Jim W. wrote: >>I wonder why there are no pics of named Amaryllis belladona... In my case, it's just because I don't have any named varieties. In fact, I've almost never seen any in catalogs. (Maybe I'm reading the wrong catalogs.) The only named one I saw at Mr. Hannibal's was labeled "Rubra." I have a bulb of it, but it hasn't bloomed yet. Diane W. wrote: >>You mention a number of times that you are selecting for flowers arranged radially. This is a good idea for a garden plant I can't take credit for thinking of this -- Mr. Hannibal told me the best ones were radial, so that's what I tried to dig. It's very hard to pick the radial ones when they're in seed, though -- the flowers often bloom one-sided and then the stems straighten out radially as the seeds mature. To me, the really interesting thing about these flowers is that there are so many characteristics you could choose to breed for -- radial shape, size of flowers, stripes and other color patterns, timing of bloom, ruffles, etc. And I didn't mention scent, which ranges from fairly strong to obnoxiously sweet. My wife won't let me bring any cut Amaryllis flowers into the house because she says they give her a headache. When I made my first digging trip to Mr. Hannibal's place, he said he liked the idea that people would be carrying on with breeding and selecting these plants -- so go for it! It'll be fun to compare online the progress we all make (Paul T, I agree strongly with what you said about the Internet and how it broadens our horizons). Mike San Jose, CA (zone 9, min temp 20F)