This is a fun thread! Thanks for starting it miss kitty. It's great to see what everybody else is doing on their places. I've been lurking for months, unable to log on and put in my own 2 cents worth. Very frustrating. Recently got a new internet security program and - voila - here I am! My hubby and I have 16 acres in central Texas. We have a live creek with a swimming hole, lots of 100-150 year old oak trees, and plenty of field as well as old rock wall areas we leave overgrown for the wildlife. My mom lives with us in a m-i-l apartment. We have 4 dogs, 3 cats and 11 chickens, so far. We moved into the barn and started builing the house here 3 years ago, having already owned the property for 6 years prior. (For six looong years we journeyed out from the city every single week-end and vacation to clear land, build the barn, dig the well, bring in electricity, etc.) It was all worth it once we got installed here permanently! I raise a big organic garden and can, dry and freeze so much stuff that we're starting feel pretty self-sufficient veggie-wise. The produce aisle at the grocery doesn't see much of me any more. And the home-canned soups, salsas, pasta sauces, etc. are SO much tastier! We got our 10 Rhode Island Red hens and one surprise bonus Silver Spangled Hamburg roo last spring. On a friend's advice I ordered more chicks than I needed because some would "inevitably not make it to maturity." Guess what? I didn't lose a single bird and now have a surplus of eggs! I get 9 or 10 a day, every day. We like to do everything ourselves and use materials we have at hand, so we built a stone henhouse under the pole barn, with a large covered run and optional garden access. Neighbors immediately dubbed it Hen Hilton and declared that if a tornado comes they'll evict our chickens and move into it themselves. (Us city-transplants provide plenty of wholesome amusement for our wonderfully helpful neighbors!) We planned on getting a heifer and producing offspring for the freezer, but gave up on that idea when we found ourselves unable to even slay the mean rooster! We have neighbors who raise their beefers naturally, so we'll just buy one from them to send to the butcher after we purchase a third freezer. No way I could raise a baby, then eat it. My meat has gotta be more anonymous, I guess. We would like to put some mini donkeys out in the pasture, but fear our large, city-raised dogs would run them to death (or get kicked in the head). Guess maybe we'll wait until the old pack is gradually replaced by a country-born-and-bred bunch. None of our current pals are terribly young! No rush. We are lucky to have a wonderful old pecan tree that some long-past resident of this place lovingly grafted and tended. Every other year it gives us more huge nuts than our entire extended family can use in 2 years. This winter I planted some apple trees, an apricot, and a blackberry patch. Two of the many fig trees I planted 5 years ago are finally looking like maybe they'll make something of themselves this year. And my vet gave me 3 pommegranet (sp?) cuttings that I have high hopes for if they're still alive come spring. His trees are awesome, but it can be difficult to nurse the cuttings thru the winter in pots. We also have mustang grapes growing wild - despite our best efforts to control their progress! Basically, I plant anything I can get for free and see if I can get it to thrive. Some experiments have worked better than others and it's all a learning experience. At least I have fun. I'm fortunate to be able to stay home and tend "the farm," look after my mom, etc. My work here contributes enough to the support of the household that my salary paled in comparison. DH hopes to retire in a few more years and become a full-time country dude. As it is he just works himself to death evenings and week-ends. He is finally easing up on his concerns about the klutzy wife maiming herself and teaching me how to operate the tractors, so I can take some of the burden off him. We would love to keep bees, but worry about the killer bee infiltration in Texas. Anybody have any words of wisdom on that subject? pam

If you have a primary hybrid (let's say a hybrid of two totally different looking species hippeastrums) - and you self pollinate this totally heterozygous hybrid then you will obtain all possible kinds of intermediates between the grandparents. However, it has to admitted that the probability for "intermediates looks similar to the parent" is bigger. The probability of obtaining some siblings which do look exactly like the grandpartents is the lowest, and due to the rather large chromosome number of 22 (DIPs) and 44 (TETs) respectively it is extremely low. Indeed the spectrum of phenotypes is still more extended when two heterozygous hybrids are crossed. That is correct. An immature pod will not give you any satisfaction Cindee. When you see a pod that is aborting, open yourself for the thought that this occurs for reasons. It informs you that the seed initials have signalled to the periphery not to supply them any more. These seeds simply don't want to live furthermore! I heared about "embryo rescueing" - but, since we do not have the equipment at home, and, while there are so many occasions to do the thing (and let it do, respectively) naturally I was never interested in "bludgeoning the nature". Admittedly I would like to constrain the nature in one concrete breeding target, that is H.papilio (= DIP) x TETs You know that out of many seed pods I received but some few seeds. I am talking about viable seeds well understood *Lol* And, still I do continue and I pollinate every single flower of my rather large plantation of Papilio's which includes at least 14 bloomable bulbs presently) But the adequate approach to the problem would be to generate a tetraploid Papilio by colchizine treatment which could be unlimitedly crossbred with other TETs. As to your breeding attempt - simply try repeatedly in the other direction and pollinate your (Mama in spe) "Misty" with pollen from "Charisma" - you might remember that Lora succeeded with "Appleblossom" x "Pink Floyd" (TET x DIP too) so do not give up and do not regard the fate of the one single seed pod which you are holding in your hands now to seriously!

Overproduction and no control at all on releasing and selling bulbs under a "known" variety's name even if they were not. Take H. Red Lion as an example. Red blooming hippeastrums are being produced all over the world. Although from different clones, they are still marketed as "Red Lion". I think no one now can be guaranteed that the "Red Lion" you buy in Walmart would be from the very original Red Lion clone. This also holds true with the cases of Ludwig's Dazzler, Appleblossom and Orange Souvereign. I did a post here several years ago with pics of different pink flowering Hippies all sold under the name of "Appleblossom". I have a feeling that Exotica, Exotic Star and La Paz will soon be joining the bandwagon. What is going on inside the commercial nursery production/breeding lines we don't know. So much are not being written and told. Hidden secrets of the multi-billion $$$ trade.

Thanks Harry and Jeff., hopefully it will bloom sometime soon. I do love the NWC , but I seem to have trouble providing enough light for some of them, particularly Echeverias... Oddly, I'd say the OWC do better under my conditions , has this been your experience? And Harry I am still drooling over the plants you posted in the other thread, but what really made me green with envy was that big bright sunroom you have to overwinter your plants in!! Very nice!