Hippeastrum flowers

Last December I was walking around the Christmas market in Manchester, and came across a stall selling named Hippeastrum bulbs. I haven't grown these for years so I decided to push the boat out and treat myself. I purchased 10 huge bulbs (the biggest I've ever seen!) with the intention of staggering the planting days to have a long run of flowers.

I purchased:

Voodoo
Red Peacock
Blossom Peacock
Picotee
Charisma
Papillo
Beneficial
Desire
Orange Sovereign
Magnum

I took photos of each of the bulbs against the labels so I could identify them later!

Over the last few weeks they have all slowly grown and come into flower. NOT A SINGLE ONE was one of the hybrids listed above. Apart from one which seems to be Minerva, and a rather pretty white and red striped one, the rest are just plain old Appleblossom. I really wish I had taken the details of the seller. One or two bulbs being out if place is understandable, but if them all to be wrong shows the seller was pulling a fast one. I'm mostly disappointed by Papillo and picotee, not the first time I've grown these to have them turn out to be something else.

Anyways, here are the photos of the flowers. Enjoy!

 

Really nice flowers, seen the stool at Manchester i had the same problem years before, i bought few bulbs that turn to be different .....the seller are from Holland . I belive they do the same trick every year .

anyway I bought one myself



more for the color of the leaves



if I had some money to waist i would have try one f those
at a staggering £250 per bulb
Worsleya ranieri

 

Wow! That is a pretty amazing bulb. Not sure I'd pay that kind of price though!

 

Did you select your own or were they behind the counter. If you served yourself, there's the problem - people pick the bulbs up and then just put 'em back any old place. The same thing happens in our local "very expensive garden centre".
I'd be well peed off not to get Papillo though. How much were they?

I got my H.cybister from the Bloemenmarkt in Amsterdam and got exactly what I bought! Just wish that it would produce some offsets.

 

The display was made up of a 'pyramid' of baskets full of bulbs, each basket had its own label.



It was a 'help yourself' stall and the bulbs where 2 for £5. Whilst I appreciate there could have been some mix ups, I would have expected at least some of the bulbs to be true to their label. Especially as I dug right down into the bottom of the basket to find the biggest, healthiest bulbs. Instead I ended up with 7 Appleblossoms and the other 3 colours listed above. I think it is definitely a case of the seller pulling a fast one.

Never mind though, I'm over it now. On the bright side, the bulbs where so large nearly every one produced 3 stems with 4 to 6 flowers on each. As I wasn't interested in keeping them as a pot pant, I started cutting them for a vase in my living room. They make such good cut flowers and last just as long in a vase as they do on the plant. Even the tiny little buds that hadn't formed when they where cut continued to grow and open in the vase!

 

We had exactly the same thing happen to us from some French sellers who cmae to our town centre and there was loads of stalls selling meat and garlic products etc,well everything french.

We picked one of each variety and duly took them home,potted them up and when they flowered they were all the same Appleblossom.I would have liked the other colours and was a bit miffed but at least they wasn't all red.

Although at xmas 2012 we got from our local garden centre a really nice display of five bulbs in a large ceramic pot for £19.99{down from £39.99}although i knew they were going to be red ones,each bulb threw up two stalks with four flowers i think it was on each stalk so we had a fantastic display over xmas and the new year.I was hoping to pot up the bulbs and use the ceramic pot for another display but the roots or thr bulbs are so tightly entwined i will damage them trying to move them so will have to wait until they die down naturally and then move them.

From the same garden centre the other year i got an Amaryllis{Hippastreum} reduced down from £9 to a couple of quid and the variety is a green colour which was a nice change.I tried pollinating the flowers but they didn't take which makes me think the plants are sterile as i never have had problems with other colours when i have pollinated them

Those purple ones are really nice but i can't see me paying £250 for one bulb unless i was rather wealthy

 

I do agree. Especially the Papillo! That is one that I really want, but baulk at the price that is generally asked for it.