I have seen photos you post here of your beautiful gardens Arif. I agree it's difficult to be surrounded by so much beauty. What will you do? What is the name of that coral colored canna? I like them too...

Wow Arif. Your hippeastrum hybrids are great and bring so much joy to all hippy lovers. Please continue. Great work.

Arif, You are diffidently keeping busy with all those plants!
Please keep up the good work! your gardens are just beautiful!!!!
I live in a sup tropical area, I know how quickly things just seem to get out of hands.
Kind of like semi organized chaos. Hehehe
I don't have many bulbs like you do but I do have lots of other plants, I feel same about the plants some times.

Fruit trees
Grapefriut & lemon trees..both are too old and almost dead after the Hurricane knocked over.
5 Cabbage palms with huge philodendrons climbing on.
Washintonian palm
Christmas palms & some seedlings
Shrubs
130 Hoyas
Cannas..red, yellow,variegated and few others
Asseniums
Orchids
Bird of paradise..White, orange
Heliconias
Begonias
Day lillies
Rain lillies
Crotons
Red Geiger
Little veggies here and there
Four O'clock
Morning glory bush..white, pink
50 amaryllis.. potted
50 amaryllis in the ground
Daturas..double purple, double yellow, double white
Louisiana Irises
Brugs..Peach, double white, pink
Epiphyllums
Christmas cactus
I am sure I have more I can't think of right now.

Oh my goodness! no wonder my husband says I have too many plants.

Jan

One need not live in a tropical or sub-tropical area to be overwhelmed by plants!

I hybridize Daylilies (Hemerocallis)and was not able to plant a single seed for three years as I was out of room to plant them out! I did try growing out several in pots, but Mother Nature took them all away from me last winter! Fickle lady, mother nature! I also am hybridizing the "Candy Lilies" and "Blackberry Lilies, which are actually members of the Iris Genus. I grow all types of Liliums and other perennials plus quite a few annuals that self sow and come back every year (mostly Snapdragons)and I save seed from good old Coleus and have several as potted plants as well as in ground plants of them. My outside garden begins to wake in late February/early March when the Snow Crocus and Grecian Windflowers make their appearance and continues until a hard frost knocks back the "Toad Lilies" and Mums.

But then there is the indoor garden (that summers outside) and there are Tropical Hibiscus, several varieties of Lantana, various "house trees", numerous cacti and succulents, a few (12) Orchids, Clivia miniata and 15+ seedlings from mixed color hybrids and the Hippeastrums - 40+ named varieties a few mature seedlings from my first cross (a test and 70 or so new seedlings from last winter. Oh I must not forget the terrarium - a 55 gallon fish tank, that has 4 African Violets (2 minies, 2 standards and all are Variegated foliage) a Silver Spotted Philodendron and a small "Earth Star" bromeliad. While most of these "indoor" plants are grown under lights in the basement, all of my windows are also filled - and this time of year the hippies fill the space.

Yeah, I know all about running out of space and there not ever being enough room to grow everything that I would like to! I even have space on a neighbors veggie garden for my overflow of Daylily seedlings and that still isn't enough!

Most of my cacti and some of my succulent were rescued plants from Lowe's as were most of my Orchids (Phalaenopsis), I hate to see a plant thrown away because it didn't sell.

Most of my Hosta were rescued from a dumpster as well as several shrubs and perennial plants!

I can barely take care of what I have and I still want more!

Here's a view of the basement light garden from winter 08/09:

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And this s just one side of one set of shelves!

OK--I feel better--my kitchen looks like your basement, with all those plants and shelves--lol!

--Rr

My back bedroom has 5 lit shelves and my bedroom has 2. We just do what we have to. Arif, I understand your situation. They are a lot of work, and understandably, as time goes by you might want to be slowing down. But...your mind, being so active, can imagine what the bloom from pollen B might look like with seed from bloom A...and so the vicious cycle continues, with 2-3 years between cross and bloom (in most cases). I think many of us have come to respect you as a "Hippeastrum Master" and there will come a day when you say "No more!". So...you will share your bulbs with others, who will carry on your love for the amaryllis, and the cycle will start again ten-fold.

Arif, the beauty in your blooms, and the joy they have brought as you have shared with so many through this list alone. If you decide to let the amaryllis growing idle a bit, no one can blame you, all will miss you, and we will forever remember your lessons with fondness.

Maybe you just need a short break...no crosses for a while (like telling someone not to see the beauty around them) it may be impossible! But...we would understand.

With fondness,
Kristi

PS...I only saw the plants listed, but know that your budgies keep you busy too. Here are my 2 "clear" bugies...think the yellow is female and white is male...will breed them in the spring. Think budgies with no stripes are beautiful and rare!
K {{gwi:439341}}

Hi, NO, I am not quitting. Now I will be very selective. This season I will be crossing Yellows With Double Whites and may be Papillio with what ever is available at that time. My Papillios normaly bloom in mid summer when others have finished blooming.May be the Pap will take other polen and produce good seeds.

I am SOOOOO glad to hear that!! Your message sounded a little "discouraging", and I can see where you are overwhelmed, with all the different plants that you are growing. I'm glad we can look forward to years of blooms from you Arif!

Kristi

Arif, you probably know that you can't expect Papilio to set seeds easily, they seem to be really selective whith whome they're willing to mate. So that'll help you with the amount of seedlings you're receiving and I haven't seen one uninteresting papilio-cross.

I'd love to cultivate more than just Hippeastrum. The space in my flat is now running out. First of I decided to just buy the ones I really can't skip, try to just go for natural speciens. I'm now going to work in my little garden so for me it's Hippeastrum inside and everything else that withstands the german weather outside.

Like any addiction, eventually one reaches the place where the addiction is becoming burdensome, even with plants such as amaryllis. Over the years I have done that several times with different plants. I now raise most of those plant types but with a lot less plants--not so many that they are burdensome and a few I have replaced with othe types that iI have become more interested in.

For instance, at least three different times I increased my African Violet collection to the point it was ridiculous. My amy collection is almost to that point. I even built a greenhouse for them this summer but have declared a moratorium on purchasing new ones although I did cheat a little on that. I am trying hard to not start more seedlings. I am continuing to grow groups of the bulbs in large pots. I really like to see a bulb grow into a large blooming clump and that takes a lot of space. I line them all up outside in the summer and take great delight in watching them grow into large bulbs with multiple offsets. It is like being rich and watching money grow. That is almost as much fun as watching them bloom.
But they require space in the winter and I try to keep them growing year around although many do take a rest in the fall fortunately.

For me, propagating plants is a large part of the fun, and I wonder if that isn't what is happening with Arif. I have a garden full of landscape plants--hundreds, and I have my four acres already well planted and have to keep looking for places to plant more things. But I can't keep from starting new bushes, trees, and other landscape plants. It's just too much fun. I have about 150 landscape plants that require pruning already and just can't stop starting new plants. I give a lot away but that doesn't help much. May have to start giving away some amys one of these days.

So a word of advice to the addicts: try to keep from getting so many plants that they become a burden or you are unable to care for them properly. They need potted on yearly, moved to winter and summer quarters, and some regular attention, all fun to do if not overwhelming. If one is a successful grower, they not only grow on you, they grow and grow and grow until you have a lot--maybe too many.

Well put, Doc!