I forgot about Telos. I echo what you said! Maybe I should stopped buying the hybrids and buy one Aulicum, then I have one in my collection. Thanks!

Or Carol could go back to the vacant land where she saw this......with a shovel.....

Great idea Sherry.

Some dark night when the moon is new.

Okay, I went back and looked and Carol said "middle of nowhere"....now, my mind translated that to 'vacant land'...or 'up for grabs'...lol...we don't want to encourage Carol to get in trouble here....lol....

middle of nowhere... sound like they could be up for grabs. Carol where are you?

Carol is in New Zealand right now.....

This one with blue pollen looks much like "Hippeastrum aulicum 'Quiririm' " from Mauro Peixoto's site. He sells seed but hasn't got that one listed, I've got a few growing nicely which I got from him. One flowered this year, H. striatum 'Petiolatum'. I have Hippeastrum aulicum 'Corupá'. I think the different names are varieties from different locations.

http://www.brazilplants.com/am...

http://www.brazilplants.com/Se...

They are quite easy to grow if you know how.

Janet, thank you for the link. I will bookmark it and wait when there are available seeds of Quiririm. I have a few nice size bulbs of Striatum grown from seeds. The two biggest ones were attacked by NBF. Their cores are hollow but there are quite a few bulblets growing around the basal plate. This species offsets like crazy even it is about a dime in size and hasn't bloom yet.

Lol, it took me a while to translate NBF into Narcissus Bulb fly! I have them, but have got used to calling them Merodon equestris. At first I thought NBF was New Boyfriend!

I had one largish Hipp bulb hollowed out too! Well I had two actually but the other was a struggling H.papilio which shrunk and never flowered, I found a pupa of a bulb fly in it this spring. That was one I bought years ago! I have some papilio from seed sown in early 2008 but even they were mostly weak so have only 4 promising ones left but there looks to be some small offsets growing unless they are hangers on. H. blossfeldiae is another I got in 2008.

I put my hipps in a greenhouse for the summer, when I came to bring them inside I found one of two only I had of H. calyptratum 'Macaé de Cima' was hollowed out the bottom, it wasn't growing while the other one was but it was the biggest one and for it's age quite big!

My H. striatum 'Petiolatum' has increased like wild fire, the pot was full of bulblets so I repotted the lot into a bigger pot and took out some smaller bulbs which were sitting amongst the others on the surface and repotted them but I left that pot in the greenhouse as an 'experiment' to see if they survive! I have loads in the main pot anyway.

The strongest for a start and best to germinate was H. calyptratum, they are very slow now and small though but still alive but I'm down to 5 plants of which 4 look strong and they make small bulbs anyway. I sowed those in early 2008. I got more seed in 2009, sown mid February, two packets of H. aulicum 'Quiririm' included! You get 10 seeds per packet, I got 9 of one and 10 of the other all looking robust and growing very strong now, I repotted them without separating the bulbs later this year but next year they will need separating maybe three to a pot as indoor space is diminished! I have two lots of nice healthy Hippeastrum psittacinum 'Atibaia' sown at the same time which I can't wait to see in flower!

If I recall correctly I think H. aulicum 'Quiririm' was available later maybe in January as I sowed mine on 17th February, although I didn't sow them immediately on receipt. I floated the seed on water inside a clear plastic tub with the lid sat on top, let the leaves grow to an inch or more tall then made holes in compost with lots of leaf compost, gently pushing the compost around the small bulb which I put on the surface. I have had good success that way! I germinated the seed on the mantle above the fire which seemed perfect for them, when it was warmer I put them in an east facing window upstairs until this summer. I had seen H. aulicum 'Quiririm' selling on ebay here making £27 for three seeds! I didn't want to risk giving away any gems even at that price so I want to see them in flower first!

That is what I call them, NBF for short. We have the same problem. I grow a lot of daffs so I am not surprised.

Talk about Papilio. I purchased 3 in October 2010, not even one bloomed and one got infested. I tried the cuttage method. Sliced it like an onion, put them in a bag of damp vermiculite and they all rotted. This is the second time I did cuttage and not successful with it. My huge Christmas Gift and one of my x Johsonii both have holes in the bottom. Argh!!! I recently bought another Papilio because I can not wait for the other two to bloom. Wish me luck that I get to see a Pap flower this winter.

I read a lot about these lovely species and wish to grow them someday. Look like Mr. Peixoto is the answer. And now I do remember that somebody mentioned his name to me in one of our correspondence years ago.

Flotation method is okay but I have hard time planting the tiny seedlings. I sow my hipp seeds just like lilies.

Quiririm is quite pricey on ebay! That's right, you have to see them flower first!

Good luck with H.papilio! I can't wait to see one flower either, mine will soon be 4 years old but they are still small! Most of the first lot of hipps I grew from seed are not as good as the second lot, I don't know if our very chilly summer 2008 held them back or if it was the species which are more difficult. It was too cold to put them in a greenhouse even so I kept them inside, by September they had barely grown but most are fairly slow for a start.

Putting the seedlings in compost is easy, just make a hole with something like a pencil then ease the root in while holding the leaf. After gently pushing the compost around the bulb give them a light spray to settle the compost around the roots. If sowing them like lilies works for you then stick with it.

Thanks! Could it be that pap is a slow grower? They say that a gardener growing this species needs a lot of patience.

That is a good advice, thanks. When I did the flotation method, I change the water everyday and put a drop or two of household bleach. Do you do this too?

I have heard papilio is difficult, but some have had good success with them! They might be fussy about day length and temperature.

I didn't change the water nor put in bleach, only one went a bit smelly but that was seed from a hybrid which failed to germinate. The species behaved themselves and mostly floated on the water but some were a bit iffy trying to take a dive as they were growing so I propped them against the side of the tub. They don't get bleach in nature. H. striatum Petiolatum was one which wanted to take a dive, it didn't harm them though!

Ok a complete newbie to starting hips from seed although I would like to give it a try. Are you just floating seeds in water until they develope a root and then putting them into pots with compost?

Yes Marie, that is how I germinated all those I grew. It took up to two weeks I think for some to all germinate, then about another two weeks for them to develop sufficient leaf, in total around 4 weeks I think. I kept the lid on loosely to keep them moist until they were almost ready to pot up.

Only one species didn't live, H. glaucescens, I had 7 nice plants but they went dormant sometime then didn't grow again. They were still OK in September 08, I'm not sure when they decided to die on me, it was probably the next year after winter but they were inside at around 16C and not kept wet.

Here's H. calyptratum about to germinate on 9th February 2008, in pots on 12th March. The last pic shows all those I grew in 2008 on 1st September 08 after a very cold summer but I kept them inside, calyptratum is the tallest one. Some species like a lot of shade and humidity, H. calyptratum is one of those but glaucescens likes it hotter and dry. I will have to take photos of them all now, I didn't take any of those I grew in 2009 but they are all in full growth now, under an east window upstairs. I can't keep them in the window now as they are in bigger pots.