Emaryllis.com, your online Hippeastrum (amaryllis) headquarters!
That’s the amaryllis I bought? So you bought an amaryllis and it bloomed-that’s terrific! But it doesn’t look like the picture on the label, the catalog, the box kit, or…or…you get it, welcome to our world. Every season a substantial portion of amaryllis bulbs sold are incorrectly labeled. This might not be such a big deal if not for the fact that these are relatively expensive bulbs, which rightly raises the expectations for quality and labeling correctness.
The intent of this site is to photograph and describe those Hippeastrum hybrids commercially available (past and present) in the U.S. marketplace. Maybe now you can put a name on that mystery bulb!
We are between the seasons, but hey, let’s have some fun!
We’ll upload some off season arrivals, unnamed hybrids, and our own crosses (no matter how unimpressive)
A couple of years ago we crossed ‘Sofia’ (left) with ‘Tropical Sensation’ (right). ‘Sofia’ was the maternal/seed parent. We only raised two seedlings, but both were vigorous and have already bloomed. Many of our other hybrids have taken 3-4 years to bloom. Head on over to our Emaryllis hybrids gallery to see the results!
The 2025-2026 season below:
Registered in 1942, ‘Queen of Sheba’ becomes our second oldest registered cultivar (just behind 1941 introduction ‘Purple Queen’). Bred by R.W. Wheeler of Winter Park, Florida who was better known for his daylily (Hemerocallis) hybrids. At that time there was an active group of breeders working on those two genera as well as caladiums, crinums, etc. While we didn’t coax the best performance on our first scape, we will hold this piece of amaryllis history in hopes of better performance next year!On the left we have longtime favorite ‘Showmaster’. On the right we have ‘Rhapsody’ which was not registered but kept in Marko Penning’s breeding program where it helped beget ‘Showmaster’, ‘Exception’, ‘Barbados’ and probably more. Our initial bloom of ‘Rhapsody’ couldn’t look more different than this one on established roots! Both images are from the very same bulb. Since it more closely matches the image on Fluwel’s site, we have placed it in the gallery as the “official” image, while at least temporarily retaining the older image. From the same purchase of Fluwel rarities last season, we have also uploaded a less than pristine image of 1984 introduction ’Lydia’. Enjoy!Under the category of buyer beware, here we have ‘Hercules’ that was purchased as ‘La Forest Morton’. We purchased ‘La Forest Morton’ in 2004 and it too bloomed as ‘Hercules’. If ‘La Forest…’ was still for sale, we would love it, as the colors describing it are enticing (china rose, lilac purple, pansy violet, near black throat). There is quite a tradition in the dry bulb industry of marketing newer and more common cultivars under the names of older heirlooms that are no longer in production. Offers for classic Ludwig clones like ‘Maria Goretti’, ‘Dutch Belle’ and ‘Pamela’ for instance will yield something similar in color but more modern and definitely not true to name. We noted Jac. Mense’s ‘Bestseller’ and ‘Prins Carnaval’ for sale in bins this season, but didn’t bite due to cost. We also noted the heartbreaking scene of boxes of ‘Spotty’ (=‘Picasso’) and ‘Germa’ (=‘Luna’) this season. Perhaps we need a post on this matter in Hipp Happenings…Penning’s dramatic ‘Coral Flame’ enters our Photo Library as the 2025-2026 slows down. While registration hasn’t been posted by KAVB yet, this cultivar was shown along with several others at a spring open house held by Penning in 2024. With its bold and distinctive star center bordered in bright red, it is an eye-catcher! Please welcome ‘Mascotte’ to the Photo Library.Several years after buying cut stems of ‘Autumn Valley’ we were able to buy dry bulbs. What we see are scapes that aren’t too tall, and flowers that are much richer in coloration. We’ve updated our entry to reflect these observations. We shall see if the scapes are much taller next season on better roots. Speaking of that, we have also updated our entry photo for ‘Andes Lady’ which performed far better as an established plant. Check them both out!An oldie but goodie is back! We’ve heard of and experienced the offering of ‘Stargazer’ for a few seasons only to find an unrequested substitution. It was interesting to note that while P. van der Kaaij has licensed the latest doubles from T. van Nieuwkerk (namely the Nymph series), it also shows four of the breeder’s best older single varieties as well. This may give hope of the continued production of wonderful pink ‘Exposure’, as well as the return of lightly fragrant bicolor ‘Popov’ and brooding beauty ‘Purple Rain’. Will they show up next season? Fingers are crossed!We’ve got one more of the Park hybrid introductions marketed for garden use and more. Welcome ‘Orange Queen’ to the Photo Library.Oops! We forgot to upload this one last season. Maybe E was waiting for better images on a background other than black. A fine compliment to its stablemate ‘Red Symphony’, we have now added Penning’s fine double ‘Pink Symphony’ to our doubles gallery.While variable in presentation, at its best ‘Red Toro’ is a very good, rich red double. Enjoy!One of the more widely available Park Amaryllis varieties is ‘Ocean Drive’ which is often marketed for outdoor garden use. Now in the gallery!Though registered back in 2012, it seems that P. van der Kaaij picked up production of this along with several new Nieuwkerk Nymph series doubles. Welcome the earthy caramel tones of Exotic Nymph (‘Exnym’) to our double flowered gallery. From the breeding house that brought us ‘Double Dragon’ and ‘Amarantia’, please welcome ‘Double Circus’ to our Photo Library!A purchase directly from Europe last season brings us a new addition to The Lobby. Nr. 00114-N is a cross between two species that may be a parent of some of Marko Penning’s hybrids. Check it out!While not yet officially registered, we couldn’t wait! ‘Giant Flame’ enters the Photo Library after a limited release this season. It reminds us a bit of once popular ‘Piquant’, and that’s a good thing 🙂Though not particularly new, we finally add to our gallery ‘Double Delicious’, the slightly larger and slightly redder sibling to older ‘Double Delight’. ‘Pink Panther’ is another Park introduction aimed at multiple uses, from outdoor gardens, to potted plant to cutflower. Now posted in our Photo Library!Yet another bright and beaming double from breeder T. van Nieuwkerk enters our Photo Library. Welcome Party Nymph (‘Partnym’) to the house of Emaryllis!While we find new double ‘Snow Glory’ a bit clunky, it is still nice to see a pipeline to Van der Ende’s varieties entering mainstream dry bulb sales. Maybe we will see some older cultivars like ‘Bouquet’ and ‘Megastar’ make a comeback? Their own single pink ‘Isabella’ would be a dream!Shown at Penning’s 2024 open house alongside ‘Chiara’, this one is similar but has several distinctions as well. Welcome ‘Supernova’ to the Photo Library!Following in the footsteps of 2005 favorite ‘Temptation’, Penning has now brought 2025 follow up ‘Chiara’. See what Emaryllis makes of this new take on the old classic! Now in the Photo Library.Another new Nymph series double is now in the gallery! Meet Tropical Nymph (’Tropnym’), a bright, refined and floriferous selection that seems equally suited to cutflower or potted use. We have closing thoughts and a conclusion to our Assembly Not Required post in Hipp Happenings. Check it out!A previous purchase of ‘Chico’ (noted below) netted ‘La Paz’/‘Tango’. We were confident in seeing the correct shape of bulb here, and we can say that Bulb and Blossom is shipping the correct variety. If rumors are true, we won’t be seeing this selection of Hippeastrum cybister in the future as production in Holland is apparently ending. Amateur breeders wanting to recreate hybrids resembling ‘Lima’ and ‘Jungle Star’ need only cross this with H. papilio to get their own versions. The simple and elegant beauty of ‘Northpole’ is now added to our collection 🙂The Double flowered gallery continues to grow leaps and bounds! Our first scapes of ‘Tika Aurora’ were stunted as we see here. Later we got some scapes with