Hi Barbara, welcome to the forum. I remember that some growers refer to the Hippeastrum papilio as the Butterfly Amaryllis, so I assume that is what you mean. Its a H. species which was originally found growing in Brazil. In general , the showy cultivars that we are growing indoors are H. hybrids that were developed in the past 100 years. I know that the Papilio has very different growth requirements than do the modern hybrids. The Papilio needs less water in the summer and is more likely to be evergreen. They also produce a lot of pups. Have they bloomed in the past outdoors for you? Was last year the first year they didn't bloom? How many hours of sunlight are they receiving. How many years have they been in that particular bed? Are the bulbs producing a lot of pups? If there are a lot of pups, the bulbs may be trying to reproduce asexually instead of sexually with flowers. I have planted papilio outside, but in ten years, I've only had one papilio produce flowers after four years in the ground. I know that they can be really tricky in terms of getting them to flower when planted outside.
