Dear PBS Friends, Here's part 2. I hope this will generate some comments on use in other bulbs and in other parts of the world.How widely do these techniques work? Jim W. Garden Amaryllis - Hippeastrum Basics 2.Propagation: Slivering Technique by Bill Warren of the Amaryllis Study Group This method keeps the "mother" bulb alive and blooming while you wait for mature offspring (clones). I developed it from existing vegetative cloning techniques when I did one and had a crop failure and could get no more of that variety. I developed a great technique I call 'Slivering' where you take a sliver from the bottom corner of the whole bulb right to the center You can take up to 4 Slivers without harming the original bulb. Keep them thin (width of one root) and make sure they each have some of the bulb scales, root crown, a single whole root or 2, and the stem/base in the center. It is like making your own offsets. Soak these slivers in the following chamomile tea solution and use that solution for watering for the first 6 months (2 bags of chamomile tea and one bag of regular tea brewed and diluted into a two 2 liter bottles of water. These 'slivers' can be planted on their flat sides in the garden in Florida with a 1/4 inch of sand on top. This will make some of the fastest growing bulblets you have ever had with as many as 4 bulblets from the growing points of each sliver. You will get faster growth if you sprout your seeds & grow them to maturity in the same 12 inch deep container and do NOT let the temperature go below 70 degrees F at night and around 80 F daytime for continuous growth year round. Soil is 50% + well draining sand some perlite a few handfuls of well rotted manure a little above your bottom drainage layer which I use stiff leaves like live oak and pine straw. You get small but mature blooming Hippeastrum bulbs in 2 years instead of 3 or 4. Always keep your bulbs half or more above the soil as it will make a difference if the soil compacts on the upper curve surface of the Hippeastrum bulb. If you know someone who bought a house in the last 5 years give them a Hippeastrum bulb and teach them how easy it is to grow a bed through the years and share the simple techniques to make them bloom through the year. Each one teach one. Bill Warren Reply to: Warren@iag.net or <mailto:amstgrp@yahoo.com>amstgrp@yahoo.com -- Dr. James W. Waddick 8871 NW Brostrom Rd. Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711 USA Ph. 816-746-1949 Zone 5 Record low -23F Summer 100F +