Nice! :-)

Hi Maida,

Well, at least you got one that was labeled correctly and like all the others, it's very pretty, the lower petals seem a little less wavy than Kristi's, and the color looks great also. Did you detect any gold dusting on yours?

The second one will be a big surprise, lets hope it's something you don't already have!!

Donnaâºâº

Hi,

I received a response to my last email to Bulbs Direct. I had asked that since I hadn't heard back from them that perhaps I should destroy my 2 'Gold Dust' bulbs. Nikki's response was, "I still have your email marked for follow up but the expert is away on holiday for a month and I tried to look online for any information but unfortunately I couldnâÂÂt find any. Maybe its better that you toss them away for now and I would be happy to arrange your refund."

I wrote back and said I would still like to know what the expert has to say as I am concerned about my other bulbs being exposed to whatever it was. She said when their busy season was over she would look online for more info?

It looks like I may never know but she did send me the refund.

So disappointed not to know but so far, nothing else has looked like that! I had dug up and potted the other 'Gold Dust' bulb and then sprayed both with a good 3 in 1 systemic. I really hate to toss them since I haven't seen that variety offered any place else. What do you all think? Toss or keep quarantined and wait to see?

Thanks for any advice!

Nancy

Nancy,
At least you have photos from Maida and I showing our bulbs were healthy, so yours definitely have an issue, and they can replace/refund yours.

If they were mine, I'd keep them quarantined!
K

What a fun thread to read this morning! So many great pictures! Mine have not bloomed yet this year. They are not very consistent, out of maybe 10 bulbs I have of blooming size only one or two seem to bloom a year, which is a low percentage. And timing is really erratic. Sometimes they bloom now, and sometimes they bloom as late as Sept. I've even had the same bulb bloom spring and fall! I'll have to try and find a picture from a previous season to post.

Blanca, mine sets seed easily, I've got 30 or so seedlings growing that I started 2 years ago. Not sure what specific type mine is - astoundingly, Home Depot has them here in their spring bulb packs. I froze pollen from mine last time it bloomed. A bit late I think for your current bloom, but I'd be happy to send it to you for next time.

Arif, my guess is yours don't bloom because of high moisture. Here in FL they will only bloom for me in the driest spots - like close to the trunk of a large oak where the soil is very dry, and the canopy of the tree catches all but the heaviest rain.

Donna,
How's your bud coming??
K

Dear All,

My pollination attempt looked good, but has ultimately failed. :-(

-Blanca

Ditto here...,
K

I used all the good pollen on everything I had blooming at the time. All failed except Fairytale & Amoretta. The Fairytale had a huge pod that looked perfect but when it opened, it was stuffed full of seeds that were empty of embryos. Bummer! However, the pod on Amoretta finished with 19 seeds...9 of which looked pretty good and hopefully viable. Planted May 21 but nothing so far.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Nancy

Congratulations Nancy! It's fun and exciting when these odd crosses yield some viable looking seeds which sometimes germinate and sometimes won't. Keeping my fingers crossed for yours too!

Donnaâºâºâº

Nancy,
You crosses your Sprekelia with Hippeastrum?? Wow!! Keep us posted!!
K

Nice job Nancy! Blanca, how disappointing to have it look like it is going to take then not. Makes me even more curious now to know what strain I have that selfed so easily! I didn't know until reading this thread that normally it is difficult.

Well...I finally heard back from Bulbs Direct. Here is a copy of the response from her "expert".

"âÂÂLooks like either dust from the stamen (hence gold dust lilies), or ... damage to the bud by bad weather ( such as hail or torrential rain). It does not look like a disease , actually the flowers look pretty good

If there is an illness on the plant, the foliage, which follows after the flower will look bad too, but I donâÂÂt think so.

Advise her to take away the wilting flowers once gone but let the stem on the plant it will enhance the growth of the bulb for next year."

