Yes keep your fingers crossed, and I shall keep my thumbs pressed for you - as this is the corresponding German term in order to wish you to be fortunate in your breeding project.

On the other hand... oh forgive me.. a success is rather unlikely. The seed pod will yield numerous (>100) seeds, but with white and reddish flecks and - crippled embryos within which are not viable

Nevertheless you should then carefully try to search for these very few more regualrly shaped seeds with normal (plump) structure.

Hans-Werner

Hans-Werner, I was hoping for an answer from you! From what I've read so far, I never thought I would get seed pods from this unlikely union. In any case, I'll keep you posted once the seed pods are dry and ready to give up those poor crippled embryos.

Thanks!

Jérôme

Please be aware:

One single viable seed from YOUR crossing experiment is potentially far more worth than 50 others from one "common" crossing under tetraploids.
That is the difference.
You WILL have to examine these very numerous seeds very carefully!!

Hans-Werner

Who has an answer for me? I purchased a couple of Amaryllis
around the Thanksgiving Holiday and they were beautiful!
I germinated the one and grew three nice seed pods which to my surprise, two stopped growing and immediately schriveled up and died while the third continued to grow. I am now at the point where I believe I need to think about the seeds. MY QUESTION: How do ya know when it's time to cut the seed pod off of the stalk to dry AND how is the correct way to dry this thing to insure a decent count of viable seeds?? I thank you in advance for your help!
Michael

Michael,

The pod will start to split at the seams, exposing the dark seeds. At that time you harvest. You can then open the pod and let the seeds spill into a bowl. Let the seeds dry for a few days, then store them or sow them. They are best sown fresh, but will keep for several months or longer depending on the seeds and your environment.

Good luck and have FUN!

Aha! Finally Hans showed up. How are you, your Amaryllises and Dosseldorf doing my dear friend? We surely missed you...welcome back!
My Papilio is currently putting out a scape. I will be needing some advice soon on which variety I can try to cross it with. I have saved a lot of pollen from my other varieties and am waiting for this moment that Papilio will bloom. I have taken very good care of Papilio this year. After it rested last summer, it has given out 10 healthy dark green leaves and now the scape. So far, the #1 in my pollen list to put on Papilio is the Brazilian Hybrid Gilmar. What do you think?

{{gwi:373402}}

Please do stay as much as you can with us.

Greetings Hans-good to see you again. Maria, that is a very pretty flower. I am into reds, whites, greens and yellows. This red/white combo with a tinge of yellow to green would look good in my home!

Bless you both! The post is one that Hans made in 2006!

Ohhhhhhh...heavy sigh.........Best wishes to Hans wherever you are!

Love the dramatic veins!

Yikes...2006!!! I guess I really do miss Hans that much.
Yes it is very dramatic raydio. It is one of my favorites now. Even my teenage daughters love this one. For teenagers to notice it, it must be really pretty.

Jeromej....what happened to this cross? Did the seedpod pull through? Any viable seeds?

Yes that is the question, mine produced only flake.
ARIF

mariava7, unfortunately no seeds were viable. And then my papilio sulked for SEVEN months. :-(

Uh ohhhhh...seven months! Your Papilio sure didn't like those Black Pearl pollen. Is this a natural reaction of Papilio when it rejects a pollination?

I have no clue, maybe another member can enlighten us?

I have performed manymany unsuccessfull pollinations on the flowers of H.papilio, besides some FEW which I obtained....
...many viable seeds from: With pollen from diploids,
...SOME viable seeds among numerous empty "flakes": Using pollen from Donau and (Donau x Ambiance) respectively
...and "flakes only" (with pollen from Orange Sovereign, Apppleblossom and other tetraploids).
There was no case of subsequent sulking regardless to the mentioned results.

The production of seeds is something with occurs at the very periphery of the plant and according to my opinion does not exercise a dramatic "distant effect" (into the respective bulb) apart of signalling to transfer a certain amount of storage materials into the respective stem which carries these developing rather small fruits.

Cordially
Hans-Werner

LOL!!! I had to look three times at the date of Hans reply on top. Just making sure it is current and not of last year. Nice to see you back Hans!!!
I have attempted to cross Gilmar with some of my large flowered varieties and all of them failed. It has selfed wonderfully though giving me 3 fat seed pods that I am "babying". The fourth and last flower was pollinated with Wedding Dance's pollens and it is so small (1/4 the size of other seedpods)I think it will not pull through.
On the other hand I have pollinated flowers of Supreme Garden and Jade Serpent(small flowered) with Gilmar's pollen and they seem to be doing alright and improving very slowly. Would this mean that Gilmar has a possibility of being a diploid and a good candidate for Papilio?

I assume that "Gilmar" is one diploid - and that is a selected clone of Hippeastrum psittacinum or a very original hybrid thereof. That will explain the failure of your pollination attempts with pollen from big blooming (tetraploid) hybrids. On the other hand I would not give up pollinating every single flower - in some cases you might be finally fortunate even if the seed pods will contain but some single diamonds - viable seeds - among a lot of flakes, as I experienced and described earlier for H.papilio.
And yes - H.papilio and H.psittacinum should be extremely good candidates for one another and I consider this kind of coalescence as VERY promising!

Best wishes
Hans-Werner

Hi Maria,
The small flowered South African hybrids seem to be breeding diploid :) They are also rather difficult to set a decent pod on. Many are dropping about 2 weeks after pollination.The exception seems to be Baby Doll and I'm just not sure what it's ploidy is. It's pollen set viable seed on my extra dark Charisma seedling and vice versa. It also set viable seed on puniceum, go figure! Lora

I am thinking that way too Lora. I pollinated some SG flowers with Jade Serpent and three seed pods so far are doing alright. Same with Jade Serpent on it's third scape (I love this plant)which I pollinated with SG pollen.

I am running out of Gilmar pollen and am saving the rest for Papilio whose scape is around 8" tall now. It has rewarded me a baby too.

Hi,
Please look at your Papilio bulb. In its natural habitat it grows in trees. Is it completely exposed on top of the soil with only roots going into the soil? It should be on a 4 inch or 6 inch at most pot. This concerns the sulk.

When you put Black Pearl pollen on the Papilio mix it with Papilio pollen that you have killed by micro waving for 20-30 seconds. Also try Papilio pollen on Black Pearl.

Bill

This is very interesting. Why the killed Papilio pollen? Does it somehow help with the growth of the pollen tubes?

- Steve