So this is my story! When my dad bought our house in La, CA about 25 years ago it came with several Amaryllis bulbs planted along the driveway. I dont know what kind but i will definitely put a pic once they bloom again. But they are like red trumpets on a green stalk. One day maybe when i was like 10 my parents decided to put cement over the strip of dirt where the bulbs were planted. My uncle was gonna throw the bulbs out but my neighbor saw him and asked if she could have them and he said sure. Our house was built in 1944 but i have no clue as to how long the bulbs were there. About three years ago i went over to my neighbors house and she said i could have a pot of the amaryllis bulbs. She had many by now with all the offsets that grew. I planted them all in a sunny area in my backyard along with another amaryllis plant that grew up out of nowhere. I woke up one morning, went to my back yard and saw a bright pink flower between some wood and the cement. very unusual place for a flower. I dug it up and it was very deep in the soil. it didnt have any leaves just the stalk and flowers. and the next year nothing grew up. the year after that it was the first amaryllis to bloom again with no leaves. and this year it only grew leaves but no flower :(. im guessing it was planted toooo deep. It had an offset but i think i put it in my garden somewhere idk. This amaryllis?, not sure if it is but surely looks like it, is the most beautiful amaryllis that ive seen. its bright pink and had about 6 or 7 flowers on its single purple/brown stalk. I planted it in a differnt area and it did not take well. just yesterday I put it in a pot with good soil and put it in a sunny area. Hopefully it grows back so i can get it identified as well and also pollenate it!!!! I think it has a good chance of surviving. I actually cut a little off the top of the bulb like a couple centimeters or two just so its neater but idk hopefully i didnt kill it. And about a couple months ago I pollenated all my flowers and I got the 12 + pods of seeds from my neighbor and planted them. I had to throw some into the garden because there were so many. I actually check my planted seeds every other day and they are taking root so yay!! I will have a lot! So if annnyone ever wants to trade for other amaryllis bulbs let me know! idk if i can ship bulbs in the mail? Can i? Would i ship it in a little baggie of soil? idk Well thats how i came to love Amaryllis and im only 18 so lets see how long my passion lasts. Im guessing forever! If you have any advice or suggestions please let me knowww :D

UPDATE!! If anyone still cares, I may have found a source for the "Orange Rascal"....in the USA. As my searching continued, I came across a posting, that listed the varieties of Hipps. within the Brecks, Hardy Amaryllis Mixture, (5 bulbs) (SKU#73695): Balentino/Valentino...Helios...Candy...Swan Lake.....and, drum-roll please,..Dah Da!!! "ORANGE RASCAL". (I came across this information doing a search for "Sonatini Hippeastrum Valentino"). This collection is/was $39.99 and may be available come Spring '12. I wonder if the same varieties will still comprise this mixture, because I will be essentially paying 40 bucks plus shipping, for one stinkin' bulb. Pretty pricey! By the way, when I called Brecks and asked them just WHAT varieties were within their "hardy" Amaryllis Mixture, they had no clue. Great record keeping! My searching would have ended at this point if only Brecks knew what they were selling. The end. Frank

You're very kind, Frank. :-) Interesting and resourceful don't begin to cover it! We're both what you might call "real". We don't mince words, don't own a pair of rose colored glasses, and we can survive on nothing but our wits if we have to. I gotta be honest... lesser people might have folded up shop and called it a day! You wouldn't believe the bad luck we've experienced over the years... it's like a black cloud formed one day, and has been hovering overhead, giggling gleefully at the horror it causes us whenever it chooses to strike! Where shall I begin? Let me condense it in the interest of time... we've been through a house fire, in which we lost just about everything... I was diagnosed with Lupus... we were in a horrible car accident in which I was seriously injured... and about 15 years before all of that, my husband was injured at work, when a huge factory bay door came crashing down as he was walking through, hitting him squarely on the back of the neck, causing massive spinal trauma. He couldn't walk for about a year, and has been mostly disabled ever since. Yep... it's been a helluva wild ride! But you know, life goes on. As a result of all our trauma, we're seriously poor... but what's money, really? It's a pain in the ass... and it can't buy what's truly important in life, anyway. We get by... without public assistance, I might add. Anytime something happens to us now, we laugh about it and chalk it up to our family luck! Somebody turned our horseshoe upside down, and all the good stuff ran out! ;-) Seriously, though... what can you do? Things happen. This is life. It wasn't meant to be easy. When life gives some people lemons, they make lemonade... I make lemon meringue pie! ;-) Hey, we raised three wonderful kids... we have three fantastic grandkids... and we have the greatest friends this world has to offer. We're rich beyond belief in all the ways it counts most. :-) I can't complain... well, I could, but who would listen?! I've been doing the same thing you're doing... researching plants and vendors, looking for my next victim! I'm thinking of ordering from Marble Branch Farms as soon as winter breaks... and I'm even thinking of trying more than just the Yellow Bird orchid... they've got a few different varieties that look promising. I've already started saving for a few plants! Your Staghorn Fern sounds awesome! You wouldn't, by chance, have any pictures of it you could share, would you? I'd love to see an indoor grown fern that huge! Many years ago, I inherited one that was grown in a small basket... but this was before I knew much about the growing process. Yep... I killed it. I think I over watered it. I've murdered a lot of plants in my day! It's a good thing there's no law against being a poor gardener! I think the one drawback to the age of technology is the instant gratification. People don't seem to have the level of patience they used to. No one can wait for anything. We have instant access to everything via the internet, microwave ovens and drive-thrus so we don't have to wait for food, and just about everything is made in the interest of convenience! Attention spans are short, no one wants to wait for anything, and there's a pill you can take for everything! Life has sure changed... although, our parents said the same thing... and their parents said the same thing. Progress is great... but society is trading out a lot of very good characteristics and values to have that progress. So... I don't know... and I completely agree with you... it's kind of scary to think of who votes these days! Although... there are still many decent, intelligent young folks out there willing to go the extra mile, to make a difference in the world, in a positive way. I wouldn't count out the next generation quite yet. It ain't over until it's over! ;-) Well... time to get dinner started and feed the old man! ;-) Have a nice evening, Frank!

Hello everybody)) Anja)) you are so kind to him)) I nevertheless called it the Star boy. Maria, what I was waiting for .... probably red ends on petals and a cleaner throat ... the shape suits me perfectly. I did not have enough color purity)) but the seedling survived only one. I did not have choice . Blanka you see at the root)) I'll try to pollinate it with a variegated hippeastrum. Best wishes, Elena.