Hippeastrum

Lee Poulsen wpoulsen@pacbell.net
Thu, 20 Jun 2013 10:40:24 PDT
I've grown Hippeastrums for a long time, too. But I feel like I still haven't found good successes to the level that Diana has. That is probably my main reason for silence. And the one really big successful species for me has required virtually no effort on my part, to the extent that I keep wondering why it is always priced higher than many of the hybrids that require more care. At least by me. 

The species I speak of is H. papilio. It is almost a weed for me. I do almost nothing special with it other than watering it, and it regularly grows and multiplies and flowers. It produces so many huge bulbs that every few years I have to re-pot because they have burst the pots to smithereens yet again. And everyone seems to like to try crosses with it and other species, whereas I would prefer the *other* species rather than the cross. Or to see more crosses of other species with other species.

For some reason it does really really well in Southern California as long as it is watered during the summer dry season. Even Bill Baker, who I had the luck to visit before he passed away, preferred it--because of its easiness--over all the other amazing and rare species he collected way back when. He, unfortunately IMO, allowed his accessions of almost all of the other Hippeastrum species in his collection to dwindle to nothing over the years because they required a little to a lot more care than papilio did. He also preferred crossing papilio with all the other species to get papilio-level easiness of culture, above growing the original species themselves. Oh well.

Diana, I have just one comment/suggestion with regards to your blog: Often the photos do not align with the text and I can't always tell which photo belongs to which species. When I hover the cursor over the photo, the filename appears and that sometimes is good for identifying which species it is. But a few of the photos only have a number as the filename, so that doesn't help either. Anyway, labeling the photos somehow or giving them an identifying filename or something would be much appreciated. Thanks for writing all this. I'm still waiting for Mariano Saviello (if he sees this   ;-) ) to finish writing his book or report or whatever the final product will be on the many Hippeastrum species he is familiar with. 

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m

On Jun 20, 2013, at 7:59 AM, Diana Chapman wrote:

> More Hippeastrum postings on the blog.  A reader asked about light 
> requirements, and I have made a comment on that.  I do not at all think 
> that I am expert in these matters, and other people will find success 
> with different methods, I can only say what has been successful for me, 
> and I did have a lot of failures in the beginning.  I had hoped for more 
> comments about other peoples' experiences, but I guess Hippeastrum 
> growers are a silent lot.
> 
> Diana




More information about the pbs mailing list