Monday, February 29, 2016

Path Break - Amaryllis

So, what does this post have to do with rose breeding?  Not much, but it is about planting seeds, and amaryllis are flowers, and, I wanted to make a post on February 29th since this is a leap year!

We always grow an amaryllis during the Christmas season.  We usually buy a "red" one, but almost always we get a light orange one.  This year we got a red one named "Mammoth Red".  It turn out being true to it's name and looked just like the photo.  There were actually 2 blooming stalks and each stalk had 4 flowers (sorry I didn't get a photo of ours, but it really did look like the photo below).  So I decided to try my luck at getting seeds.  I looked at a couple of youtube videos, followed the directions, and viola!  We have amaryllis sprouts!



It took 6 or 7 weeks for the seed pods to ripen, and they produced these black papery seeds.


After harvesting, the seeds were allowed to dry for 3 days and then planted.  Another 3 weeks later (just like the youtube videos said), they have started sprouting.  There were 7 baby amaryllis that I counted when I took this photo (can you find them all?).  Now, I just have to wait 2 or 3 years to see the first blooms.  This is a fun side-experiment, but not near as fun as rose breeding!  So my advice to you, is consider planting amaryllis seeds, but I suspect that you will get more fun and quicker results planting rose seeds.  Give it a try!





4 comments:

  1. Amaryllis are a nice diversion. ;-) I tried saving seed from them in my childhood, but never had any luck getting them to grow. Maybe I should try again.

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    1. Hi Darren, I'm enjoying seeing them grow. It's amazing that even as very small plants, they appear to be forming small bulbs.

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  2. I just love to take the pods apart and feel the seeds. And I love how they stack together inside the pod. But I don't love them enough to plant them. Enjoy!

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    1. Hi Aprille, the seeds were a surprise for me - very papery thin. I let them dry out for 3 days before planting and didn't think they would germinate since the small seeds in the center of the black papery discs seemed to dehydrate in our dry climate. But I already have 10 germinating! Somehow, I just love planting seeds….. :)

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