a little height, and now she joins the Photo Library.Stemming from our Assembly Not Required post, we now have a gallery entry for lively double ‘Wild Dance’. Enjoy!A few seasons back we purchased ‘Autumn Valley’ (left) as a cutflower, and posted it to our site, followed shortly after by ‘Green Valley’. Both subsequently became available in the dry bulb trade in the U.S. ! We imported ‘Happy Valley’ (right) this season, and can only hope that it becomes available next season along with ‘Dance Valley’. Let’s happily welcome ‘Happy Valley’ which is the modern version of Fred Meyer’s hybrid ‘Grandeur’ that disappeared from trade years ago. It’s nice to see that the Nymph series lives on! While Nieuwkerk may have stopped the growing part of his business, his breeding program continues. P. van der Kaaij has licensed many, including this beauty. A literal bouquet on a stick, we welcome pinstriped Lucky Nymph (‘Lucknym’) to the doubles gallery!It came as no surprise that a local nursery offering a box of bulbs labeled as ‘Spotty’ would be a mislabel. Here, we see ’Picasso’ which represents a very deliberate mislabeling. It certainly has spots! Another bin of bulbs at the same nursery marked as ‘Germa’ were actually blooming out when seen, and they were all ‘Luna’ which could be considered yellow-ish and therefore a very deliberate and skilled choice for unethical mislabeling. That’s a shame. Caveat emptor!Seen earlier as part of our pre-potted Assembly Not Required post in Hipp Happenings, we also got to see another example by way of a mislabel. In purchasing a bag of three bulbs of ‘Fay’ below, one of the three is seen here. Welcome ‘Just Smile’, a beautiful new favorite to our photo library!Now in the photo gallery, Park’s (perhaps) somewhat cold hardy ‘Fay’. For fans of the less punchy amaryllis, she offers a quiet take that reminds E of the older ‘Amoretta’ that was ubiquitous in the early 2000’s. Dramatic Dutch hybrid ‘Elsa’ joins our photo library today! Enjoy.Our efforts to get perky red ‘Peppers’ into our gallery this season have been foiled. Substituted with familiar 2016 introduction ‘Red Tiger’ from the only U.S. source for a few of the new Park hybrids. Maybe next year.Here, we see Park Amaryllis taking the ‘Picasso’ formula to a new and exciting level. Originally named ‘Million Stars’, it was formally registered as ‘1000 Stars’ which puts it at the top position in our Single flowered A-H gallery. Enjoy!Here we see Park Amaryllis striving for that ideal picotee type with a clear white face and thin red edge. ‘Sissi’ certainly comes close, but we saw only 3 buds on two scapes, one scape with only 2 buds, and thankfully two more with the normal minimum of 4 buds. Perhaps larger bulbs next season will see better performance by that metric. Now in the photo library.Long overdue, we have now placed the current ‘Lime Flare’ in the photo gallery. We’re labeling it as ‘Lime Flare II’ as it replaces another hybrid of the same name. The new ‘Lime Flare’ v.2.0 seems to be a stronger plant, but trades away the butterfly shape and the plucky markings of the original. Showing up last season as a substitute in some box kits tells us production of this new version is probably strong as well!Our last entry for the month of January certainly is easy on the eyes. Whether considered midsized or large flowered, ‘Sweet Dreams’ delivers soft beauty, good bud count, and a subtle but beautiful shift in color as it ages. We’ve got a major update/finale in Hipp Happenings! Check out our 3rd and 4th of 4 pre-potted bulbs in our Assembly Not Required post.Bummer #2 from Dutch Grown, which has in the past been a reliable supplier (no qualms about bulb quality, they were all very good). Our earlier season complaint about the replacement of ‘Chico’ with ‘La Paz’ is now followed by ‘Luna’ seen here purchased and labeled as ‘Green Valley’. We had hoped to get a group photo of three of Van der Ende’s “Valley” series together as we did with the “Amazone” family last season. In the case of ‘Chico’ we were able to reorder from Bulb and Blossom, and the shape of the bulb received looks correct, which is important if it is truly going out of production. Stay tuned for that one later.Another Park Amaryllis introduction has been profiled! This is ‘Geisha’, a mid-to-large flowered beauty with finely pencilled markings. It is interesting to note that Saad-Assaf has shown a similar but different cultivar of the same name on its website, but that one hasn’t yet seen a release yet. If and when it does, it will clearly need a different name.The antithesis of ‘Mojito’ below…welcome Saad-Assaf’s fiery ‘Firestorm’ to the doubles gallery!We saw this cool customer earlier as part of the pre-potted kits from Breck’s…the only way to obtain this one in the U.S. this season. Let’s welcome ‘Mojito’ to the Photo Library!Initially released and sold as ‘van Gogh’, the official registry name for this smaller flowered Park introduction is ‘Vincent’. Now in the Photo Library, enjoy!Park Amaryllis has been best known for smaller flowered “hardy” garden amaryllis, but they are expanding their line in every way. Only a few doubles are available so far, and ‘Inca Star’ is among the first. Emaryllis is often critical of the extreme variance in doubles, but our take on this one is rather fawning.A slew of new Park Amaryllis hybrids are being released for both forcing and potential landscape use, and ‘Strawberry Ice’ presents a personable and pretty face for either use. Now in the Photo Library for your consideration.Surprisingly informal, variable and unique ‘Sweet Cream’ now joins the Photo Library. I promise we will have some more single flowered amarylli to post soon! For now, a very poised and refined double from Saad-Assaf is added to the Library. Welcome ‘Replay’ to the doubles gallery.It’s rare that Emaryllis has a hard time finding something charitable to say about any amaryllis, but here we are. This is ‘Bentley’. While we are excited to see and grow some of its stablemates, ‘Bentley’ fails to impress. A new addition to the “Amadeus” series enters our doubles gallery! We should say make room for ‘Sweet Amadeus’ as we saw very large flowers on this one. Maybe we need a new category for the giants?Our second Breck’s potted variety is open! And it is a thing of quiet beauty. The first to bloom is still holding its own in a vase many days after opening. As with most orange amaryllises, it slowly fades to a more salmon shade. Go to the Assembly Not Required post in Hipp Happenings for the deets.Ha! You will have to go to the Hipp Happenings post on our last Ace Hardware kit to see what we got with our last to bloom. Was our ‘Red Lion’ kit really ‘Red Lion’?Silky and refined ‘Ibiza’ joins our Photo Library! Smaller flowered and floriferous, ‘Ibiza’ reminds of the refinement of cutflower variety ‘Pompidou’ and also seems like a more dramatic update on older and lighter red ‘Très Chic’. Our latest member of the “Belle” series enters the Double flowered gallery! ‘Coral Belle’ is brought to us by Dutch firm Gebr. van Velden B.V. and their catalog is well worth a look, especially for exclusive varieties that we can hope make their way to the dry bulb trade. We’ve entered a link to their site in our Resources page. Welcome ‘Pretty Amadeus’ to the doubles gallery! Emaryllis hasn’t been so smitten with a less than fully double amaryllis since ‘Jewel’. In this case each flower is utterly unique by way of very random and very bright red splashes on its white background. ‘Gervase’ has many fans for those random markings, and we think the first double to show such markings will find many fans too!