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.

Lay the entire leaf upon your potting mix in bright shade of filtered sun, and it will generally sprout a new plantlet at the leaf base, it might take several weeks before you see any results. I suspect it might even be easier to get it to start new plants once it warms up in the spring, and do it outdoors in bright shade. Once the plant gets larger it will also branch freely and most often will even sprout new plants from the flowering stalk. In a year's time one mother plant can become dozens here in California, and the rosettes can easily get 18 inches across with cool yet balmy coastal California weather. You can also plant this directly in a more soil or fir bark based soil mix, it isn't necessary to use straight sand. They also grow faster with regular feeding, but watch out for aphids on new growth and particularly on the bloom stalks, about the only pest besides slugs and snails in the cooler months.

Maximus...It could be Hall's Pink, when I got it, it was supposed to be a red one but obviously it isn't. It's been a long time ago since I got it, and it came from Michigan Bulb...so it's a toss up what it could really be. I also thought it could be Evelyn Claar, but since I can't be positive, it's a no name. Julie...I looked up Mardi Gras Parade and that's not it, the pictures of that one show it to be much more pink whereas this one is more red. I thought it could be Siloam Show Girl, but it doesn't really look like that one either, though close. Ah well, with or without names, they are pretty! BTW...the ones in the first pic have a couple of pods on them, I'm going to let them develop and grow the seeds, who knows what I'll get from them! Thanks! Karen

Since there are many hundreds of JM cultivars on the market, just looking at websites of photos is going to be a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack :-) And I've yet to find one that offers a very complete photo gallery anyway - most simply do not have that ability to offer the full range of JM's currrently on the market and the website would be huge if they did. Since the plant came from Iseli's, that would be the first place to start looking. And my experience in being a buyer for a nursery is that most keep pretty thorough records of what they ordered over the years so they can identify the source should they desire or need to order it again. By the same token, Iseli would likely have records as well as to what they sent out and when - I used to receive reprints of the previous year's orders from all my suppliers, together with their current availabilities, to simplify each season's ordering process. Start with the source first, and if that doesn't provide results then turn to the much lengthier process of looking at websites or books to narrow it down. If the nursery doesn't have a copy of Vertrees (they should!), check the local library.