I am very disappointed by the "expert" diagnosis. The flower tissue was most certainly damaged, not "dust from the stamens". That's the silliest thing I have ever heard of!!! Also, it was still our dry season when it bloomed so no (torrential) rain nor hail. In fact, it rained all around me the last 2 weeks but I just got rain last week. If the bud was damaged by hail, wouldn't the flower have been deformed or physically damaged?

And BTW, it doesn't look like the Sprekelia seed that I managed to get with the good plant is going to germinate. So sad! :(

Nancy

Dear Nancy,
Well, that just goes to show you the value of the list!! Pollen was not a problem, so that was silly. The first thing you were asked about in the list was rain, and someone else figured it was thrips. So...you got the best response from the forum!

I hope that the bulb is still growing ok for you. Let's hope next year is better.
K

Hi,

Well, with all the lovely pictures on this thread of everyone's Sprekelias, I hesitate to add mine but I do think it deserves at the very least, the booby prize!
I don't know what the problem is and maybe she'll do better next year so don't laugh too hard, enjoyâºâºâº...Donna

At least she doesn't appear to have the measles like Nancy's did...âºâº

{{gwi:411470}}

{{gwi:411471}}

I love it Donna. And mine gets the booby prize for sure. I had only one bloom this year, and it tried to open right at ground level like yours, but utterly failed and looked like some sort of flower picasso. It was not worthy of a picture - lol. But yours is adorable.

Odd.... Great thread!!
K

Measles, huh Donna? And here I had almost convinced myself that mine had freckles!! ;)

In any case, I think yours is adorable. It almost looks like it was trying to be a Hippie with the shape of it! Love the color too. The good thing is that it bloomed and just look at all that pollen!

Good growing!

Nancy

My sprekelias will not bloom for me so two years ago I gave them a place behind Daylily bed and came to terms, not to bother each other.

{{gwi:411472}}

They look happy and I could not care less.
Arif

My sprekelias will not bloom for me so two years ago I gave them a place behind Daylily bed and came to terms, not to bother each other.

{{gwi:411472}}

They look happy and I could not care less.
Arif

My sprekelias will not bloom for me so two years ago I gave them a place behind Daylily bed and came to terms, not to bother each other.

{{gwi:411472}}

They look happy and I could not care less.
Arif

You'd better keep an eye out for surprise blooms Arif!! It seems they go from scape to bloom to wither in about 10 days!! If I didn't know that you were such a careful inspector of your gardens, I'd say yours have bloomed and you missed it! Maybe now that they know the pressure is off, they'll bloom vigorously!!
K

Kristi, Nothing escapes my morning round, No bloom so far.
Arif

Dear Arif,

I know that your strolls through your garden each day include thorough inspections of all the gardens and their occupants. Nancy nearly missed her bloom, which got some of the rest of us looking and started this thread.

What is a typical temperature in your early morning hours? I imagine afternoons are inhumane at this point! I am amazed by your lush gardens in the brutal heat!!

Kindly,
Kristi

My little dog pulls me out of bed before sun rise and we spend about two hours in the garden enjoying the cool breeze and listening to singing of bird. Last year this time of the year I was on 10 weeks trip with my family to see America, we went almost all over USA, what surprised me the most was absence of birds in spite of lush green vegetation.
Evenings are over 40C and I play Golf with my son and daughter in law.
Arif

My little dog pulls me out of bed before sun rise and we spend about two hours in the garden enjoying the cool breeze and listening to singing of bird. Last year this time of the year I was on 10 weeks trip with my family to see America, we went almost all over USA, what surprised me the most was absence of birds in spite of lush green vegetation.
Evenings are over 40C and I play Golf with my son and daughter in law.
Arif

My little dog pulls me out of bed before sun rise and we spend about two hours in the garden enjoying the cool breeze and listening to singing of bird. Last year this time of the year I was on 10 weeks trip with my family to see America, we went almost all over USA, what surprised me the most was absence of birds in spite of lush green vegetation.
Evenings are over 40C and I play Golf with my son and daughter in law.
Arif

Arif,
My backyard is full of birds. Sometimes they even wake me up with their songs. I provide plenty of food and shelter for them. There's plenty of wildlife in Texas!!