‘Tika Jazz’ enters our Double flowered gallery, enjoy!We’ve got two updates in one! Please check our “Assembly Not Required” post in Hipp Happenings to see how we got this orange beauty. Plus, please welcome our latest gallery entry, ‘Rising Star’ to see how it compares to 20 year old and longtime favorite introduction ‘Naranja’. While we were initially a bit cool to this new double, it ended up earning our admiration. From the breeders that have made the “Amadeus” series synonymous with bold double hybrids, this one earns praise for its poise. Welcome ‘Balace’ to our doubles gallery!Nieuwkerk’s “Nymph” series continues! ‘Happy Nymph’ bursts open like New Year’s Day fireworks in our doubles gallery!Big, bold and wide open ‘China Star’ now joins the double flowered gallery, enjoy!Rats! An offer for “jumbo size” bulbs (32 cm) of ‘Chico’ turns out to be ‘La Paz’. This is a real shame as rumor has it that this was the last year of commercial production for the OG of cybister amaryllis. One firm still has some smaller (28-30 cm) bulbs, so we have ordered one in high hopes. While we are having some website issues at the moment, we can still update our BKB 2025 in Hipp Happenings! Check that page for the latest, and Merry Christmas to all!Our second obvious mislabel of the season is this example of ‘Moon Scene’ which was purchased as ‘Top Notch’, a solid pink double from Saad-Assaf. Luckily we do have some “true” examples of some other double varieties from the same firm to post soon!The first official mislabel of the season! Small flowered ‘Ibiza’ on left is just barely entering the U.S. market, and there is limited availability. Four bulbs were purchased, two from each of two sources. They were offered at very different price points, reflecting different bulb sizes (and profit margins, no doubt). The first to bloom was one from one of the smaller and cheaper bulbs. We can see a lot of promise in the deep color, contrast, and bud count. We’re not ready to post to the gallery just yet. The second bulb labeled ‘Ibiza’? This one turns out to be ‘Neon’. Since that selection is offered by the same mail order source alongside ‘Ibiza’, it could be their mixup. Here’s a Hadeco amaryllis you can buy (at least from one source) in the US this year! Playful and charming ‘Jester’ now enters the gallery. Ours bloomed on small 20-21 cm bulbs; it will be nice to see larger bulbs in the future.Yet more Hadeco amarylli! These two lovelies are not available commercially in North America this season, but hopefully next. While we think these two are drool-worthy, health issues with at least one may quell our enthusiasm. Read about our newest entries, ‘Gazelle’ and ‘Circus Circus’ in the Photo Library now!Another scarlet vs. dark red comparison! Big and bold ‘Red Victory’ from Agro Floral Peru on the left (just added to our gallery) and a more open flower of Hadeco’s ‘Marrakesh’ as seen below. ‘Red Victory’ is squarely aimed at unseating ‘Red Lion’, and is popular as a forced, pre-potted holiday amaryllis here in North America.Two more new varieties from South African producer Hadeco! One the left is dark red ‘Marrakesh’ which unfortunately is not available here in the U.S. just yet. On the right is a ’Red Lion’ competitor named ‘Maraschino’. It is helpful to see two very different shades of red together. The deep and dark reds have been fashionably on the rise for years thanks to the likes of ‘Royal Velvet’, ‘Benfica’, ‘Red Pearl’,’Mandela’, etc. While they are dramatic, the brighter orange leaning scarlet reds like ‘Maraschino’ still beam more brightly in dimly lit winter interiors, and provide the good cheer we all want during the winter holidays. Enjoy both, now in our Photo Library!
Three more new Hadeco varieties are added to the gallery! The South African producer has expanded their range in a big way, but not all “new for 2025” varieties are in the U.S. market just yet. ‘Foxtrot’ seems a likely replacement for ‘Milady’.‘Devotion’ surprises us. It’s a nice true red, but presents itself as lofty and refined rather than just another big red. ‘Charmed’ which is being offered by Bulb and Blossom seems to be replacing ‘Hollywood’. Enjoy!
Likely the darkest red double yet, ‘Red Symphony’ grown by Agro Floral Peru is now featured in our Doubles gallery. On left, you see what can happen on a poorly rooted bulb. The flower doesn’t open its central tepals properly; they remain scrunched in the center. On right, a properly hydrated scape produces a fully double form, and a beautiful one at that.‘Sweet Escape’ is a new Hadeco variety that saw a very limited release this season in the U.S. We were kindly gifted this, and several other new South African hybrids by Bulb and Blossom. Though this initial batch of bulbs is small in size, we can certainly get a good idea of coloration. This one bears comparison to the larger flowered Dutch hybrid ‘Shine Dream’. What a thrill! Emaryllis is stepping beyond our Box Kit Bonanza by featuring a post on a group of pre-potted amaryllises. We’ve shown some potted and sleeved varieties purchased either locally or by mail order in the past, but never have we followed them in a detailed way. We may have to wait patiently for first blooms from these, but we hope it will be worth the wait. Head on over to Hipp Happenings to “Assembly Not Required” to see what E makes of these so far.We hope everyone celebrating Thanksgiving had a wonderful holiday. We here at Emaryllis HQ are thankful for each of you! We have an update to our BKB 2025 to enjoy in our Hipp Happenings blog 🙂Big, blousy and definitely informal in shape, ‘Tika Beauty’ creates quite a stir on our amaryllis bench this week! Not all informal doubles are messy, some like this one are impressive for their sheer size and presence. Enjoy!Hadeco has been short of a small green amaryllises in their stable for a while. Now we have this graceful little number to add to our gallery. Welcome ‘Limelight’ to the Photo Library.Perhaps Peruvian Agro Floral is staking out more refined territory by growing the Penning bred “Symphony” series versus the wildly variable in house “Tika” series. With excellent presentation, and nary a pink streak to be seen, we now present ‘White Symphony’ in our doubles gallery. We like this one!While not available in the US this season, it should be next season. Hadeco is releasing a slew of new hybrids. This subtle little guy is ‘Havana’. Check it out in our gallery to decide if it should be on your shopping list next year!A new pastel lovely has just arrived in our gallery! Let’s welcome Hadeco’s well named ‘Cotton Kiss’ to the Photo Library. We are live with Box Kit Bonanza 2025! Check out our new gift box kit feature in Hipp Happenings!Hadeco has published photos and descriptions of many new varieties this season, and we hope to show our audience as many as possible. Not all are in full production and some are only in a few markets. Here we have ‘Electra’ which is available from at least one US source. Large and intense, ‘Electra’ now lights up our Photo Library!Our first truly “new” entry of the season! Last season we tried to get as many of the numerous new South American bred “Tika” series doubles as possible. Not all produced the results we wanted. Seen here is last season’s effort to cut one stunted scape and put it in water to get a hint of its potential. Now we’ve got a better bulb, and the results are night and day different! Come on over to the Double Flowered gallery to see what emaryllis thinks of ‘Tika Sunrise’!
Below are a few highlights from the 2024-2025 season:
Yet another limited release from Fluwel that Emaryllis could not resist. ‘Purple Queen’ hails from one of the early Dutch breeding houses (Warmenhoven), and its lineage is present in most modern ultra deep red cultivars. Emaryllis is thrilled to include what is now the oldest registered variety on our site! Welcome 1941 hybrid ‘Purple Queen’ to the Photo Library!How fun is this!? Our next “Tika” series double is ‘Tika Salsa’. Will you see amazing fully pom pom form flowers if you grow this variety? Probably not. This is the result of a horticultural anomaly known as fasciation. To see what this vibrant hybrid normally looks like, check our entry in the double flowered gallery. Enjoy!The occasion of both ‘Blossom Grandise’ and ‘Santana’ blooming at the same time presents a moment of stark contrast. Here we have one of the largest modern Hippeastrum hybrids in ‘Blossom Grandise’ and one of the smallest. We have updated our entry on the what could surely be nicknamed “Appleblossom Grande” in our photo library. Enjoy!Just showin’ off here! It’s so cool to have all three of the ‘Amazone’ clan in bloom at the same time for a family portrait. We now have all three in our Photo Library. ‘Pink Amazone’, ‘Red Amazone’ and ‘Wild Amazone’….say cheese!
