The Ruby Gem is beautiful, I saw a catalogue pic of it, like you said it appears to be a darker and deeper red.

Today I potted-up Black Pearl, Barbados, Aphrodite [a second one] and Dancing Queen. All were showing signs of growth...............
Black Pearl with paper white at a nursery last year,

I am still waiting for dutchgardens.com to send me the Sweet Potato amaryllis I ordered and they mis-shipped. Their e-mails to me are vary vague. Don't think I will order from them again, but still trying to reserve judgement.

Update - after repeated inquiries, dutchgardens.com finally sent me an e-mail saying they could not ship my Sweet Potato Pie Amaryllis and are giving me a credit. We shall see if I ever really get the credit - not that I want to buy anything ever again from them. They have given me a total run around this entire time - sending me form e-mails, and not direct answers. If they had just been honest and direct with me from the beginning, I might/would feel differently. I ordered early, so there should have been stock. They get a huge from me.

I'm in Queensland, Australia, so my hippy season is coming to an end... I still have a few to flower: Santiago, La Paz, Double Dragon, Dancing Queen and Charisma are all sending up flower spikes, a few of my Alascas are still flowering (some had seven flowers on each stalk) while Pink Surprise (photos of an Alasca and the Pink Surprise should be below - edit - the photos were cropped in the upload, sorry) has her last flower open. I'm collecting seed from the ones that have already flowered to share and swap with friends, and I have lots and lots of different seeds floating at present, with the first little 'grass stems' pulled out yesterday and put in to pots. Hippies here can stay in the ground all year and you often see gardens with 'out of control' hippeastrums that never get cared for, they just multiply like mad.

I bought a big range of cybister and other 'rarer' bulbs - rare for Australia, anyway - from a big nursery here that were SUPPOSED to flower this season (Chico, Bogota, Emerald, Rio Negro, Santiago, Misty, etc) but the bulbs were quite damaged when they arrived with rot, half a bulb cut out somehow, withered inside of dry shells, etc. I took photos of all of them when they arrived, and the nursery has been very helpful and offered either a refund or replacement bulbs next season since they are now out of stock - so I'll wait for another year and get replacement bulbs and hope I have them flowering next Spring.

to NGA, Lea.

Welcome Lea!

!st bloom for me this year > Lemon Sorbet

small bulb with 2 scapes; each has 5 buds

Does anyone grow the Soltini amaryllis?

@crawgarden - never heard of the Soltini amaryllis. Or do you mean sonitini amaryllis, by any chance. I did buy a Marrakech sonitini bulb last year - it did not bloom. But will try again this year. Also, I brought it indoors for the winter.

I was looking at these: http://royalcolors.com/amaryll...

You know, I just looked at those Pink Rascals also - I am very tempted. I think my Marrakech is in that same category. It did not bllom when I got, but looks healthy, so i am still hoping. I did not leave out over the winter - still a bit afraid to do that in our Ohio weather.

Welcoming your opinion here. These amaryllis all came from the same scape, but 3 different pods - a cross I made. They were planted in the same soil and have had the same treatment. But look at the difference in the sizes. The ones in the 2 red cups are only about 3" tall. They did not start out in the red cups - they were planted in a third container that I just split up for some friends, so I would have expected all of the seedling to be about the same size. And some seedling in the pots with tall seedling are also tiny. Since this is a cross of 2 hybrids, perhaps the disparity in size is genetic? Or just some better and lesser seeds? They all sprouted in April - some are still tiny, and others are already a good size. Anyone want to offer an opinion?

Royal Colors sells their sonatini varieties late in the season. These may be exclusive to them. They are sold as clumping bulbs, they make a lot of bulblets and can make a big clump quickly. I have bought them in the past but in general they haven't bloomed as well as I would have like. They often don't bloom the first season, and want to make bulblets in preference to blooming, so you get clumps of non blooming bulbs. Just my personal experience.

Christie: I think that you are looking at natural variation in the seedlings which came from different seeds, esp since this is a cross. If your space is limited you might want to chose the biggest ones (most vigorous) to keep. This is very interesting to see.

Thanks, I think I got some sonatini like bulbs from the http://www.hiddenspringsflower..., primarily a peony nursery, but the owner had been doing some crosses with amaryllis, I had never seen them before. Harv, the owner, said they were South African bulbs that were multi stem and multi flowers, they looked pretty interesting. We shall see come spring when they get set out.

Just got a note from the breeder: Yes some of the parents were Sonatini cultivars and others were new compact Dutch breeding that have excellent disease resistance.

bsharf said:
Christie: I think that you are looking at natural variation in the seedlings which came from different seeds, esp since this is a cross. If your space is limited you might want to chose the biggest ones (most vigorous) to keep. This is very interesting to see.

I have the space to keep them. I am wondering if the flowers will be the same on the tiny sprouts as on the big sprouts, or if they might also be different? Any opinion on that?

Hey there @crawgarden -- Royal Colors is having a 5-sale on those Sonatini bulbs. $14 for 3 bulbs. Jan 25- Jan 30. That's $9 off.

cwhitt said:Hey there @crawgarden -- Royal Colors is having a 5-sale on those Sonatini bulbs. $14 for 3 bulbs. Jan 25- Jan 30. That's $9 off.

Saw that, thanks!

Picotee sending up stalks!

Amazing picture, the flower buds and the snow as backgrund!

I live in an equivalent to a USDA zone 9b and grow my Hippeastrums outdoors, so no flowers during winter.

When I lived in Maine, my indoor Amaryllis kept me going during the winter!