Hi Michael, You have asked some intriguing questions about the outcome of the intergeneric cross between Brunsvigia josephinae and Amaryllis - and what sort of backcrosses can be achieved. A very thorough paper on the outcome of this intergeneric cross is found in Vol 63,2009 , pages 75 to 100 of Herbertia. Basically as you have found there is little colour variation with the F1 cross (xAmarygia) with all flowers being a rich magenta colour with varying degrees of reddish wash in the centre of tepals and some white markings near the centre of some flowers. It is uncertain how many backcrosses were necessary to get the full colour variations of vigorous Amaryllis like xAmarygias that we see in collections, but it is clear that most F1 Amarygias have sterile pollen and that F1 back crosses to Brunsvigia as a seed or pollen parent produce mainly aborted seeds and occasionally small weak seedlings. However F1 Amarygias will backcross with Amaryllis. I have not been able to create any seedlings from F1x F1 crosses and I have yet to be certain about what an F2 xAmarygia looks like . I think the process that produced our current colour range of Amarygias was due to crossing the F1 Amarygia with Amaryllis belladonna colour varieties, with further backcrosses with the progeny. My view is that crosses between F3, F4 generations etc usually have seedlings that are super fertile. In making these crosses using a Brunsvigia pollen parent will produce myriad's of small seeds from the Amaryllis or xAmarygia seed parent resulting in vigorously germinating seedlings. The reverse cross with Brunsvigia as the seed parent still has a poorer outcome with very few seeds produced and almost all seedlings usually damping off by the second year. I have found that shape, colour and size of flowers can be modified by selective crosses using x Amarygias from different Brunsvigia/xAmarygia parents, otherwise the outcome is usually offspring with little variation in colour or shape. When you start to breed xAmarygia using parents that have twisted, undulating or elongated sepals you start to see part of the expression of the Brunsvigia genetics, other desirable factors include small and large sized flowers and extra floriferousness and these outcomes are mainly obtained and extended by working on hybrids between different coloured and shaped xAmarygis's. Cheers Jim Lykos Blue Mountains Sydney Aust. Summary: ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Homick" <michaelhomick@gmail.com> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Friday, August 05, 2011 10:06 AM Subject: [pbs] xAmarygia >I just noticed in the garden that the xAmarygia are starting to push buds > through the ground and it got me to pondering a question. The cross was > between a *Brunsvigia josephinae *and *Amaryllis belladonna.* Other than > flower color variation the form is very uniform between all the plants > growing here. (20+ clones) I am sure that we are growing F3, F4 or further > generations from the original crosses. Did the F2 or later generations > ever > exhibit more of the *Brunsvigia* form? If not why would the > *Brunsvigia*genes not express themselves more in some of the progeny > of future > generations? Has backcrossing to *Brunsvigia* been attempted? Time to do > some reading of back issues of Herbertia and other periodicals as well as > PBS archive searching. > All the best, Michael Homick > Stevinson, (Central Valley), California > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/