For inquiries: write to Info (at) emaryllis.com
106 Comments on “Home”
Hello,
I have a few amaryllis that I need help with identifying. If you guys could send me an email so I could send the pics that would be great.
Thank you
Martin
I have seen no mention of red leaf fungus on your site. Is this something I should be concerned about? I get about 5 or 6 plants infected with it every year. Is it curable? Should I keep infected plants or ditch the bulbs on the compost heap? So far, I’ve been ditching them, but it keeps cropping up. Sometimes on brand new bulbs. Love your addiction- feeding website, by the way.
Hi Stella! Yes, those blank spaces were remnants of the server update, and they should be cleaned up now.
I’ve held on to some amaryllis bulbs for many years though they never bloom. The “rosea” type imported from India that I saw blooming freely in the ground in Thailand. It may be time to part ways. I will quickly toss plants with obvious virus issue if I don’t intend to breed with them. Often I compost or give away amaryllis that I have good photos of, and are still widely available commercially…I have a critical space issue! I really need to stop making my own crosses. So many new cultivars come out each year these days, and that’s what Emaryllis is trying to document.
I think its great that you’ve had some pleasant surprises by way of benign neglect 🙂
Thanks for your insights. I have come to a place where all my amarylli must put up with the same conditions, or they get the boot! I do keep ‘Germa’ going with longer dry periods, but that’s about it.
Yes, do send your questionable ‘Cleopatra’ photo on and we’ll try our best.
Greetings Anja! I’m sorry, but Emaryllis is not a registrar for Hippeastrum hybrids. KAVB in the Netherlands is the official body that does this. Thanks for using our website 🙂
Love the new Tika series, even though I am firmly on Team Single!
You mention virus, and I am afraid I am seeing signs, yellow mottling, on new leaves from 2 bulbs I got last year. Is that definitive or can other things be confused for mosiac virus?
No box kits this year?
I treated myself to one – another generic ‘red and white stripe’ one from a supermarket – no sign of any scape as yet.
Went into my local shop to pick up some milk this weekend, and they had a potted amaryllis with a damaged scape reduced from £7 to £1.75. Took it to the till and the barcode wouldn’t scan, so they said I could have it for FREE!!! I’m leaving the scape to see if it flowers as I’d like to now what colour I have – if it doesn’t, I’ll just grow it on for next year.
Wishing you a happy growing year in 2025!
Loving all the updates this year, thank you for feeding my addiction! And thank you for the link to the US supplier with Thai Thai and Aurora, I ordered both. The Aurora just finished blooming, so sweet, but the Thai Thai all came up just leaves. The bulbs are super tiny, maybe they will bloom next year and show if they really are Thai Thai…
Thanks for your comments! A few of the several ‘Thai Thai’ I received did the same…all leaves. They all look true-to-type at least. A few also had Hippeastrum Mosaic Virus, so I have rogues those out. Good luck re-growing yours.
“Caught up in the end-of-season sales frenzy, kits were bought in the last day of 2023, and first two days of 2024. This is something E would never advise our audience to get caught up in”
You don’t have to – any time I see seriously reduced amaryllis bulbs, I’m guaranteed to get caught up in a sales frenzy, with or without advice!!!
Oh, how I wish ‘Jewel’ were still in production. You can still find stalwart double ‘Blossom Peacock’ readily and recently introduced ‘Cape Horn’ has some fragrance along with trumpet type ‘Santiago’. Hybrids with some of the white flowered species should yield fragrant progeny, but these have yet to show up in commerce.
After several years of buying expensive named bulbs that ended up being nothing of the kind (usually just Appleblossom or Red Lion – and often, the Appleblossom stood in for a red variety and vice versa!) I now only buy the super cheap supermarket box kits. I still find the colours are wrong, but at least I don’t get so mad if I’ve only paid £3-£4 instead of £15!
There seems to be consensus that mislabeling is as much a problems this season as ever. Sigh. Since you ordered an Israeli variety, they are usually substituted with others from the same supplier. As with my ‘Bagatelle’, check the Amaryllis IL Coming Up page…perhaps you got a pre-release ‘Replay’.
Thanks! Just photographing another cybister type hybrid today and hope to post soon. The two box kits are photographed and just waiting for me to do a write-up. You should patent the term Spamaryllis (™) lol!
Good luck with your ‘Desire’ bulb! The most common reason that hybrids don’t take is a basic chromosome number incompatibility, but there are other factors. Short of embryo rescue and tissue culture techniques you can just accept it or try a few tricks of the trade. Try the reverse cross using the failed pod parent’s pollen on the other variety. Cutting the stigma off of the style, and using the sticky sap it exudes can work by removing the “lock and key” system of the stigma. Using a compatible pollen that is “killed” via microwaving, then mixing it with the desired pollen can also get around the style’s lock and key system. If you know the cross will fail, cutting the scape and placing it in water can prevent the bulb from controlling the shutting off of resources to the failing pod.
Love the new hybrids – Congratulations!
My mystery ‘pink’ amaryllis whose first flower was white with a faint pink overlay is continuing to confuse – the second flower has opened white with a green centre (with a tiny pink dot at the base of each petal) and the tiniest possible amount of pink on the tips. and the third flower is all green & white. Definitely not the very strong pink colour shown on the box, but at least I only paid £4 for it! Can’t wait to see what the ‘solid red’ and ‘red and white striped’ varieties flower as!!!
Thanks, Phil! I’ve got a few more hybrids opening soon so stay tuned! Your pale mystery may be something unique, and you did get it at a bargain! Keep us abreast of the others.
Haha – red and white striped didn’t flower at all, solid red was Appleblossom and my second ‘red’ (someone else’s unwanted Christmas present) is now flowering pink…so of a grand total of 4 bulbs, none of them have flowered as they were supposed to!
Amazing 4/4 mislabels. Quite an indictment of the industry! Hopefully we can maintain at least a sense of humor about this situation, albeit with a note of frustration.
It looks like ‘American Dream’ and a spate of other van Geest hybrids are set for autumn 2023 delivery. This one is a “must have.” 🙂 These are not huge like ‘Daphne’ but still large at about 16-18cm. I imagine under ideal conditions they could be a bit larger.
Stella, I doubt you did anything to cause the scapes to shrivel. It is not that rare of an issue, and more likely is due to improper handling in the cooling period after harvest. Ethylene build-up in their storage container could “blind” the bulbs, killing the buds. There is also a chance that overdone heat treatment (aimed at killing bulb scale mites) could adversely affect the floral growths, but not the foliage. Hopefully you’ll be able to grow it on and se what it can do next season. Thanks for being an Emaryllis user and Good luck!
Oh, Olesya if you are writing from Ukraine you have the compassion of all of us that condemns the brutal and cruel war being waged on your people. It is amazing and uplifting that you can find some moments of calm to appreciate the natural beauty of plants.
This new NL van Geest variety was apparently sold in Europe under its company accession number before the ‘Lemon Cream’ name was registered officially. They are the same variety…but as you say a variable one at that. The bulb I had bloom last summer even produced some flowers with extra petals, almost a double flower! It is still not sold commercially here in USA. I got mine from Vlad at Bulb in a Box.
