I bought a second bulb of Clown because I love it....one of my favorites. Today it opened and what a disappointment.....it is San Remo. San Remo is a very pretty Amaryllis but I already have two of them in bloom. I'll be calling the nursery where I bought it Monday My Elvas, on the other hand turned out to be Dancing Queen which was alright because I like it better. Red Pearl opened today and it is spectacular.........

Mislabelled bulbs are the number one problem in this "hobby". There are too many locations, along the bulb's path, for the ID to become accidentally or fraudulently mislabelled. You just don't know the true ID if the bulb, until it blooms, Even then, you are still relying on faith, that the "dark red" bulb which you received is the correctly labelled "dark red bulb" which you ordered. . I've already had one myself this year: My labelled Ruby Gem turned out to be Gold Master. I wonder if this is as great a problem with other bulbs, such as tulips or alliums. Anything which passes through many hands, in a dormant condition, must face a percentage of mislabelling.

Yes it is so frustrating to get a mislabeled bulb. Fine if you just want an Amaryllis for the holidays and pick up a boxed one at the garden centre, but if you've ordered a particular bulb then it's a real disappointment. I've had this happen so many times. I was at a local store recently which had bulbs in a glass vase (planted in moss with festive decorations at the base). It was almost £15 cheaper than similar ones at my garden centre so I picked one up. There were lots of varieties to choose from and they had labels in, but I chose the best bulb with two flowers developing as I knew it was a chance in a thousand that you'd actually get the colour you chose. I have high hopes that my Mocca & Santiago that I got from Royal Colours will be true to name..

I just ordered an Apple Blossom to be sent to a friend, and it is getting ready to bloom. My friend loves my Apple Blossom. She is excited for hers to open, but I did warn her that this is a problem. I have to be very careful not to mix mine up and keep the labels with each bulb. I suppose when you are dealing with thousands of bulbs it is even harder. One almost needs a sticker one can put on the actual bulb when it blooms. I wonder if writing on a bulb with a sharpie marker would damage it - then at least it would not get separated from its' label.

Some of the bulbs I bought this year were written on and it doesn't seem to be a problem. Everything I bought this year had labels which I put in the pot with the bulb and I wonder if the problem is at the wholesaler level rather than the nursery.

A permanent marker on the actual bulb is an interesting idea. A Sharpie on the brown outer scales would work temporarily. But I wonder if there is someway of tagging it. This might be a good question to post on one of the bulb forums or general gardening forum. Paul: the nursery claimed it was the fault of the supplier, who probably would tell you its the fault of the grower. Its easy to pass the blame up the line. Still it's buyer beware.

Writing on the bulb isn't a permanent ID but is helpful when buying bulbs. As with tulips and other bulbs people will pick some up and then replace them in the wrong bin. I'm sure this happens with Amaryllis sometimes then the are not labeled in bins.....

It might even be the workers who harvest the bulbs. Many farm workerss are transient/temporary and don't always speak the same language as the farm/nursery owners, and may not get good/understandable directions on which bins to put which bulbs in. Also, they may not even know how to read. Each step in the process probably is another opportunity to mix things up. For me, I might at least try to mark my actual bulbs with a sharpie befor I put them to sleep each fall - at least there would be a smaller chance of me mixing up the tags. Right now, I put each bulb in its' own paper sack, with its' tag, and then label the bag with name and date dug up. But even so, I find I have one bulb that I am not sure of - will need to wait until it blooms I guess.

I do use sharpie on the outside of the bulbs when I'm sorting out an order... but as noted, that only works while that piece of brown "skin" is on the bulb. I also use sharpie on flower stems if I want to keep track of a cross-pollination effort, and that usually persists well enough until I harvest the seeds.

I often rubber-band a label around a bulb when it goes into the garden. They usually stay on pretty well that way when I lift at the end of summer, and I can just shove the label down along the side of the container when I pot the the bulb in fall/winter.

I have just recently turned to using a sharpie to label scapes that I have cross bred - does not seem to hurt the plant any. I do think I might label the bulbs themselves when i dig them up to let them go dormant next winter.

I'd suggest rubber-banding a tag on them and labeling with sharpie as a back-up... belt AND suspenders, LOL