can't be too patient with growing amaryllis. It's a requirement.

Ok I do plan on trying my hand at pollinating as the blooms start to fade now I have Red Lion,Minerva,and Apple Blossom now my question is this do any of these three resist setting the pollen from the other two

First of all, you have to remove the pollen from your flower BEFORE it has a chance to contaminate the stigma and cause a self.

Secondly, you must pollenate when the stigma curves around and up and the 3 prongs open up to accept the pollen. If you wait until the flowers are fading or have faded then you most likely have lost your chance for pollination.

Thirdly, Apple Blossom 99% of the time will not accept pollen from anyone, she is very particular!! It can be done but I wouldn't count on any success for a seed pod on her. Her pollen can be viable though on others.

As for Red Lion, anything you put on Red Lion or the use of her pollen would most likely result in a red flower, as red is dominant. From the 3 flowers that you mention, I would try putting Apple Blossom on Minerva for the best resulting flowers. Just my opinion of course and you just may have waited too long.

Please try anything that you wish though as you nver really know what you will end up with!!

Surprises do happen al the time!!

Donna☺☺☺

I just wanted to add, that if you do end up with a self, it won't be the end of the world, people (myself included) self flowers frequently!

Thanks Donna none have as yet to bloom the Minerva has just started to bloom

I worried that the pollen would be unviable befor the others bloom

Don't worry about keeping your pollen. Just carefully pick off the anthers, even before they open and put them in a small bowl or something and even if the anthers haven't released their pollen, they should open in the dish. You can keep the pollen once in a dish for a few weeks on your counter if you need to, or... after the pollen has dried out for several days in the air, put it in a little waxed paper packet and store in a plastic container in the refrigerator. It will keep in the refrigerator for several months and still be totally viable. Just at all times, keep it dry, After the pollinating season is over, if you've got some special pollen, you can throw it in the freezer where it will be usable for well over a year!! I am currently using frozen pollen on my Exotic Star for several crosses and so far, they look good!

Merry Christmas y'all this is what I woke to this morning my first amaryllis bloom Minerva

Your supports are pretty clever!! You can also fashion taller ones from wire, with an open loop at the top to support the scape closer to the blooms, where it's heaviest!! I have a similar problem right now because my Rembrandt van Rijn scape is close to 2' tall!! Merry Christmas!!

I agree, your supports are clever! Your flowers aren't fully open yet, wait a few days to see their lovely shape and you will really be thrilled!

My Rembrandt is only up 20" so I feel lucky. Just starting to open, it will definetly be a week or more to bloom.

The first bloom is open fuller the second bloom is opening I've made things from skewers all the time I've one is double the height for a Dahlia dwarf. I use them when I make jar candles to make the hole where I put the wick after the wax hardens.

the amaryllis are amazing and I'm sure I'll be even more amazed when the red lion and apple blossom bloom

Measured my RVR scape this morning...25". Blooms are just about to pop!

RVR no idea what the initials mean

H. Rembrandt van Rijn

I looked up the RVR and they're beautiful

Hi krystarz, I got your message and wasn't able to respond for some reason. Anyway, I'm not in Canada, I'm in Massachusetts on the East Coast. On a good year, we're classified as 6b but not last year and the jury's out for this year!!

Rembrandt Van Rijn is a variety that went out of production a good number of years ago so many of us didn't have it. For some reason Royal Colors was offering it this year and many of us bought several, I just bought one. Of course until the first one actually blooms for one of us we won't know for sure if we actually have it, we always stand the chance of a mislabel! It won't be long though, Kristi has one about to open and so do I in about a week!!☺☺☺Donna

My scape is about eighteen inches tall so I will be able to join in with all the rest of you in anticipation.

Maida

Ok more questions my Minerva is in full swing now 8 blooms and my wife asks how long do the blooms last and I couldn't tell her lol

Cooler temperatures prolong the bloom life. In the house you may get 7-10 days. Out in the greenhouse during a cool spring, I have documented blooms lasting over 28 days. I think there was a thread about that. Let me see if I can find it.

yep...here it is: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1721075/how-long-do-blooms-last?n=14

I've a picture to post of all the Minerva looms now that the blooms have started to fade I've got the pollen gathered and have selves the blooms with up turned. Now what I'm wondering is will a self produce another Minerva or is there a chance that 2 years down the line it could be something different.

pollen with Qtip is now in the fridge in a wax paper thing I made waiting to use on either the red lion or appleblossem which I understand might not take anything but no harm trying.

since apple blossom is so bad at taking does that mean that folks would be interested in what comes out if it does

If you self-pollinate a bloom, you won't necessarily get what the parent looks like, but you'll get genes from all the blooms that went into making that parent bloom. Think about dogs that are mutts...say a golden retriever x poodle (golden doodle). If you breed 2 Golden doodles, some will look like Golden retrievers and some like poodles, and others will have more characteristics of one or the other. So you can't call a Minerva self "Minerva", but you can call them a "Minerva self".

