Brian, I have hundreds of seedlings now from my very highly virused Maguire parent bulbs and not a single seedling is showing virus of any kind. They are all, without exception, clean, strong and healthy. Many of the seedlings are over two years old.

Even my virused bulbs have not passed the disease on to my clean plants as long as I have simple measures in place such as separation areas, garden tools specifically for virused and non-virused plants, hand-washing between the two groups and a bit of screening over the virused bulbs and some common sense.

Here in Australia I have never even heard of aphids affecting hippeastrums....ever! But mealy bugs and the occasional caterpillar or grasshopper and snails and slugs can be present to help spread the virus.

Although I have read different views on this, I feel my most vulnerable time is when they are all flowering and virus from pollen on one single flower can spread to whatever else is flowering at that time, whether it is close by or many meters away on the other side of the garden......or even in someones adjoining yard. One bee, moth or whatever, could spread virus throughout a collection. I have read on this forum that some opinions are it is not spread by pollen.....but personally I think this is the most likely form of transfer in my growing situation here.

Julie

....some young Maguire seedlings- all clean and virus free. These were all selfs grown on virused parents. The resulting seed does not pass on the virus. But I would not attempt to put virused pollen onto a healthy bulb and expect it to remain healthy!

....but remember, clean seedlings can still be infected at any time after germination if grower is not keeping them away from other virus infected plants!

Thanks Julie, very encouraging info. I'm very paranoid about mosaic which wiped out most of my original collection 13 years ago when I moved them out to the backyard which was a haven for blood sucking insect's where we had an assortment of fruits & vegetables. In my current apartment dwellings, there aren't any gardens for miles.

May I ask how old are those Maguire seedlings? They look very green and healthy.

These seedlings would have been started late last summer, so for me here, that would make them 10 or 11 months old, maximum.