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.

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.

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.

Not Candy Floss Amaryllis

My Candy Floss finally bloomed a few days ago but the more I stared at the image on the website that I bought the bulb from, the more I was convinced that this isn't Candy Floss. The Candy Floss displayed on the site also had white stamen/anthers while mine were pink. So I posted a thread in the Amaryllis forum to see what other members thought.

The two pictures below are outside in evening sun:

The one picture below is inside under white light and flash:

Members pretty much confirmed that I do not have Candy Floss. One member posted a picture of his Candy Floss. Then there were suggestions such as, "Could it be Summertime? Could it be Milady?" Then the thread petered out with no solid guess on what the flower could be. I did contact the site that I ordered the bulb from but did not hear back from them. I'll probably give it a week before contacting them again.

Bearded Iris seedlings

I have to admit that I'm surprised at how many Bearded Iris seeds germinated. Last year I went to look up information on when to sow the seeds and it was pretty much agreed that the methods of winter stratification or soaking the seeds in water for weeks were the way to go. There was talk about how some of the seeds are so tough that their purpose is to take up to ten years before they burst free from the shell. Something about how they're protected in case something happens to the early birds that came up. It looks like just about every seed germinated.

Purple Mom/Black Dad

Black Mom/Purple Dad

Close-up of iris seedlings - Black Mom/Purple Dad

And for personal records, I was given a couple more plants.

Dutch Iris Miss Saigon and Garden Amaryllis Red & White

After doing a search for Dutch Iris, it appears that they're less-liked because they tend to dwindle in number instead of proliferating? The "Garden Amaryllis Red & White" looks like Minerva.

Green Dragon Amaryllis - self pollinated.

Wow. I thought I posted pictures of the Green Dragon Amaryllis when it bloomed. Guess not...

Below taken January 24th 2012:

Below five taken January 31, 2012 in different shades/sun:

Three other flower buds behind the one that opened.

Below taken February 5, 2012. One bud was aborted so only three blooms came out to play.

Sad looking Green Dragon

Below taken today:

I decided to self-pollinate the Green Dragon Amaryllis to see if it'd take. I have no idea if it worked or not. The pods don't seem to be swelling. The biggest pod in the middle belonged to the first bloom that came out.

Hopefully once spring comes, I can get this little guy in the ground and it can thrive. I'm afraid I'm not cut out for growing amaryllis in small pots.

USDA Unveils New Plant Hardiness Zone Map

USDA Unveils New Plant Hardiness Zone Map / January 25, 2012 / News from the USDA Agricultural Research Service

Thought I'd pass this link on to others. An updated plant hardiness zone map. I gave my zipcode a whirl and was surprised to see that the border of 7b and 8a is no longer 'next door' but is now way up state.

Iris seedling

I love how my iris seedling is starting to look like an iris. It seems 'big' in this picture but it is incredibly tiny in the pot. Quick to miss when looking around. hehe.

As it is right now, I've spotted three iris seedlings in this "Black Mom/Purple Dad" pot. The "Purple Mom/Black Dad" pot has nothing so far.

Dragon Arum now?

Wow... I was surprised to see these two poking out of the ground. Dragon Arums. Already?

What also surprises me is that these two used to be by the mailbox before I relocated them to the amaryllis bed. After I relocated them, they 'vanished' and I assumed they just rotted away.

The dragon arum in the other bed (the one I take pictures of with the big flowers) haven't come up yet. Those two suffered a mishap last year where they bloomed and immediately both plants just died down to the ground. I wonder if those bulbs are still around or not. Time will tell. I have a love/hate relationship with the dragon arum but always pleasantly surprised to see them make an appearance (even if it's always way so early in the year while frosts are still coming).