Please stay safe and warm, and I hope the spirit of the holidays fills you with hope for brighter days. We stand with you.
As I see those photos above, these bulbs are in a very small pots. Hippeastrum needs lots of nutrient to grow and flowering. I always give enough big pot to let them grow, and my bulbs bring the best they can. I can’t enclose photos here, but I happily would show how my Hippeastrums look like. All leaves and flowers are perfect and big. I buy derectly from Netherlands, from a reliable company. They sell big bulbs, ship carefully and they have a best price! Lemon star 9,3 euros, Tierre 8,51, Grandise Fantasy 9,32 The bulb size around 30-32 cm or bigger!
I think you are looking at bulb kit photos…I try to grow them in exactly the same pots the list come with to show performance. Yes, Hippeastrum hybrids are heavy feeders, and bigger pots with very well-drained media are great! I grow in mid-size pots due to a lack of space, and putting them out in spring, when heavy rains might oversaturate the media leading to rot. You are lucky to be able to buy directly from NL van Geest, I wish we could buy direct here in the USA! Thanks for writing!
This year’s amarylllis have finally flowered – and I have a first. I bought three kits, all under £5, and ALL THREE are flowering in the colour they were meant to. My white amaryllis has flowered white (huge flowers on an enormously tall plant, with a lovely green centre to the white), my red & white one has flowered red & white (barely a foot tall – never had such a short amaryllis!) and…drum roll…my third attempt to grow Queen of the Night seems to have worked. Anyway, she’s flowering in the right colour and looks pretty similar to the photo in the gallery. My last two attempts have been white and red & white striped, so I’ll settle for a solid deep red, even if it’s not the right one!
Only had one rebloom from last year so far – the others are still sulking.
Congratulations on your bargain blooms! It sounds like you hit the jackpot this season. So happy that your quest for ‘Queen of
The Night’ is fulfilled at last!
I really like this site for all the information that is available. I’ve been looking for the “Scarlet Baby” Amaryllis for several years and have been unable to find it. Is it even being produced anymore?
While the registration site KAVB hasn’t stated that ‘Scarlet Baby’ is out of cultivation, it is clear that it hasn’t been sold commercially in about 15 years. From about 2010 on it was used as a marketing name, but substituted with new varieties. It would still be successful in my view; the bronzed foliage and crimped edges of the flowers were nice details. Thanks for using the site!
I didn’t realize this year wasn’t a great year for amaryllises. I guess I got lucky! I pre-order 4 different sonatini and got them. The exciting bit was they arrived at the end of October and they looked ready to go! Now, considering I bought 3 of them for my mom’s birthday at the end of November, I was really happy I have my very mini-fridge I bought for keeping amaryllises cool. I caved on Nov. 20th, took them out, potted them, and gave them to her that day. They are growing quite well and, as of today, I can see the petals for one bulb on its two scapes. One bulb is taking its sweet time but that is fine. 🙂
We’ll see if I got the kinds I ordered which are: Belladonna, Brightspark, Joker, and Lemon Sorbet (that one is for myself). I had good luck last year with the one bulb I ordered for myself. I ordered a Thai Thai and it was correct.
I wouldn’t say it wasn’t still at least good, save for retail nursery prices and some delayed shipments here in the U.S. I think mail order firms had already set prices before covid related impacts had really reared their head. The loss of Royal Colors as a source of direct shipments from Europe also makes for a less exciting year for some unique sourcing. Also Hadeco’s MyAmaryllis.com does not seem to be shipping, and they have offered some of the harder-to-get South African grown cultivars.
The South African grown Hippeastrum are amazing! They are definitely ready to start showing off earlier than most. You made some nice choices, and I bet they will come true to type.I hope your bulbs bloom brightly, thanks for using emaryllis.com!
Olga, I wish ‘Santos’ was still marketed too, as do many other amaryllis fans. It had a commercial run of about 10 years. It was the only modern striped foliage hybrid to make it into large scale production. It seems to be a strong grower and easy bloomer, so it should have stayed in production for much longer. There is always a chance that a Dutch grower still has it and will consider producing it again, but those chances are slim. Since you mentioned this cultivar, I will update the photo of ‘Santos’ in our gallery to show a bit of its unique foliage! Thanks for writing.
Great if from Melbourne Australia. Lots of fabulous hippeas flowering in mid September. ( our spring) .
Continually use this amazing resource
Thx michael barrett cliviaman
So nice to have friends down under! Of course we love Clivia as well as Hippeatrum. Happy spring to you, as we are just ending our growing season up here. Thanks for using emaryllis.com 🙂
I have an amaryllis that bloomed and the bulb dried up. I lifted the top off and there was several small green bulbs under it. Will these bulbs turn into plants? What do I have to do to get them to produce flowers?
Yes, the offsets took over when the main growth died (sometimes this is from Narcissus Bulb Fly if grown outdoors.) You could just leave them as a clump for another year, or separate them and replant each in its own small pot, bringing the nose of each little bulb just above the soil surface. Fertilize and keep evenly moist through the growing season. Since they will be too small to bloom the first or even second year they could be grown on during the first winter or two indoors in a sunny window, or better yet under plant lights to extend daylength. It takes some patience to grow them on for bloom! Once they reach blooming size, they can be treated as outlined on our Amaryllis Care page.
Oh, boy….no good! My tracking status is still shown as “In transit” but considering it was mailed around the same date as yours, I am not counting on it arriving. I actually wanted to place a second smaller order a few weeks back, and that’s when they stated that they are no longer going to sell outside of Europe. They cite the cost of phytosanitary certificates as the main issue. You are so right…what a shame. I hope you and others get refunds if they did not succesfully get the bulbs to customers.
Considering that Sonatini dissappeared this year, and now Royal Colors, the amaryllis world just got a bit smaller.
I’ll post back here when and if I get a package…empty or otherwise.
Not even a “no” on a request for refund? Not the best business practice. I too received an empty (and very beat up) box about about a week ago. My box was intercepted at JFK for no phytosanitary certificate. Contents destroyed. The box was marked as though it was a “gift” and merely stated “garden products” as the contents. I might try asking for a refund for the bulbs themselves (and not the shipping) to see if that gets a response. A sad and frustrating situation.
Yay! Welcome back Emaryllis – I’ve missed your posts over the summer! Can we look forward to some more bulb/box kit reviews this season?
I’m having to forego the box kits this year as I can’t go out to the shops, but I’ve just ordered ‘Mont Blanc’ and ‘Orange Souvereign’ as loose bulbs from a mail order site. Be interesting to see if they end up flowering true to label, as the box kits hardly ever do.
Welcome back to you as well! I’m sorry you are being limited by the current situation. Mail order is a great way to get bulbs, and even box kits. I haven’t been overly adventourous either, but have tried to get as much as possible in far fewer trips than usual. Box Kits are definitely coming along, hopefully initial posts to go up next week. A few cutflower varieties will be added to broaden the site a bit more also. Thanks for following the site 🙂
I would just like to find out whether you can help me, if I would want to register a new Amaryllis hybrid, how does one go to work? I am from South Africa and I don’t know who to contact regarding this. Can you please advise?
The international registrar for Hippeastrum (and many other bulbous plants) is KAVB in the Netherlands. They used to want some bulbs to grow on as part of the process, but I think that requirement may no longer be in force. Here is a page from their site with a link within to the registration form:
I have never bred anything that I felt was good enough for registration, so I am excited for you! Please keep us posted on your progress, I hope that your hybrid(s) can be featured here on Emaryllis.com some day!