The self on the Minerva took 7 outa 8 stayed green the seventh has started to go to straw. My wife thinks I've brought an alien tenticle plants into the house with the leaves and scraps keeep curling first one way then the other lol.

the apple blossom though was the last planted has 3 of 4 open now and the first I got the red lion has 2 just opening up all of the one I kept have had 4 blocks per scape is this normal

oops 4 blooms not blocks gotta love ipad spell check

lol

All very pretty, especially your Apple Blossom, lovely coloration!!!

Well the flowers are faded 2 scrapes down and removed the red lion first planted first scrap to fold over

so far my Minerva's self has 3 seed pods left growing and the apple blossom has one still green so I'm hopeing

http://www.trendingly.com/monkey-adopts-puppyI saw in another thread the comment that from a hundred seed you could get lots of difrent look from 100 seeds from the same cross .....what's the average seeds per pod

Ack ignore the link I copied an addy and all thumbs on iPad so it pasted and some how although it's a good story

How lovely we are.

b

Ok so one seed pod dropped off about 2 weeks ago and I've got its seeds in water.

yesterday the 2 pods left from the Minerva self have split open and are now drying over the weekend so now I'm looking for advice on planting the seeds how long should they dry and how deep I've researched a few of the propogation webpages. But I'm looking for those tidbits of info that might be just the ticket.

A question one of the sites mentioned putting a trace of hydregen peroxide in the water. Would this be helpful in water the growing medium.

First of all you might just want to soak a small number of your seeds from each pod, maybe 10 to 15, no more and make a paper envelope, mark them and store in a plastic container in the fridge. If you germinate dozens of seeds at once, you'll be over run in no time you'll go crazy! The seeds will keep up to 1 year in the fridge, and if you should encounter a disaster along the way with your seedlings, such as rot, or fungus gnats you will have more to start over. I've learned the hard way that it's very easy to loose seedlings after they've been planted for a few months. You have to be very careful not to over fertilize them also, just a very weak solution.

When I get fresh seeds, I immediately soak a few, you can wait a week or so until they dry out but they really only need to be dried out if you're going to store them. or if you're going to send them to someone in the mail.

Some people use hydrogen peroxide in the soaking water until they are about 2" long but nobody puts it in the growing medium that I know of , just the soaking water which should be kept out of the sun and changed once a week.

Good luck, Donna☺☺

I kept a amaryllis from 2015 bulb an it didn't do as well this February.. Does one have to feed them? I didnt

What exactly do you mean with "didn't do as well"? No blooms?

first of all the bulbs need a cool period in order to blossom next season so after drying them out I put them to cellar or my fridge (avoid temperatures bellow zero celsius) for 6 - 8 weeks, then plant them again for next season blossoming.

second remove old blooms unless you want seeds to plant since making seeds is very stressfull for bulbs (many people even cut blooms in order to have seeds so they can finish in a vaze not to weaken the bulb too much)

lastly comes fertilizing which I'm not doing myself since as soon as temperatures allow it I put them out of their pots and into my garden. But in case keeping them in a pot for whole season NPK comes handy, not overdoing it too much

I made a test recently with one H. plant I had in my office so I left in in pot for 2 years straight, no winter rest, managing it the same for whole time. Bulb got really huge with over 1 meter long leaves but no flowering at all (which was expected). But I did it because the bulb was in a bad shape and I wanted to grow it a bit. Last autumn I took it out, let it dry and put into fridge for overwinter. Atm just about to plant it and see.

You speak of drying them out.. Do you take the bulb out of the soil completely an let it dry for 6 to 8 weeks?

I just stop watering them for a month or so, only after that I'm pulling them out and check. Sometimes they need to dry a bit more, the idea is so they won't rot during overwinter cold. I'm not removing roots as much as possible unless those that are damaged. Only after the bulb is dry it can go to cold place for those 6 - 8 weeks.

This is kind of Central Europe approach since we have freezing temperatures at least for some time each winter. In a climate where temperatures won't go bellow zero during winter I bet you can just leave them out in their pots all the time.

Still some period during which bulbs are kept in cooler temperatures (5 - 7 celsius for me give or take) is usually a must for next-season flowers.

another tips from next-door discussion.... http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3670443/amaryllis-not-blooming?n=3

Here are my rebloomer, right now, about 1/3 of regular size.. Guess it needed fed? I did buy some acid for spring.

Is this Santiago? It looks pretty good to me, very pretty!

Beats me. Was a gift from some one .

I will try it again for 2017

Very pretty, I really like the long trumpets :-)))

Surprise , I have another amaryllis starting a long tube to bloom. Yipee.