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- Unintentional Hippeastrum Hybrids

Hippeastrum morelianum Hybrids

Many of the seeds of Hippeastrum species I've gotten from South America have turned out to be hybrids. Here are two more, both received labeled as Hippeastrum morelianum, but neither is likely to be the pure species.

Hippeastrum morelianum hybrid (c) copyright 2012 by James E. Shields.  All rights reserved.
Hippeastrum morelianum Hybrid No. 2251.A

My guess is this is maybe [morelianum x aulicum]. What does anyone else think?

Now here is another hybrid, also perhaps of morelianum.

Hippeastrum morelianum hybrid (c) copyright 2012 by James E. Shields.  All rights reserved.
Hippeastrum morelianum Hybrid No. 2140.A

I think this one is probably [morelianum x papilio]. Any other opinions? Both of these hybrids came as seeds ex hort labeled as the species, so I surmise that the seeds actually came off of plants of wild-collected morelianum.

Hippeastrum glaucescens Maybe?

Another plant grown from seeds from the same source, received labeled Hippeastrum glaucescens and supposedly the true species. At this point, I really don't kinow what it is.

Hippeastrum glaucescens (c) copyright 2012 by James E. Shields.  All rights reserved.
Hippeastrum glaucescens -- Pure Species or Hybrid?

It's an interesting enough flower, but I really wanted the pure species. Most hybrids are sterile, except for those from papilio. Sterile hybrids are dead-ends, just cluttering up the greenhouse.

More Weird Weather

This past winter has been strangely mild, apparently over almost the entire Lower 48 States of the U.S.A. Here in the Midwest, we have been having record high temperatures almost every day, in the high 70s to low 80s Fahrenheit (ca. 21 to 26°C). Normal high temperatures averaged 55°F in the past for this time of year. As noted before, this seems to be the result of an interaction between the La Niña in the Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic Oscillation as well as the Arctic Oscillation. I worry that if this continues, we will have a very dry and very hot Spring and perhaps even Summer.

The Narcissus are all in bloom; well, except for the pink forms which come later. Scilla siberica naturalized in the beds and Chionodoxa lucilae naturalized in the woodland garden are in bloom scattered all over. The Magnolia trees are in bloom, and not just the stellata hybrids but the soulangiana hybrids as well. It certainly feels like a gorgeous Spring, but it is a month early and that scares me a bit.

The Corydalis solida 'Beth Evans' are already going over. There are buds on Trillium cuneatum, T. sessile, and T. stramineum. T. nivale did not bloom this year! I'm very concerned about that; I'll probably give them some Calcium (maybe gypsum) this summer, and a little dilute fertilizer.


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Good gardening, from here in central Indiana

Jim
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Look up technical terms in the Glossary of Plant Biology

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Last revised on: 18 March 2012
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