I wish I had known you were in the US. Surely you stopped to visit Texas, maybe even Houston. Several of us could have met you for a nice dinner!! I think it's always good to meet people on the list! I've had the pleasure of getting to meet Chaz (formerly of MA, now of CA), Houston Pat, Donna, and Maida.

Kristi

We were eight,The tour was like a clock work with prior Airline, hotel and transport bookings and no scope of daviation.
The main stops were NY.SF, LA, Sandiago, LV, New Orleen, Miami, Orlando, Bafalow Niagra falls and Wishington DC
From these centre points we covered the area around in a 13 seater van and saw almost every thing worth visiting.
I have spent two tenures of 6 moths each at Taxas Sanantonio in 1964 and 1973.
1973 my wife and both sons were also with me and we covered almost 1/2 of USA by road,
Sanantonio is like Lahore just a bit cooler in winter.
Thank you
Arif

Dear Arif,

Sounds like a great trip!

If anyone on the list is ever near Houston, TX....let me know. Dinner's on me!

Kristi

Well, what a surprise when my little vertically challenged sprekelia set a bud! (pictured several posts earlier) I figured I had nothing to loose so I just selfed it and it took! I've been watching very carefully, expecting it to abort at any time but I'm pretty sure it's past that stage. I hope it hasn't had too much rain though, it's pouring again and I've brought it in but once again it's soaked. The flower was healthy and the scape finally grew. Take a lookâºâºâº

This post was edited by dondeldux on Wed, Jul 16, 14 at 10:05

Cool Donna - congrats!

Pretty hefty!! Lucky you!
K

So happy to find this post! Been searching today on how to get these to bloom...

Arif, I've had my bulbs since 2003 and not one bloomed!!!

Please tell me what your bulbs are doing now.

Mine have leaves that are browning on the tips...they have been in a pot for 2-3 years...they were previously in the
ground.

Can't believe bulbs were brought and then have a scape so quickly...do the bulbs have to be a certain size to bloom? When do you fertilize?

Please, any advice would be appreciated...

Hi!
I had just asked the list if I should cut my Sprekelia back because they are looking pretty sad, but I got an overwhelming, "NO!"...so I won't. I don't think I ever have, but they've always sort of been shoved to the back because they didn't bloom, until this year!

This year, after they bloomed, I gave them a long lasting (3mo) blast of granular fertilizer like all my Hippeastrum get. We'll see if that makes any difference. I also planted some in the ground this year (I live in the Gulf coast region).

I think because the scape and blooms appear so quickly and are of short duration, they may have bloomed and I missed it in past years. I don't have the luxury of strolling around the gardens every morning like Arif (I want that luxury some day!!). [If I had a garden like his I would want to live in it!!]]

Anyway, I think these bulbs are picky and it will be interesting to see next June how many repeat blooms we have now that we know when to look!!

Keep us posted!!
Kristi

MY MYLAN:

I bought this Mylan on EBay in May 2013 and it was a very healthy bulb with an emerging bud which bloomed within 6 to 8 days of arriving. It had a normal stalk with 2 flowers.

I also have a Durgha Pradhan given to me by a dear friend on this forum but it hasn't bloomed yet but the leaves look exactly the same and the bulb is growing in the same manner. Might they be the same??. The leaves on Durgha Pradhan and Mylan are twice as wide as my sprekelia leaves but still slim.

As you can see from an earlier post on this thread my sprekelia bloomed barely out of the bulb and it appears that this Mylan is going to do the same! I am definitely doing something wrong with these bulbs!
I took this picture this morning and was surprised that the bud has grown 1/2" since yesterday so I now have hope that it may fully emerge before it opens.

