Monday, March 19, 2012

Seed Starter Kits - Amaryllis updates

"Hopefully you learned your lesson."
 
No. I got seed starter kits! Gonna be planting more amaryllis seeds - this time from two generous people who mailed me seeds! ;) I have selfed Aulicum seeds and selfed Charisma seeds. More might be on their way.

I decided that maybe instead of my usual flower box method, I could try this and see what happens if I keep each seed separate. I will worry about it not being as deep as the flower box is but maybe if I kept each seed separate, they might not hamper each other.


Update on Green Dragon Amaryllis:
March 4, 2012
The bulb aborted its scape and seed pods. I opened each seed pod and saw that it was full of white seeds that never took.

March 4, 2012
In two of the seed pods, there were big fat black seeds. Very round. I decided to use the water method on them. Over time, they just turned to mush so there was nothing viable from those pods.

March 10, 2012
The replacement bulb for Candy Floss arrived. There was a scape pushing out but the tip was damaged. I potted it up and am hoping the scape will follow through so that I can have some idea if this is Candy Floss or not.

March 2, 2012
I cross-pollinated two of the 'fake' Candy Floss blooms with Green Dragon pollen and marked them with green yarn. The other two blooms were self-pollinated.

The blooms immediately started shriveling after I pollinated them. The fifth bloom there - the stigma was distorted and it was two-pronged instead of the usual three-prong. I tried pollinating it over several days but it never took. It just remained a big beautiful flower before it ran its course.

March 9, 2012
The four pods of the 'fake' Candy Floss seem to be holding.

Today
It appears that the top-most pod, self-pollinated, has started swelling up while the other three aren't doing much. They might not have taken. I was really hoping the cross-pollinated pods would take and I'd have some interesting seeds to plant.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Amaryllis Overload

Yesterday I decided that with temperatures staying relatively high, that the chance of frost happening again is very unlikely. I dragged over the flower boxes of amaryllis that I grew from seeds. Then, for some reason, I decided that it'd be best to separate all the amaryllis.

The four flower boxes that contained amaryllis that I started as seed in 2010 were very tricky. Even when I washed out the dirt, the roots were still clinging to each other. A lot of gentle wriggling and I got them all separated.

The seeds I started in 2011 were all very easy to take apart. Just tons of tiny little bulbs.

With the bulbs separated, I started planting them.



Then at some point came the horror when I realized I could not fit all the bulbs in the bed. I had to start putting them back in the flower boxes and I am still left with many tons of little bulbs that haven't had a chance to be planted in dirt yet.

I really did expect to have all the room necessary to plant the seed-grown amaryllis. What I should've done was take them apart one box at a time so that I knew when to quit. My back, neck, and legs are killing me from spending hours on planting them all. I have to find out if I have any extra dirt sitting around so that I can get the rest of the tiny bulbs in the flower boxes. I'm sure they're happy to have the extra room, even if they were disturbed.