Amaryllis Bed - Iris

My amaryllis bed - the old one with three clumps - are pushing out lots of scapes! I wasn't quite sure since the amaryllis insisted on growing as early as January and we kept having bits of frost here and there that kept stinging the leaves or making them die down.

Amaryllis Bed - Three Clumps

The clump on the left has been pushing out serious scapes. The middle clump are my seeds grown from 2007. The clump on the right are starting to push up some scapes.

Bloom from 2007 seeds

Same bloom as above.

I forced flash to show the yellow throats since the color was drowned out in the above picture.

Close-up of beard on Tall Bearded Iris

I have irises coming up! I don't know the name of the iris in the pictures. My mother says she purchased it many years ago as "Black Iris" but when it opens up, it takes on a very dark red color.

Tall Bearded Iris

Tall Bearded Iris

This could be why it's referred to as black iris. When bunched up, they're very black but when they open up, they take on that dark red color as the bloom above.

I'm thinking of self-pollinating some of the blooms. I was told that severe inbreeding will bring out recessive traits and it might be a fun experiment to try.

Amaryllis Bed Update

So where did I last leave off...

March 19, 2012

Using the greenhouse kit, I planted 12 "Aulicum selfed" seeds and 24 "Charisma selfed" seeds.

March 22, 2012

Sure enough, the other three pods of the fake 'Candy Floss' had started shriveling and turning brown.

March 25, 2012

The 30' bed was extended by another 16' at the end. Very quickly the wood was added, newspaper and cardboard were laid down along with grass and composted cow manure, then topsoil was poured in. The bed was done JUST in time before a very big storm came through so I didn't have time to take a picture before it got all pounded on. No complaints though because the rain settled the soil pretty good! One thing we had noticed was that the very long bed was making it extremely difficult for excess water to run off. The plus side is - with how dry summers have been, to the point that we get pushed into 'drought' stage, maybe it's not a bad thing to try to contain some water for a bit before it drains out. I don't know.

March 26, 2012 - Iris

An old bed of Iris was dug up and removed (against my will, unfortunately. I wanted them to bloom first) so I relocated them to the new bed extension. Since then, I've added a couple more amaryllis bulbs (Green Dragon, Minerva, the "Red/White"), Dutch Iris, some unidentified bulbs that were found in the old iris bed (Possibly the double daffodils or something), Leftover Tulips that were growing in the front yard where another old bed was removed, and I believe daffodils that my sister brought over.

March 27, 2012

The lone seedpod on the fake 'Candy Floss' Amaryllis. It's really looking beautiful!

March 27, 2012 - Black Mom, Purple Dad iris seedlings

I posted on a forum wondering when the best time was to separate seedlings. My seedlings made their appearance back at the beginning of January of this year. I was really overwhelmed because I was under the impression that seeds are not easy to germinate. With the mild winter we had, I didn't think my winter-sowing effort worked. It did. All too well. I think I'll let these be until around May. They should be big enough to divide into a bed.

March 27, 2012 - Purple Mom, Black Dad iris seedlings

One thing I've noticed is that even though both pots have pushed out seedlings at the same time, the BM/PD seedlings are much taller than the PM/BD seedlings.

March 31, 2012 - Candy Floss replacement

The scape is still there but coming out extremely slowly. The daughter bulb is at the right. I had placed the bulb a little too high for its sake. I've been waiting for it to flower so that I can tell if I got the correct Candy Floss this time around before I relocate it to the bed.

March 31, 2012 - Seed pod of fake 'Candy Floss'

April 1, 2012 - Amaryllis Bed

What surprised me so far about the 2010 amaryllis was that they kept their leaves. I was expecting all the amaryllis to wither down and start over but they're going on without missing a beat. The 2011 amaryllis seedlings felt the blow, as I knew they would, with a couple of their leaves turning yellow and withering but they all have at least one green leaf that are still pushing through.