Hi friends, Here is a little update on Hercules. It surely makes it exciting to me.... will it be a true Hercules or an impostor? It would not certainly be the first time someone in this forum gets something else instead of Hercules, isn't it? Well, for fortune the buds have grown a lot, and they are getting darker in colour too, phew...! So i hope this will be a true Hercules and not an impostor, hehehe.... Take a peek, look inside.... is it Hercules or not? Who knows :-)....? The next two Gracilis flower spikes are almost ready to bloom, this time i'm really making a few pics! I just hope light is better and that we don't have dark, cloudy days again. It is very hard to make a nice photo when there is not much light :-(. I don't like the way hippie flowers look when i use a flash... :-(. They hardly ever come true to colour then... Thanks for the explanation, Jodi, Yes, gracilis are a group of small-flowering hybrids. They are in many colours, i have a red one. Unfortunately, i don't know this cultivar's name. I just bought it by "gracilis red", but i think it should be Gracile Red, since i believe Gracilis is the plural form of the name. This one doesn't have a green throat (i think a green throat looks nice and i have certainly no problems with it. They tried to eliminate this in the crossing porcess, i believe) According to Veronica's description, it makes a good chance to be "Pamela" (red, exquisite venation, slender green scapes tingled with attractive shades of pink-brown towards the base, up to 6 mature leaves present at the time of flowering) I think they are really gorgeous flowers. In my opinion, small-flowering hybrids are undervalued here by hippeastrum lovers. They deserve more attention :-)! Thank you, guys, for the kind comments. I'll keep on posting pics!

My 14X16ft Seattle koi pond is in need of lily-izing, see my trade list for some, contact me re. other wishes for exchange. Whites sure seen to pop best in my gray skied garden, but am open to others, (i guess, in other words,I'm a maliable gardener who can't walk out of a nursery empty handed) ccckoball

Thanks for your reply ademink. I agree with you. The easiest way to answer a question is to state the obvious, and then ignore the question being posed. What I am interested in though is knowing the difference between tardiflora and lancifolia, the proper nomencalture, their origens, and the differences between them. Ultimately, if such a plant exists I would like to find a true specimen of tardiflora, and hopefully not a tiny division of lancifolia being sold for $8. (The "We wouldn't begin to tackle these" mentioned in the description does not inspire great confidence in this nursery in me.) Do you think you can help with any of this? Does anyone have first hand experience with tardiflora, or can expound on the fine points of the destinction between it and lancifolia? Thank-you! Sincerely, Matt PS - this is a "high priority" thread - or at least not so unimportant as it may seem to collectors of the latest blue and yellow lsd-trip-esq variegated hosta. There are collectors among us who will waste money buying a plant they may already have if topics like these are not discussed and made public. I once wasted $100 purchasiing H. plantaginea - the fragrant August lily - from Hershey family nursery which turned out only to be some of the commonest green June flowering hostas. After much communication the owner resolved that, he always sold them as plantaginea, since they were a species, he thought it didn't matter and that people usually used them to hold soil on banks! When I sent them back, the louse refused to accept the shipment, resulting in the plants sitting in the post office, and returning to me as a pile of mush months later. (Incidentally, DO NOT order from Hershey Family Nursery; these people are incompotent as regards to knowledge of plants, and unscrupulous as regards to business practices.) Similarly, once ordering the Stout hybrid Hemerocallis "Autumn Minaret" I recieved instead some commoner June flowering orange daylily. The seller is a sweatheart though, and I kept them anyway. So as not to discourage you from buying with, the person selling the 10 eye clump of tardiflora - or what we think is tardiflora - is also a great seller to work with in my experience, and works hard I know to make her auctions accurate informative and honest.

While I grow these I also have trouble getting them to bloom. However, below are a few notes on Cyrtanthus elatus (synonym: Vallota speciosa) from my bulb society forum which might be of assistance. I'm also emailing you privately and attaching a much longer document on Cyrtanthus in general. Some of the cultivation notes there might apply to your specific plant. NOTES: "The form usually cultivated by growers reproduces vegetation at a sometimes alarming rapid rate--the clumps become overcrowded very quickly and, if they are not lifted, split up and replanted on a very regular basis, flowering can cease. They prefer full sun rather than shade and flower mainly in summer." "Here in the UK people have no problem getting C. elatus to flower. A friend, not a gardener, has one in an out building which flowers every year without fail even though it is rarely watered." "Cyrtanthus elatus never bloomed for me in all the years that I had it. I have to say that I threw out my last bulbs of C. elatus several years ago! Never again will I waste good greenhouse space on Cyrtanthus elatus."