Jim Waddick's advice is good advice, but I'll bet that most of the people who need to take that advice will never see his message. What they will see unfortunately are the numerous instances where mass distribution catalogs use images of Amaryllis belladonna to sell Lycoris squamigera. This deception has been going on for decades, and it's not surprising why - Amaryllis belladonna is much more photogenic than Lycoris squamigera. Learning your plants from a nursery catalog is a risky business: to be sure, there are many excellent catalogs out there. But I have a hunch that those good catalogs, some produced by respected contributors to this list, will never end up in the hands of most gardeners. What most gardeners will likely get are the unsolicited ones I get, those slick vectors of hyperbole, dubious taxonomy and images in improbable colors. "Look at this here catalog, Ma, here's the pink thing blooming out back by the out house; it's licorice sqawmidge or somethin." Jim McKenney Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where Lycoris squamigera, the real one, is popping up here and there. On Saturday, August 2, 2014 2:03 PM, James Waddick <jwaddick@kc.rr.com> wrote: Dear PBSers, Let me start with an apology as this is not directed at any specific comments posted so far. I personally know of ‘good gardeners’ who can not tell Lycoris squamigera from Amaryllis belladonna. Most of these just happen to live in California. I urge you to go to the PBS wiki and study the numerous photos of both species and as you get familiar with each you can easily tell which is which. Amaryllis http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Lycoris http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… scroll to L. squamigera. I hope you will look at flower form, petal shape, stamen and pollen color, etc. Amaryllis is quite a variable species and ‘some gardeners’ think that a different flower color indicates a different species. That is a true experience. Lycoris is a highly variable genus, but L. squamigera is quite uniform and much less variable than A. belladonna. I urge any one who is unsure of the identity of their plants to compare flowers and form to the excellent pix on the bps wiki. We should all know the difference between these two distinct species. Best Jim W. On Aug 2, 2014, at 12:17 PM, Nathan Lange <plantsman@comcast.net> wrote: > > Hi Jonathan, > > Absolutely! Could you please send one or more of the pictures and the specific location to my email address. > > Amaryllis belladonna are in full flower right now in Sebastopol so I have some skepticism. > > Nathan > > > At 08:56 AM 8/2/2014, you wrote: >> Before this topic fades away, I wanted to share back with interested PBS >> subscribers that I checked with my sister, who lives in Sebastopol, >> California (the namesake of the one that used to be in Ukraine) about >> whether or not she has seen Lycoris squamigera blooming there. She and I >> have previously communicated about Amaryllis belladonna and how I wished I >> could grow it in Connecticut. She states that Lycoris squamigera does >> bloom there, and that its blooming signals the end of summer locally (kind >> of like goldenrod (Solidago spp) elsewhere in North America. She sent me a >> few pictures of it that she snapped with her mobile phone that are in bloom >> now as documentation. Now's the time, if anyone wants to make the trip to >> see them there. >> >> Jonathan Knisely >> New Haven, CT 06511 >> USDA 6a >> >> _________ >> >> Shawn, >> >> That's worth checking into. Sebastopol may have one of the highest >> concentrations of Amaryllis belladonna in Sonoma County but I have >> yet to see any Lycoris squamigera flowering there. >> >> Nathan >> >> >> At 07:26 AM 7/31/2014, you wrote: >> >> I wonder if the Robinetts grew Lycoris squamigera up in Sebastopol, >> >> CA, where it does dip into the teens Fahrenheit. I imagine one >> >> could see it and Amaryllis belladonna side-by-side there. >> >> >> Shawn Pollard >> >> Yuma, AZ >> _______________________________________________ >> pbs mailing list >> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ James Waddick 8871 NW Brostrom Rd Kansas City, MO 64152-2711 USA Phone 816-746-1949 _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/