Last summer, while all of the others were growing lush and beautiful, Lemon Lime just limped along and resisted all efforts to jump-start it. To boot, when it came time to bring them in, a night of unexpectedly low temperatures frosted them (none were much damaged and all bloomed fine in the end, just to set you all at ease right away...), and the LL foliage took it particularly badly, quickly getting yellow-mushy and falling off. Still, just before Christmas, LL put up its first scape, quickly followed by a second. A third poked out just as #2 was finishing, and about a month after #3 was done, a fourth appeared. All of this from a bulb that had shrunk to about the size of a large plum. The last one only had 2 flowers, but it just goes to prove, when all is said and done, how hard it is to fail with these tough, forgiving plants. This summer, LL is growing like mad, and has a couple of offsets. Go figure. Probably means no flowers for me this winter... - Steve

That is sad observations and presumptions... Veronica's book shows a beautiful hippeastrum picture (look number 3-10) taken by Richard Maguire himself: "Barbara's Magic" A wonderful hybrid with broad picotee - I can not clearly see whether the umbel consistzs of 3 or 4 flowers If a flower is veritably spectacular then I would not mind only two flowers. This is exactly the case with "Black Beauty" I specify: the genuine Black Beauty which is a veritably old hybrid of 1900. None of the black-red cultivars presented so far has flowers as pretty as "Black Beauty" - but this might be my personal opinuion only. No of flowers/scape is a genetic property but it is influenced by the bulb size. Although Orange Sovereign is apt to produce 6 flowers per scape it will not do on a first, smaller scape out of a daughter bulbs. And, Appleblossom produces more often 4 flowers than 5 or 6 on scapes of full-sized mother bulbs.

I definitely think that the three most common varieties are common due to certain overall genetic traits... such as strength, blooming ability, ease of growing for amateurs, etc... They also represent the most common colors... red & white, red, and pink. When a bulb gets very mature and its basal plate gets very thick, this can have a tendency to inhibit proper or full root growth, from what I gather. In order to rejuvenate an old bulb, part of the basal plate's thickness is sliced off, making a thinner layer for roots to grow from. I've never attempted this, myself, but then I haven't noticed any decline in my oldest bulb, so I don't think there's a need to worry about it quite yet. I tend to avoid all bulb surgeries if at all possible. The only time I cut into a bulb, at all, is to remove any rotting parts in order to save the bulb. And this wouldn't be so necessary so often within the general world of Hippeastrums if the bulbs were grown in a medium that doesn't create a consistently wet environment, perfect for the onslaught of fungal issues. More plants are killed by improper watering than by any other one problem... that's a fact. Once we learn what each of our plants requires, keeping them healthy is so much easier. Hippeastrums almost thrive on neglect... almost! They do require care, of course, but I think a lot of people tend to baby them, which includes too much water, or they simply don't have the time to devote, or the passion for growing these bulbs... and this can include things like a scheduled watering for every plant, whether it needs it or not. And we all know that this won't result in really happy plants. I feed with MiracleGro All Purpose liquid plant food... its NPK is 12-4-8, which is a decent average for most plants. I'd like to use Foliage Pro, but I'm not buying any until I use up the bottle of MiracleGro... it's a simple question of economics. I can't afford to buy more fertilizer until what I have is gone. I've got several bulbs that have never bloomed. One is an Amputo, a white trumpet shaped variety, that has never flowered. It grows leaves every spring and rests every winter, but it has yet to give blooms. I think it will eventually, and I'm not giving up on it just yet. If my conditions included massive perpetual winds, I'd grow indoors, for sure... even if it meant installing a light fixture to supplement the window's offered sunlight. I do grow exclusively indoors... although it's more fear of NBF, and lack of a protected area outdoors that keeps my bulbs indoors. There are too many critters, and too many people around to safely leave my potted bulbs outdoors. They'd either get ruined, over watered, or be attacked by NBF... and I have better control over everything indoors. Because different bulbs are different, I think some will respond better to your culture methods than others. You just have to find the combination of care that works for you and your particular...

Good question. Now that you posted it, I am wondering about that myself. Of course, I would be so happy with rebloom no matter how many buds on the scapes.