Jim Waddick wrote “Do not expect seed on L. squamigera. (PERIOD and in CAPS!) He then adds, confusingly to me, “If you have time and plants there may be some improved chances to get seed if you back cross L. squamigera to either of its parents-“ This second statement seems to contradict the first one because it suggests that there is a chance of getting seed on Lycoris squamigera. In fact, there are historic records of Lycoris squamigera setting viable seed. Writing in Herbertia in 1979 (the on-line version says modified 28 May 2000) in an article titled “At Long Last—Seeds On Lycoris squamigera” Sam Caldwell reported this: “By coincidence I received from Japan at about this time a letter from my good gardener friend, Dr. Shuichi Hirao, who wrote: "I want this letter to report you my 'finding' on lycoris. It is to obtain seed from sterile species. The practice is very simple: just cut the bloom- stalk after pollination and hang it downwards in the shade, or just lay on a shady ground. The stalk will shrivel gradually from the cut end, but the umbel will continue to live and the pod will swell gradually. If lucky you will find one or more perfect seed in the pod after four to five weeks after the pollination. I got a perfect seed out of three umbels of Lycoris squamigera treated above." So in the flowering season of 1976 I went back to work on L. squamigera, using pollen from L. sanguinea, L. sprengeri, L. chinensis, L. "Sperryi" and from a new unidentified yellow lycoris that looks much like L. squamigera. Reciprocal crosses were made. I cut about 40 scapes, labeled them and hung them in light shade in my greenhouse. For a time they made progress; seed capsules fattened in an encouraging way. However, in September when they were fully ripened it was a disappointing task to shell out the capsules, umbel after umbel, and find no seed. But one scape looked particularly good and, sure enough, when I peeled away the capsule covering, there they were—three large, shiny, hard black seeds, one of them fully 3/8" in diameter. This may sound absurd but plant breeders will understand—it was like finding gold nuggets after a 20-year search! A label showed that this was the only scape of L. squamigera on which I had applied pollen from L. chinensis. The secret was out. Lycoris squamigera could produce seed in cooperation with the right partner. And as one might guess, L. chinensis is something special. It is the big, beautiful hardy yellow "spiderlily" type lycoris received in 1948 at the U.S.D.A.. Plant Introduction Garden in Glenn Dale, Maryland from the Nanking, China Botanic Garden. It came under the label, "L. aurea," but proved quite distinct from what we regard as true L. aurea, that grows in Ft. Augustine, Florida and other mild-winter areas. Dr. Traub named it L. chinensis in 1958. (See Fig. 7)…. Now back to the story of my 1976 crop of the three hybrid seeds, L. squamigera X L. chinensis. These were planted in a 4" pot kept under a bench in my cool greenhouse over winter, as I customarily handle all lycoris seed. In March I carefully dug into the planting medium and was happy to find two small white bulblets emerged from black seed covers. It was a sad day a few weeks later when I again dug in and discovered both bulblets rotting. Fortunately the next flowering season, 1977, was a good one. There were two scapes of L. chinenis, supplying plenty of pollen for use on dozens of L. squamigera flowers. Some of these I cut and hung in the greenhouse, others were placed in the greenhouse in a jar of water which was changed occasionally, and still others were left outside on the bulbs as an experiment. Those in water all decayed after a few weeks, but from the greenhouse hung scapes and those gathered outside in mid-September I was delighted to get 36 mature, sound seeds. (See Fig. 8). In fact, those pollinated scapes left outside on their bulbs were quite as productive as those brought into the greenhouse, so it would appear that cutting and hanging is unnecessary. Actually, the ratio of seeds to pollinated scape was low. Many scapes produced no seeds at all. Six was the most from any one scape, while the over-all average was slightly over one seed per scape, although I had generally pollinated every flower. This time, hoping to avoid decay of small bulblets, I planted the seeds in a peatmoss-vermiculite mix with a fungicide added. The same medium was used for all my other lycoris seeds of the 1977 season, and these germinated and grew well. Not so the squamigera seeds. It is sad to report that about half of them apparently rotted without germinating at all. Others did germinate and develop plump little bulblets but these also decayed within a few months.” If you would like to read the entire article, simply Google “Caldwell Lycoris”. This article demonstrates the following: a) Lycoris squamigera is not invariably sterile. b) Lycoris squamigera is capable of producing viable seeds c) Lycoris other than the purported parents of L. squamigera seem able to induce seed formation in Lycoris squamigera. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/