Skyler, I hope everything turned out well. Normally they will just keep growing as long as daylight hours and temperatures are to their liking. Growing them in brighter light should help keep the leaves from being as long and floppy. Trimming back their length would be a better option than removing them entirely.
I picked up a boxed kit at Lidl yesterday for £2.79 – no labelled varieties but they come in a choice of pink, red or white. My white one proved to be a 27cm circumference bulb with no sign of disease or sprouting and some fat, healthy roots. It came with a sturdy grey plastic pot (with great drainage holes) and matching saucer and LOADS of coir. Obviously don’t know how it will flower yet, but compared to the £9.99 ‘de luxe’ boxed kits I’d seen earlier in the day at the local garden centre (small, shrivelled bulbs, suffering badly from scorch, with no roots and hardly any growing media), this is already looking like great value. And bearing in mind 50% of my garden centre named varieties didn’t flower true anyway last year, I think I’m sticking with Lidl’s unnamed bulbs this year!
Sounds like you picked up some nice bargains, Phil! It is very true that spending more on a bulb kit does not necessarily mean a better bulbs waits inside. Let us know how they turn out!
The ‘white’ amaryllis turned out red & white, which you have kindly identified as ‘Ambiance’. I guess Lidl were half right! Still a pretty flower though. And a good strong plant. If I can keep it free from scorch, I’ll rebloom it next year.
My ‘Half & Half’ from last year (which was supposed to be Christmas Star!) is flowering again and looking beautiful. I picked another ‘Christmas Star’ out of the garden centre’s bargain bin in January – be interesting to see what this one flowers as, but at £0.99, I’m not too bothered if it’s wrong!
On April 27 & 28 at Apopka Art & Foliage Festival in Apopka, FL You can find information on planting & growing large flower hippeastrum bulbs in limb forks of large old Live Oak trees in both South & North FL. Ask Bill or June at the Amaryllis Spectacularis booth(15th year). You can use your own bulbs.
Amaryllis Study Group
Agapanthe, To be honest I am not 100% sure that the species is correct. I have thought it might be H. miniatum, variegatum, fuscum and others in its related Peruvian group. It is what is sold in the U.S. as H. machupijchense, and that is what I am standing by for now. Thanks for your comment!
Hi Barbara,
Unfortunately I have had two orders refunded by Royal Colors this year. I’m not sure that any regulation has changed since other companies that import into North America haven’t been hindered this year. Most bulbs are sent to a company that imports (and has import permits), then distributes from within the U.S. Since RC ships into countries directly, the problem may be that they are circumventing the needed import permits to receive the bulbs from a foreign country. This is just a guess, but I hope the issue can be resolved as Royal Colors has been a great source for a unique variety of amaryllis cultivars.
That’s great, Barbara! Had you already been refunded? If so, I wonder if there are some stray boxes that may yet be delivered to those of us who had placed orders as well. Thanks for letting us know!
Oh, that is interesting. My orders (placed in May and September) were both refunded, so I hope the bulbs made it back home for someone else to grow. I imagine the U.S. is a significant market for RC, so they will undoubtedly make every effort to iron out any regulatory issues. Let us know how your bulbs prosper, and thanks for the update for all readers here in th USA.
Barbara, I just got one RC box today, also shipped Oct. 30. Mostly things are OK, but some had sprouted out and there were damages. The box looks like it was kicked around a lot during its journey!
Barbara, Royal Colors now has the U.S. listed in both their FAQ and in their dropdown menu in the shipping section of the order form. Good news, if late in the current season. Let’s hope for trouble free shipping next season! Ordering from Hadeco was a smooth process in my case; most of the bulbs were correctly labeled and it is the only way to get some of their newest creations.
Charlene, Thanks for using the website, and my apologies for the gallery pages being down. At first the titles and descriptions went missing, and soon after the galleries became invisible. The Emaryllis website tech guru knows what the problem is, and will address it soon. These are the vagaries of an open source platform!
Cheryl, It looks like they have not been shipped to the U.S. this season, but should be available next season. Check the Hadeco My Amaryllis website next summer to see if that cultivar is available by direct order.
‘Orange Sovereign’ is only used as a marketing name these days, the original cultivar was close to scarlet in color, and huge! You probably are looking at two bulbs of ‘Naranja’ which is one of the best orange flowered amaryllises in the trade today, along with its sibling ‘Tineke Verburg’. I am hoping that the ‘Orange Sovereign’ name will be used to market ‘Souvenir’ in the future, as it is also stupendous!
Is it common for a box kit amaryllis not to flower in the first year? I bought Queen of the Night (according to the label) at the beginning of December and it has produced loads of healthy leaves, but no sign of flowers. It has had the same treatment as my two amaryllis from last year which I started back into growth about the same time – one of those is flowering and the other has two well-developed scapes, but just leaves on my new one!
Phil, typically these bloom quite well, if not true to name. If the bulb is making only leaves, it was either “blind” beacause the flower initials aborted (this can be caused in many ways) or it was not cool conditioned. In the latter case, it may yet bloom, as spring is the normal flowering period for Hippeastrum. Don’t give up!
Thanks! If the flower initials aborted, does that mean it will never flower? Or is it worth keeping it till next year if it doesn’t flower in the spring?
They will bloom in the future. Most Hippeastrum hybrids make one bloom scape per three leaves. That is why I always look at the number of fleshy leaf bases on the top of a dormant bulb at purchase…more leaves = more flowers!
Yikes, Rosie! So many mislabeled bulbs have been reported this year, its disheartening. Older named varieties are so often substituted with robust growing newer types, and ‘Popov’ is a very strong grower.
Thanks for missing the blog posts, it has been a very busy year for the author, but I do apologize.
Thanks for the kind words Rosie! You may have an example of ‘Naranja’ for ‘Rilona’, or perhaps the smaller but very regular ‘Desire’. Both are excellent growers in high supply these days. I’m glad you like ‘Popov’, it is an excellent selection, and the scent is subtle but permeating.
It was very good of Amaryllis Bulb Company to offer the correct variety the following season. Let us know if this one blooms true to type! Thanks for letting others know about last season’s issue as well.
Very few, Rob. I keep a few for breeding stock and some of the varieties that I favor and are no longer sold. I have very limited space, so when a lot of new amaryllis varieties get released, I part with some of the others.
Perhaps you need to develop a network of Amaryllis foster homes to grow and reintroduce those varieties that are no longer in circulation.
Ahhh, if only Emaryllis didn’t have a very busy day job! It would be nice to develop an ark of sorts for the cultivars that often disappear just as they are introduced.
Hi! I’m a very great fan of this website and love them! greatful! Congratulations!
I love Amaryllis and have many of it!
Do you know where I can buy Hadeco Amaryllis bulbs in Europe? I wish to had a bulb of hadeco’s ‘Honeymoon’
As I was a child, there was hadeco bulbs in trade here. And I have had a ‘honeymoon’ since a long time in bloom in my children room.
I’m very affraid that my english isn’t so good. Please excuse me for that.
