Amarygia progress

To answer your first question ... YES ... all TINY seeds ... all of what I believe to be hybrids from my own 2005 cross between X A.belladonnas (seed parents ... themselves likely F2 hybrids, given to me by the late Wayne Roderick in the 90s) and B.josephinae (pollen parent - the product of seed from Wayne's B.josephinae plant in 1995.)

That is not to say only tiny seed was produced ... there were also larger/normal sized seed in the same pods. Based on previous accounts by Jim Lycos, 2003, posted via PBS at: http://web.archive.org/web/20050521205157/…
that the tiny seeds were likely indications of a successful cross ... I disposed* of the larger seeds and grew-on only the tiny seeds. Many of these seem to struggle. I selected ... perhaps babied is a better term ... only those seedlings which displayed bluish-green foliage, ie, midway between the green foliage of A.belladonna and the blue-grey-green foliage of B.josephinae. There were seedlings with bright green foliage but I weeded them out for the most part. I've had 3 blooms this year from the remaining group (now 6 years old) ... 2 of which appear to have the ordinary X Amarygia flowers and the most recent bloom which definitely displays some B.josephinae heritage.

*With respect to the larger seeds, when I say 'disposed' ... I actually clandestinely spread them one early Sunday morning, commando-style, along a local un-manicured roadway in hopes there would eventually be scattered blooms of X A.belladonna rising one late summer along the roadway. I did this 3 years in a row and noticed successful germination and growth ... but my efforts were spoiled 2 years ago when the city sprayed to control weeds! <:-( The round-up pretty much killed everything growing at the time, including the little winter-growing bulbs.

I've also had two different seed-grown X A.belladonnas that display twisted tepals ... the result of crossing F2 hybrids given to me by Wayne.
http://flickr.com/photos/amarguy/…
This year, I have back crossed each of them to see what I get. I suspect that some Brunsvigia genes are carried forward with each cross. I guess we need somebody to sequence the DNA on these things!

Ken Blackford
San Diego

--- On Thu, 9/29/11, Michael Mace <michaelcmace@gmail.com> wrote:

I was interested by the photo you posted of one of the siblings to that
flower, which looks a lot like a typical Amaryllis hybrid:
http://flickr.com/photos/amarguy/…

Do you remember if this came from one of the tiny seeds that you sometimes
get from Amarygia crosses, or a larger seed? I'm wondering if the seed
size/color corresponds to the type of flower you get.

I got flowers this fall from some hybrids of B. josephinae and a Les
Hannibal Amaryllis. They looked a lot like the typical Hannibal Amaryllis,
so I thought the seedlings must have been apomictic or an accidental cross
from some Amaryllis pollen that blew in. But seeing your sibling photo, I'm
starting to wonder if I did get a real cross that just doesn't express a lot
of josephinae characteristics. In particular, there's one plant that has
flowers with strangely twisted tepals. You can see it here:

http://flickr.com/photos/83542459@N00/…

Or maybe it's just a Hannibal hybrid with twisted tepals. I'd appreciate
comments from more knowledgeable growers than me.

Mike
San Jose, CA