Sprekelia and Hybrids
320083817243-0001@t-online.de (Tue, 08 Jun 2004 15:19:53 PDT)

Dear Mary Sue,

Arent these hybrids between Sprekelia and Hippeastrum named X Hippeastrelia?
Personally I find these invented names awful and botanically I think they are
no longer correct, but aren't there members who should know better?

For Sprekelia: I find it is one of the easiest plants in the Amaryllidaceae to
flower (I abandoned my Hippeastrum collection after 12 years without
significant flowers) Sprekelia comes from Mexico and is considered borderline
hardy in England (not with me in Germany, I tried) So in California you could
leave the bulbs outside and forget them, They need a certain size to bloom and
respond well to fertilizer, they like full sun and moisture during their
growth.
I grow a very large flowered one which was given to me more than 10 years ago
by an English friend who collected it in Mexico.....on a rubbish dump. I sent a
leaf of it to Mr Zonneveld in Leiden to have its DNA measured and he said it
had a very high DNA weight so may be something special. I am happy to share the
odd offset but I tried selfing it: self incompatible. I do not know 'Orient'
this may be a good partner to try to cross it with unless my plant is a kind of
polyploid that is not compatible at all. The only disadvantage is that the
flowers do only last very few days...... but they are striking!

greetings from the first warm summer days, Uli