Michael,
Your English is very good! Hadeco bulbs are becoming scarce here in the USA too, as one of the nurseries that carried many of their varieties stopped selling this year. Since Fluwel and Royal Colors also don’t sell Hadeco amaryllis, you are left with Amazon.com searches and more general holiday gift catalogs. Often Hadeco bulbs are sold for sale as potted, forced plants here, maybe in Europe too. Maybe someone from Hadeco will read this and offer advice! It looks like they are mainly selling ‘Miracle’ this year, but ‘Honeymoon’ is noted as a 2018 available variety. Good luck and thanks for using Emaryllis 🙂
Rosie, I have seen amaryllis stall for no apparent reason fairly often. Once the daylight hours exceed 12 hours a day, they should all come into growth. Just remember that the stalled bulbs need minimal watering, and no fertilizer until actively growing. It’s so nice to hear that you are taking care of these “passalong” amaryllis bulbs 🙂
Have you ever known an amaryllis to go dormant for 18 months? I bought a bulb that shipped to the states from Iran. It leafed out but did not bloom. Then it went dormant for a good 18 months. Now it has finally decided to leaf out again. The bulb is good and solid, the leaves look great. I just wonder why it went dormant for so long.
One year yes, but never 18 months! With a huge change in environments and bare-rooting we now know that they can wait that long. Thanks for sharing your information with the Emaryllis world 🙂
Ahh, sorry Adelaida, Emaryllis is just here for informational purposes. Some of the varieties I have photographed over the years are commercially extinct. A few cultivars are only available for 1-2 seasons, while others like ‘Apple Blossom’ have been easy to purchase for many decades. The best selection is by way of mail order companies…which ones depends on where you live. Thanks for your interest!
Thanks for enjoying this so much that you want to purchase. Emaryllis.com is here for information purposes only, sorry that none of our amaryllis varieties are for sale. Probably Royal Colors in the Netherlands is your best bet, as they ship internationally.
I raised amaryllis bulbs indoors for the first time this year and chose H.’Terra Cotta Star’. They are indeed gorgeous but the stems are weak. I have two bulbs. In both cases once the inflorescence emerged fully the stems toppled over at the junction with the bulb. If the breeder is out out there, could you work on that for the future please?
Thank you.
(author of “Visions of Loveliness:great flower breeders of the past”)
Greetings Ms. Taylor. Yes, the fact that many of these are naturally tall sees them perfectly suited to the cut-flower market, but less so to the lower light of the average home interior. There are more compact varieties that bloom on shorter, sturdier scapes. Hadeco of South Africa in particular focus on this trait. Dutch hybrids such as ‘Mambo’ and ‘Floris Hekker’ were selected specifically for pot culture as well. The “cybister” hybrids, owing to the lightness of their blooms offer a way to have the elegance of great height with less likelihood of toppling. Thank you for your comment!
‘Apricot Parfait’ was only offered by one firm (Dutch Grown) this year. We don’t see it on wholesale production lists anymore, so it may be down to one grower or out of production altogether. If we see it offered next season we may pick it up to see what we get.
Hello,
I have a few amaryllis that I need help with identifying. If you guys could send me an email so I could send the pics that would be great.
Thank you
Martin
I have seen no mention of red leaf fungus on your site. Is this something I should be concerned about? I get about 5 or 6 plants infected with it every year. Is it curable? Should I keep infected plants or ditch the bulbs on the compost heap? So far, I’ve been ditching them, but it keeps cropping up. Sometimes on brand new bulbs. Love your addiction- feeding website, by the way.
Hi Stella! Yes, those blank spaces were remnants of the server update, and they should be cleaned up now.
I’ve held on to some amaryllis bulbs for many years though they never bloom. The “rosea” type imported from India that I saw blooming freely in the ground in Thailand. It may be time to part ways. I will quickly toss plants with obvious virus issue if I don’t intend to breed with them. Often I compost or give away amaryllis that I have good photos of, and are still widely available commercially…I have a critical space issue! I really need to stop making my own crosses. So many new cultivars come out each year these days, and that’s what Emaryllis is trying to document.
I think its great that you’ve had some pleasant surprises by way of benign neglect 🙂
Thanks for visiting, and Happy New Year!
Thanks for your insights. I have come to a place where all my amarylli must put up with the same conditions, or they get the boot! I do keep ‘Germa’ going with longer dry periods, but that’s about it.
Yes, do send your questionable ‘Cleopatra’ photo on and we’ll try our best.
TGIF,
Emaryllis
Greetings Anja! I’m sorry, but Emaryllis is not a registrar for Hippeastrum hybrids. KAVB in the Netherlands is the official body that does this. Thanks for using our website 🙂
Love the new Tika series, even though I am firmly on Team Single!
You mention virus, and I am afraid I am seeing signs, yellow mottling, on new leaves from 2 bulbs I got last year. Is that definitive or can other things be confused for mosiac virus?
There are other viruses that can impact Hippeastrum, but the blocky light/dark green pattern is pretty diagnostic.
No box kits this year?
I treated myself to one – another generic ‘red and white stripe’ one from a supermarket – no sign of any scape as yet.
Went into my local shop to pick up some milk this weekend, and they had a potted amaryllis with a damaged scape reduced from £7 to £1.75. Took it to the till and the barcode wouldn’t scan, so they said I could have it for FREE!!! I’m leaving the scape to see if it flowers as I’d like to now what colour I have – if it doesn’t, I’ll just grow it on for next year.
Wishing you a happy growing year in 2025!
You are the first to know…a few box kits coming soon! Good luck with your bargain amaryllis!
Loving all the updates this year, thank you for feeding my addiction! And thank you for the link to the US supplier with Thai Thai and Aurora, I ordered both. The Aurora just finished blooming, so sweet, but the Thai Thai all came up just leaves. The bulbs are super tiny, maybe they will bloom next year and show if they really are Thai Thai…
Thanks for your comments! A few of the several ‘Thai Thai’ I received did the same…all leaves. They all look true-to-type at least. A few also had Hippeastrum Mosaic Virus, so I have rogues those out. Good luck re-growing yours.
Good for you! I definitely see more correct labels this year than some other years. Good thing, as the prices of some are staggering!
Thanks, Stella! Nice to have you back enjoying the flurry of content 🙂
“Caught up in the end-of-season sales frenzy, kits were bought in the last day of 2023, and first two days of 2024. This is something E would never advise our audience to get caught up in”
You don’t have to – any time I see seriously reduced amaryllis bulbs, I’m guaranteed to get caught up in a sales frenzy, with or without advice!!!
It’s good to know Emaryllis is not alone!
Oh, how I wish ‘Jewel’ were still in production. You can still find stalwart double ‘Blossom Peacock’ readily and recently introduced ‘Cape Horn’ has some fragrance along with trumpet type ‘Santiago’. Hybrids with some of the white flowered species should yield fragrant progeny, but these have yet to show up in commerce.
Woohoo!!!! Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without a box kit post from Emaryllis. Looking forward to the first update.
Thanks, Phil! Two kits are budded up, so it won’t be long!
After several years of buying expensive named bulbs that ended up being nothing of the kind (usually just Appleblossom or Red Lion – and often, the Appleblossom stood in for a red variety and vice versa!) I now only buy the super cheap supermarket box kits. I still find the colours are wrong, but at least I don’t get so mad if I’ve only paid £3-£4 instead of £15!
There seems to be consensus that mislabeling is as much a problems this season as ever. Sigh. Since you ordered an Israeli variety, they are usually substituted with others from the same supplier. As with my ‘Bagatelle’, check the Amaryllis IL Coming Up page…perhaps you got a pre-release ‘Replay’.
Thanks! Just photographing another cybister type hybrid today and hope to post soon. The two box kits are photographed and just waiting for me to do a write-up. You should patent the term Spamaryllis (™) lol!
Good luck with your ‘Desire’ bulb! The most common reason that hybrids don’t take is a basic chromosome number incompatibility, but there are other factors. Short of embryo rescue and tissue culture techniques you can just accept it or try a few tricks of the trade. Try the reverse cross using the failed pod parent’s pollen on the other variety. Cutting the stigma off of the style, and using the sticky sap it exudes can work by removing the “lock and key” system of the stigma. Using a compatible pollen that is “killed” via microwaving, then mixing it with the desired pollen can also get around the style’s lock and key system. If you know the cross will fail, cutting the scape and placing it in water can prevent the bulb from controlling the shutting off of resources to the failing pod.
