Early results from cross-breeding Les Hannibal's Amaryllis
jim lykos (Mon, 13 Sep 2010 04:10:14 PDT)

Hi

The colour variations in the Amaryllis hybrid crosses described by Michael
are also to be found here in Sydney Australia. In my experience some crosses
produce seed colour ratios that are hard to genetically explain and this can
be confirmed by the eventual flowering of these seedlings. There are some
hybrid crosses that prove to be infertile or nearly so against most pollen
and seed parents, while they prove to be extremely fertile with the odd
Amaryllis hybrid.
I have collected around 50 different colour variants of Amaryllis (most of
them hybrids) from all over Australia, and have been trying to breed
different colour combinations, florferiousness and improved flower shapes.
My inspiration also came from Les Hannibals many articles in the Journal of
the Royal Horticultural Society of London written during the 1950's and
1960's and in the IBS quarterly newsletters around the same period.

Arlington Worsely (of Worselya procerum fame) preceded Les Hannibal in
his experimentation with intergeneric Amaryllis hybrids and also wrote a
number of articles from the 1930's pointing out how the colour of Amaryllis
seeds reflect the eventual colour of the seedling flower. In an article on
Amaryllis Parkeri he also developed a fairly complex genetic algorithm
tying in 17 divergent parental plant characteristics between Amaryllis
belladonna and Amarygia Parkeri.
For instance these are a few of the 17 differences to be found in Amarygia
hybrids compared to the Amaryllis species:
Increase in size and number of flowers in hybrid - 16 to 40 while species
has 5 to 13.
Changed structure of the umbel with flowers arranged in an ringnet or
candelabra style while in species all flowers face in same direction of
midday sun.
Bulb larger growing with around 50% of the bulb exposed to sunlight, while
species has bulb just beneath soil surface.
Presence of a pseudo-stem from 2 to 10 inches in height in the hybrid. - no
pseudo-stem in the species.

Now you may say where are the Amaryllis hybrid bulbs that have up to 40
flowers? Well they are rare but they do exist but more often as the F1
hybrid between Amaryllis and Brunsvigia. Attempts at creating hybrids and
selfing has revealed that the F1 hybrids are seed sterile, but a few do
have some fertile pollen and so over the 170 years since they were first
crossed in the garden of Camden Park outside of Sydney by JC Bidwill, they
have been grown by a number of bulb nurseries in Sydney which made the
further crosses Amaryllis belladonna x F1 Amarygia and Amaryllis
belladonna x ( belladonna x F1 Amarygia) and Amarygia x F1Amarygia.
From these it is clear that Amaryllis hybrids are more commonly found than
Amaryllis species, and that some have complex genetic backgrounds -
including what have been called in the nursery trade until the 1950's
Amaryllis Mutliflora. These are the large bulb hybrids that have up to 40
flowers and one nursery in particular the Holloway Bros produced and named 5
Amaryllis Multiflora varieties during the 1930s to 1960's.

In Australia it has become clear that a number of Amarygia's were created
during the colonial period between Amaryllis and Brunsvigia josephinea, B.
littoralis and probably B. grandiflora, and that seedling bulbs of these
crosses were available through a couple of nurseries in Sydney up until the
1870's.
Colin Mills the coordinator of garden volunteers at Camden Park has over
the past couple of years remade the Amaryllis belladonna x F1 Amarygia and
Amaryllis belladonna x B. josephinea cross. The purple-red F1's were crossed
with a white Amaryllis species flower and the others with two other
Amaryllis hybrids. There are about 600 seedlings growing at Camden Park in
irrigated outdoor seedling beds - the outcome in two to three years will be
a valuable guide as to the virtue or otherwise of backcrosses to the F1
Amarygia, and provide direction for further breeding as well as providing an
understanding of what happens to these colour crosses.
I have photographed the seed from 70 Amaryllis hybrid crosses in community
pots which I made 4 years ago and are near flowering size. In recent years
I have segregated seed from crosses according to seed colour and I'm growing
colour forms in seed colour labeled pots. So in future there should be a
lot more understanding of flower colour forms and their relationship to
physical plant characteristics.
Earlier this year I was shown a picture of a white Amaryllis Multiflora
with 26 flowers and I flowered a bulb of a Cream coloured Amaryllis hybrid
that had 22 flowers, so such Amaryllis hybrids do and can exist - the future
of Amaryllis breeding is promising as at least from my experience 1 in 4
seedlings from hybrid crosses appear superior to their parents.

Cheers

Jim Lykos
Blue Mountains Sydney Australia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Mace" <mikemace@att.net>
To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 4:08 PM
Subject: [pbs] Early results from cross-breeding Les Hannibal's Amaryllis