Amarcrinum

jim lykos jimlykos@bigpond.com
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:06:24 PST
Hi Ken,

In response to your question - yes Amarcrinums can be made with a range of 
Crinum species but in almost all cases Amarygias are more fertile than 
Amaryllis belladonna in setting intergeneric hybrid seed. While some Crinums 
can be hybridised as the seed parent they tend to be less viable and require 
crosses with many more cultivars to obtain very few seeds.

I have created Amarcrinums with the following species:   Crinum scabrum, C. 
moorei, C. flaccidum, C. campanulatum,  C. pedunculatum,  C.luteolum,  C. 
moorei v schmidtii, C.bulbispernum and C. lineare.  Thus far only the first 
three have flowered - and the Amarygia x C scabrum is the most vigorous of 
all these crosses.

Amarygia (and Amaryllis)  x  pedunculatum was the most difficult to make - I 
had to pollinate about 80 Amarygia flowers a year (using 6 different 
cultivars) for three seasons and using almost the same number of 
pedunculatum cultivars and flowers to  get a few seeds. Only three seedlings 
from the Amarygia seed parent have survived the first two seasons and these 
are now growing strongly as evergreen bulbs with the typical Amarcrinum leaf 
form.
It is too early to confirm that the few seedlings sown from the C. 
pedunculatum seed parent are Amarcrinums - although I remain hopeful as the 
seed tended to be smaller and more prone to collapse after sowing.

I am particularly looking forward to the flower colour outcomes from the 
luteolum and campanulatum pollen parent crosses.  Seed of Amarcrinums are 
very easy to detect as they are green skinned seed set admist the white, 
plum and pink coloured Amarygia/Amaryllis seeds and I recommend sowning them 
very soon after harvesting  as the skin is prone to breaking down and 
admitting fungal infestation after about three weeks. The Amarcrinum seed 
radical is usually ready to rapidly emerge within a week or two of harvest.

Also I recommend using white or red Amarygias/Amaryllis in the Amarcrinum 
cross otherwise various shades of pink will dominate the colour range.

Cheers

Jim 


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