It is a very beutifull vittatum hybrid.
In Malta I have baught and also been given various vittatum hybrids. It is known that H.Vittatum has been used for many years in hybridising and is a strog surviver.

It looks very much like a variety I've seen for auction on Ebay called Cocktail... I've seen quite a few red & whites offered under different names, though... whether it's called an Old Fashioned Garden Variety or something else, it's still very pretty!

Jody, here's my Vittatum, if it helps.
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What ever yours is it looks familiar, but going through my albums, I don't seem to have one that matches. Perhaps Soultan and Hans can chime in.

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Cocktail

So, my guess was correct?! I can hardly believe it! :-)

Nice close-up, Soultan! Your photos are always awesome!

Thank you

Soultan, you can always be counted on!

Jodi - I think you are a Soultan protege!

So, do we think that Cocktail is Vittatum hybrid?

Werqa, do you plant these in the ground? I received the bulb in a pot with what looks like mostly sand (Florida soil), with the bulb below the surface. I too think it is pretty. Do you have photos of some of your other Vittatum hybrids? I would love to see them.

Cindee, your Vittatum is gorgeous, maybe I'll have offsets of mine to trade with you someday. I have some seeds using Vivaldi as a pod parent and Blossum Peacock as a pollen donor and have three pods opening. Now if I can just figure out how not to rot seedlings I might have some for the fall swap.

Jody, I have some Ferrari x Vitattum and Vitattum x Ferrari seeds if you like. Email me and tell me what else you want. You are welcome to them. I have a few of their seedlings coming up nicely. I'll keep you in mind if Vitattum has any babies.

Why I think it is not Cocktail is because the White "star" that lays in the middle of the petals are cut flat in Cocktail and run out to a tip on the first picture. The two varieties look pretty close to each other though, I agree. Cocktail is from Hadeco, from South Africa.

What do you think of this photo?

Here is a link that might be useful: Look alike?

Interesting. That picture on that site looks nothing like xJohnsonii as I know it. It looks similar, but does not look the way I learned it should. So either all the other references are wrong or this one. I wonder why would an "expert" post a misleading picture in his essay... Unless he is just not an expert.
So someone tell us do we have the wrong xJohnsonii, or he has the wrong picture?

I agree with Soultan, that's not what Johnsonii looks like in MY garden! My Johnsonii pictures-Now keep in mind Soultan purchased this for me so I KNOW it must be true!
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Hehe Cindee,
Just because I purchased it to you, it must not be true to name, but most of the pictures I see of xJohnsonii look like yours and not like the one in the essay.

My xJohnsonii hasn't bloomed yet, but I fully expect it to look very much like Cindee's, which is what we all know as the xJonsonnii! The photo attached to that article doesn't look like a xJohnsonii to me!

I'm not so sure that the article author is an "expert"... the bibliography of the article only lists 2 sources, and I believe them to be available for reading on the internet. At least one source is, and I don't call that proper or in depth "research" for an article.

The more one looks around at the different names attached to the different bulbs, the more confused one can get... especially when it comes to the old fashioned and garden variety bulbs that have been growing and multiplying in southern, and western, gardens for generations... and are now appearing for sale on Ebay and elsewhere under names that aren't truly correct.

Hi Jodi and all,

Why is this not a Minerva? Apparently, there are a lot I need to learn about IDing a Hippi.
Here is my Minerva and I am having trouble to tell the difference.

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Yours looks like a Minerva... if that's what you bought it as, it was tagged correctly.

Many old fashioned garden varieties in the south resemble Minerva, and that's probably what they started as, depending on how many years the garden has been left to grow, and what the bees have done with intermingling the different varieties in that garden. Minerva has been around since 1962.

Hadeco, the South African grower of smaller Hippeastrum varieties, has a Sonatini available called Cocktail... it resembles Minerva in color and pattern, but it's much smaller and shorter, and the bulb is also smaller. Cocktail has been around since 1977.

The red and white varieties seem to be quite popular, and there are several that look very similar at a glance... Minerva, Cocktail, Voodoo, Gilmar, and a few others. As individual varieties, they each have slight differences that are very noticeable when the flowers are side by side.

Slight differences in coloration, pattern, and size can also be the result of one variety in several different growers' hands, and how their individual breeding programs progress.

Slight differences can also occur in the hands of the individual collector... we each have different climates, culture methods, soil, etc... these things can slightly alter how a flower grows and looks.

And today, there appears to be a new found popularity in growing Hippeastrum bulbs... my guess is that growers and suppliers are scrambling to keep up with the demand, and in so doing, labeling mistakes are often made, and noid bulbs are often part of large shipments.

If you bought a Minerva, and it's a normal sized hybrid bulb, chances are good that you have a Minerva.