The bud is big and fat and I can see at least 2 flowers, might there be more??

Donnaâºâºâº

I don't know why my finger looks so fat in that picture, it's really not...âºâºâº

Here she is this morning, she now has a stem!! How many flowers does it look like she will have?? âºâºâºDonna

How in the world did I miss this??? In the very next pot!! Another short stem but what a difference in bud size!!

Donnaâºâºâº

are these all outside?
K

Hi Donna,

Exciting!
The Sprekelia scape probably developed very quickly in response to the recent rain.

Cheers,

Blanca

Hurray!! Better late than never, I finally got a pretty flower!! This is from the same pot as my vertically challenged bloom. I got a selfed seedpod on the first one and gave all the seeds away. Actually I kept about 5 and they all died. So this time I put Chico on but I really don't expect it to take. I'll try harder on my Mylan flowers when they open.

Here she is in all her glory:

{{gwi:411473}}

{{gwi:411474}}

Donnaâºâºâº

Yay!! Are these new bulbs? Gold Dust?
Very pretty!! I love this thread...lots of surprises!!
K

She is a perfectly lovely autumnal equinox surprise!

-B

Thank you for the compliments! These bulbs are now inside but spent the summer months outside on the deck in full sun for 3/4 of the day. Luckily, they seem to have been overlooked by the NBF!!

It appears that my leaves are shorter than some of the other pictures on this thread, I wonder why? Also, my Mylan last year had longer leaves and this year the leaves are shorter, the same as my Sprekelia.

My Mylan bud opened during the night to reveal 4 flowers!! Take a look, I can't wait!! I will attempt to self at least one of these flowers if anyone is interested in seeds.
The only thing that bothers me a bit is that the stem coloration is a bit mottled whereas the stem on the Sprekelia is solid red. {{gwi:411475}}From Amaryllis Season 2014 & 2015

Donnaâºâºâº

I just found this previous thread on these lovely little gems and thought I'd just link it to this current thread so all the information will be together.

Donnaâºâºâº

Here is a link that might be useful: previous thread on Aztec Lilies (sprekelia formosissima)

Beautiful Donna! Interesting they are blooming now. I love how she looks! I can't wait to see the Mylan. The color of the buds looks fantastic. So rich looking.

All of my Sprekelias are completely down now. Not a leaf in sight.

BTW, of all the seeds in the pods that developed from the different crosses I tried, none germinated. I had high hopes as the seeds looked pretty good, with what I thought was a decent looking embryo, but no such luck. :(

I can't believe how amazing this thread has turned out to be. I love it!!!

Well, here she is; a bit disappointing and not as pretty as I remember her first blooms to be but at least there were 4 flowers. I couldn't capture the correct color, she is more red with less orange than the sprekelia flowers were. I am going to put sprekelia pollen on one or more flowers with the hopes I can make flowers with more of the sprekelia shape and with more flowers per scape. I'll try a few other crosses also.

{{gwi:411476}}

{{gwi:411477}}

She is nowhere near this orange..

{{gwi:411478}}

Donnaâºâºâº

C'mon Donna. That thing looks good! Thank you for the documentation. A 4-corner-bloom, like a Hippeastrum - that's the high-light of this discussion! And I admit I do not concour with your consideration, to crosspollinate from Sprekelia, which very, VERY rarely produces 2 florets per scape. I have no doubt that self pollination is the way to go - PROVIDED it is self fertile at least "occasionally". Is it?

Well, we should soon find out if Mylan is fertile. I selfed one, (barely found enough pollen) previously frozen Chico on another, previously frozen papilio on the third and fresh sprekelia on the fourth!
Perhaps the fact that the scape is leaning towards one side and I wasn't able to correct it by moving the plant around added to my disappointment.

Hans-Werner, thank you for your advice and comments, they are always appreciated!

Donnaâºâºâº