Alana you'll be surprised when you see how many seeds are in one pod! That's how you end up with all this lol. Hi Frank. I know I don't have the where-withall to sell anything on line. I work for an arboretum, so maybe when we have one of our plant sales I can try. Problem is - I want to see them all bloom first! Jodi thanks - but I've seen pics of your seedlings and they're NOT anemic lol. I agree on the pot size. I know if I could give each one room to grow they'd get bigger so much faster. If we only had greenhouses! Thanks Jan. They'll be happier once I can get them back outside : ) gmwill good luck with your seedlings and your AppleBlossom is a beaut. Cindee and primeribs I had to search this forum to know for sure. I found the first thread when they germinated. It was in April 07 http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/amaryllishippeastrum/msg0311565629026.html I updated again last year in February so they are two years old next month.

Jackie, I didn't think it was necessary to go into detail,but the points have been brought up,so I'll state my opinion in detail. Removing offsets from the mother plant,will increase it's chances of survival, slightly. Removeing the offsets will decrease their chances of survival, slightly. The reason I think it best to remove the offsets, is that there is a place where rot can hide, between the offsets and the mother bulb. Once rot starts ,for any reason, it needs to be cleaned up and treated.You can't do that with the offsets growing on the mother bulb. If ,for no better reason,seperate the bulbs,to save them from destroying each other. If, indeed, the mother bulb continues to decline,It will try to produce offsets,before it dies,if there are none present. Past a certain unknown point,it will rapidly decline as more energy is put into the offsets. On a healthy bulb,I believe it is best to leave offsets,until they are Quite large.It is rare that a bulb will not root ,as long as it has the most minute portion of a basal plate,and it's not overwatered. It all depends on what you want to happen,try to save the mother,grow the offsets on,or try to do both. The basal plate of hippeastrum bulbs is the most important part of all.The rest will all grow back. Good luck. Del

Hi Jackieo, Yep, I've gotten a few seeds from an older bulb of Appleblossom. It hasn't worked every time I've tried and only with 1 partner. Seed pods normally take about 6 weeks to ripen & my pods would start to abort at 5 weeks. I cut the pods open & found mostly chaff-to-be and a few pale, not-quite-baked seeds that I plant anyway.Even though not fully formed, they do grow. I think it is quite possible that there are several forms of Appleblossom on the market. Sometimes, when plants are propagated by tissue culture there are subtle mutations. In general, the plant will look the same as the mother but there will be little things, the thickness of the petals, the number of offsets produced, the intensity of color or fragrance are just a little different.It is quite possible that you have a mutation, or sport of Appleblossom. Do you have any photos of your Appleblossom directly face on ? And how would you rate the fragrance? Lora

As a veteran dog breeder, I'm no stranger to culling... it's an important part of a breeding program and must be done to keep the genetic pool clean and strong. Though it sounds like a cruel practice, it has to be understood that it's the responsible thing to do when we change the natural reproductive selection process. In essence, we're playing God... and it's only right that we do it properly. Nature culls... we must, also. Culling plants will be a lot easier, and even compost plays an important role in the gardening process... at present, I'm only sprouting a dozen or so seeds at a time, and I'm doing this because space is at a premium! I need to re-think and re-vamp my indoor gardening areas. This first year of collecting parent bulbs and watching them bloom, and then pollinating and harvesting seed, has been mainly a learning experience for me... I'm still very much a novice when it comes to Hippeastrums! I had originally intended to keep very detailed records and begin a breed file, but I must admit that I got lost in all the wonder and beauty of my bulbs, and was very lax in my record-keeping! Next bloom season will be the beginning of much better discipline in the record-keeping department, and I'll actually start crossing with a goal in mind! I haven't thought particularly hard about what end result I'd like to pursue, but I have all summer to lay out a plan for next year. Being such a novice of flower breeding, I still have a lot to learn... before I began participating in this forum on a regular basis, I didn't even know it was so easy to breed flowers! I just found out recently what actually happens when a speck of pollen lands in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time! I didn't know that it grows an extension, cell by cell, until it reaches the ovary and penetrates the embryo sac of an ovule! And I didn't know that once the two cells, that of the pollen and the ovule, come together and form one cell that then divides to form what will be seeds, it's called a zygote! It's all so amazing! So, in short, culling won't be a problem... once I figure out what the direction I take will be. I had terrible results breeding my cybisters, and most of this years seed is just hybrid variety self-pollinated seed. It gives me something to test out my growing set-up with, so next year I'll be prepared. Lora, your crosses sound awesome, and I can certainly understand how it can be hard to choose keepers out of a batch of those seedlings! That would probably trip me up a bit, too... finally getting seed from a difficult cross you really wanted to work out, and then not having enough room to keep all the babies! Jackie, I don't know for certain, but I would think breeding hippis is no different than breeding daylilies or iris... you really have to give the plants more than one season in order to get accurate evaluations... in dog breeding, we can only get accurate evaluations from mature animals, and that can take a few years! I would think plants need to reach maturity in order to really perform as they will for the long haul... In any case... breeding anything takes a certain level of objectivity and responsibility in order to keep that species genetically solid. It also takes patience!