The first one is more consistent with other pictures that I have seen. I recently purchased one from John Scheepers. It arrived yesterday and was small as indicated in the description, but very healthy.

I had great success crossing Papilio with Emerald last year, and I hope to make more Papilio crosses with cybister bulbs, thus the purchase.

I don't know if they will all bloom at the same time, but I plan to try Lora's method of saving pollen.

BTW, I had a bad experience with one of those companies, but I didn't go through ebay to purchase from them. It was my first time to purchase a rather large order from them, and it will be the last.

Hopefully, what I did purchase from them is the real thing.

Nowadays, one doesn't know until after it is too late to return it.

BTW, Lowes is now recording your plant purchases on their system, so if you return a plant that does not survive, they can look it up and replace it or refund. Or so they told me when I bought a couple of Brugs from them a week ago.

I thought that was pretty cool...

Hi Robert,
Another Yikes!!!
And those both appear to be stock photos-of what,I don't know.
Here is Ruby Meyer for folks that don't have one for comparison.

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The one with "EXOTIC" in the title is closer than the other-though that funky trumpet is interesting. Lora

Lora,

Is your bulb small? Does it get big or simply multiply while small?

Does it multiply as quickly as Papilio and Emerald?

I know, lots of questions, but this is only my second year with these beauties, and I trying to hybridize them.

I adore them!

Hi Elizabeth,
She won't get as big as a dutch hybrid and tends to offset like Emerald. I've had her about as long as you. She took just about any pollen I gave her last year and set a ton of seed.The red blush on the leaves seems to pass along to many of her offspring. Lora

Thanks for the pic of a "good" 'Ruby Meyer', Lora.

Great to hear about 'Ruby' setting seeds so well. I have 'La Paz'. papilio, and 'Chico' to see what I can come up with. I only got three seedlings from 'Chico' last season, but that was before I had anything much to cross it with. Not sure what I used to get the seed :-( , but the seedlings are very small and weak-seeming compared to Dutch hybrid seedlings.

I started saving pollen and have some even now in the fridge from the last season, but I'll be renewing all my stocks as each one comes into bloom.

I just let the pollen air-dry and then put into little packets and store in a zip-lock in the fridge. Haven't used any silica-gel packs or anything, but i have some granular silica gel that I could put into little packets to use......

Elizabeth~

Got your dmail over at the "other site".

Robert.

The first one is Ruby Meyer, but don't buy from that ebayer.
The second one is NOT Ruby Meyer, so I wouldn't buy from that ebayer, because he doesn't know what he is selling.

I also just received my Ruby Meyer from John Scheepers. Also small, but they indicate that this is a cybister hybrid, which means, that it tends to keep smaller bulb. I wouldn't worry about this. I would worry about the first ebayer, who sends just as small bulbs for all the varieties, as your Ruby Meyer. And that's sad. And he is a little reluctant to have a normal conversation solving the problems.

Hi Soultan,
I've not bought from the first seller and I thank you for the heads up.
The second,with the odd trumpet photo, I have bought from & received big fat healthy bulbs. Now,they have just been planted so of course I don't know if they are true to name yet.
Sometimes,the fault will lie with the wholesaler they bought their bulk stock from.Some sellers purchase stock photo rights and those are supplied by the wholesaler.
There ways a thread going last year about Misty,with the huge difference between the stock photo and the actual flower. The odd or retouched photos seems to be a fairly common problem and I believe the bulk wholesale suppliers are ultimately responsible for the misinformation. Lora

I've had a run not too long ago with Hadeco over Gold Medal. I bought the bulb in a local retailer and when it bloomed (it still is), the flowers looked like Orange Souvereing, not like the picture on the name tag or on the web site. I took some pictures and sent them to Hadeco, and they assured me that I indeed, have Gold Medal. They apologized that the name tag was printed too dark, so it shows red instead of the actual dark orange coloration. And that pic also doesn't show the slight, almost invisible white line in the middle of the throat. They assured me they would take new pictures of the cultivar as soon as possible.
I plan to send them some of my pictures, since they are high quality professional digital pictures.
The same thing happened with Milady. It is not a one-colored flower. It has white stripes all over it. I am a little disappointed with it, because I thought it would be a rich purple-like color. I will send them that picture too and ask their opinion.
Here is a pic of the Gold Medal in the mean time while I have it on a chat as avatar.

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Hi Robert,
Your cybister seedlings should be smaller but not what I would call puny.

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The tray on the left is Ruby Meyer X La Paz and the right is dutch hybrids.They were both planted April 20th. Lora

Sorry,my email is all goofed up again.Here is the puniceum photo.....

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Lora

I like puniceum a lot. I think I will have to get one... Now that I am big, beautiful flowers, colors and shapes matter more... That is why I am obsessed with Hadeco's Thai Thai.

Hi Lora~

The pic you posted for H.puniceum looks more like striatum to me.

Puniceum has a large, almost circular lighter area in the center, not so much the central stripes as striatum does.

I don't know what other characteristics differentiate them, but visually, the large central "blotch" of puniceum seems to be a major point. The color can vary a lot (see the pictue on IBS of the var. barbatum)and many of them tend more to red than orange.

Are you sure that it isn't striatum?

Another puniceum: http://mpeixoto.sites.uol.com.br/amaryl/puniceum.html

Here is a link that might be useful: A pic of H. puniceum.

Hi Robert,
My email is still goobered up :( I'm getting plenty of junk mail in but when I try to send they just dissapear in to the great unknown. Hopefully this will clear up soon as every utility we have is out here working to replace or repair infrastructure damaged this spring. (about time!)
There seem to be 2 different plants that are both identified as puniceum. One is smaller flowered with a rounder form and less yellow in the throat. The type I have,with the more spidery form and larger amount of yellow corresponds with the second photo on the IBS site. It also matches form and center markings with puniceum barbatum and puniceum haywardii. Take a look at the PBS wiki too.
Even with those sites,there are plenty of photos that show quite a bit of difference and I'm not sure if we are looking at variations of a form or seperate species. Lora

It's sure a beauty whatever it is!

I just got some pix of another H. puniceum (equestre) which is red along the keels instead of yellow-green. Really a beauty, but don't know if it is a subspecies or variation.

BTW: I don't know how accepted it is officially, but in Read's book, she places puniceum as syn. under equestre. She's done her homework, so I would tend to go with that, but as long as the relationship is known, I guess all is well.

One thing about her book is her putting rutilum under striatum, but in the text, she uses rutilum in at least one place instead of striatum.........O taxonomy!

I have to say that the amaryllis plants that look more like hemerocalis are the ancestors of the big Dutch hybrids, so for hybridizing they are the original source.

Plant_Guy

Here is a link that might be useful: My Amaryllis Page