Love the new hybrids – Congratulations!
My mystery ‘pink’ amaryllis whose first flower was white with a faint pink overlay is continuing to confuse – the second flower has opened white with a green centre (with a tiny pink dot at the base of each petal) and the tiniest possible amount of pink on the tips. and the third flower is all green & white. Definitely not the very strong pink colour shown on the box, but at least I only paid £4 for it! Can’t wait to see what the ‘solid red’ and ‘red and white striped’ varieties flower as!!!
Thanks, Phil! I’ve got a few more hybrids opening soon so stay tuned! Your pale mystery may be something unique, and you did get it at a bargain! Keep us abreast of the others.
Haha – red and white striped didn’t flower at all, solid red was Appleblossom and my second ‘red’ (someone else’s unwanted Christmas present) is now flowering pink…so of a grand total of 4 bulbs, none of them have flowered as they were supposed to!
Amazing 4/4 mislabels. Quite an indictment of the industry! Hopefully we can maintain at least a sense of humor about this situation, albeit with a note of frustration.
It looks like ‘American Dream’ and a spate of other van Geest hybrids are set for autumn 2023 delivery. This one is a “must have.” 🙂 These are not huge like ‘Daphne’ but still large at about 16-18cm. I imagine under ideal conditions they could be a bit larger.
Stella, I doubt you did anything to cause the scapes to shrivel. It is not that rare of an issue, and more likely is due to improper handling in the cooling period after harvest. Ethylene build-up in their storage container could “blind” the bulbs, killing the buds. There is also a chance that overdone heat treatment (aimed at killing bulb scale mites) could adversely affect the floral growths, but not the foliage. Hopefully you’ll be able to grow it on and se what it can do next season. Thanks for being an Emaryllis user and Good luck!
Oh, Olesya if you are writing from Ukraine you have the compassion of all of us that condemns the brutal and cruel war being waged on your people. It is amazing and uplifting that you can find some moments of calm to appreciate the natural beauty of plants.
This new NL van Geest variety was apparently sold in Europe under its company accession number before the ‘Lemon Cream’ name was registered officially. They are the same variety…but as you say a variable one at that. The bulb I had bloom last summer even produced some flowers with extra petals, almost a double flower! It is still not sold commercially here in USA. I got mine from Vlad at Bulb in a Box.
Please stay safe and warm, and I hope the spirit of the holidays fills you with hope for brighter days. We stand with you.
Yes, Stella, you can mail a photo or two to info at emaryllis.com
So will we be getting any of Emaryllis’ inimitable box kit reviews this season? I hope so – we need something to brighten a grim winter!
Only one box purchased so far…so I can at least promise that much!
As I see those photos above, these bulbs are in a very small pots. Hippeastrum needs lots of nutrient to grow and flowering. I always give enough big pot to let them grow, and my bulbs bring the best they can. I can’t enclose photos here, but I happily would show how my Hippeastrums look like. All leaves and flowers are perfect and big. I buy derectly from Netherlands, from a reliable company. They sell big bulbs, ship carefully and they have a best price! Lemon star 9,3 euros, Tierre 8,51, Grandise Fantasy 9,32 The bulb size around 30-32 cm or bigger!
I think you are looking at bulb kit photos…I try to grow them in exactly the same pots the list come with to show performance. Yes, Hippeastrum hybrids are heavy feeders, and bigger pots with very well-drained media are great! I grow in mid-size pots due to a lack of space, and putting them out in spring, when heavy rains might oversaturate the media leading to rot. You are lucky to be able to buy directly from NL van Geest, I wish we could buy direct here in the USA! Thanks for writing!
Hi, can I order from South Africa?
Janet,
Emaryllis is for information only, we don’t sell amaryllis bulbs. Lucky for you, Hadeco grows in S. Africa! Thanks for the inquiry!
This year’s amarylllis have finally flowered – and I have a first. I bought three kits, all under £5, and ALL THREE are flowering in the colour they were meant to. My white amaryllis has flowered white (huge flowers on an enormously tall plant, with a lovely green centre to the white), my red & white one has flowered red & white (barely a foot tall – never had such a short amaryllis!) and…drum roll…my third attempt to grow Queen of the Night seems to have worked. Anyway, she’s flowering in the right colour and looks pretty similar to the photo in the gallery. My last two attempts have been white and red & white striped, so I’ll settle for a solid deep red, even if it’s not the right one!
Only had one rebloom from last year so far – the others are still sulking.
Congratulations on your bargain blooms! It sounds like you hit the jackpot this season. So happy that your quest for ‘Queen of
The Night’ is fulfilled at last!
Thanks for your recommendation of the Bulb in a Box channel – loving it!
So glad you like it too, and Vlad will be delighted! He also has a large and very active Facebook group by the same name.
I really like this site for all the information that is available. I’ve been looking for the “Scarlet Baby” Amaryllis for several years and have been unable to find it. Is it even being produced anymore?
While the registration site KAVB hasn’t stated that ‘Scarlet Baby’ is out of cultivation, it is clear that it hasn’t been sold commercially in about 15 years. From about 2010 on it was used as a marketing name, but substituted with new varieties. It would still be successful in my view; the bronzed foliage and crimped edges of the flowers were nice details. Thanks for using the site!
I didn’t realize this year wasn’t a great year for amaryllises. I guess I got lucky! I pre-order 4 different sonatini and got them. The exciting bit was they arrived at the end of October and they looked ready to go! Now, considering I bought 3 of them for my mom’s birthday at the end of November, I was really happy I have my very mini-fridge I bought for keeping amaryllises cool. I caved on Nov. 20th, took them out, potted them, and gave them to her that day. They are growing quite well and, as of today, I can see the petals for one bulb on its two scapes. One bulb is taking its sweet time but that is fine. 🙂
We’ll see if I got the kinds I ordered which are: Belladonna, Brightspark, Joker, and Lemon Sorbet (that one is for myself). I had good luck last year with the one bulb I ordered for myself. I ordered a Thai Thai and it was correct.
I wouldn’t say it wasn’t still at least good, save for retail nursery prices and some delayed shipments here in the U.S. I think mail order firms had already set prices before covid related impacts had really reared their head. The loss of Royal Colors as a source of direct shipments from Europe also makes for a less exciting year for some unique sourcing. Also Hadeco’s MyAmaryllis.com does not seem to be shipping, and they have offered some of the harder-to-get South African grown cultivars.
The South African grown Hippeastrum are amazing! They are definitely ready to start showing off earlier than most. You made some nice choices, and I bet they will come true to type.I hope your bulbs bloom brightly, thanks for using emaryllis.com!
Good evening!
Do you know where is it possible to buy a Santos Amaryllis. I can’t find it anywhere 🙁
Great collection!
Olga, I wish ‘Santos’ was still marketed too, as do many other amaryllis fans. It had a commercial run of about 10 years. It was the only modern striped foliage hybrid to make it into large scale production. It seems to be a strong grower and easy bloomer, so it should have stayed in production for much longer. There is always a chance that a Dutch grower still has it and will consider producing it again, but those chances are slim. Since you mentioned this cultivar, I will update the photo of ‘Santos’ in our gallery to show a bit of its unique foliage! Thanks for writing.
Great if from Melbourne Australia. Lots of fabulous hippeas flowering in mid September. ( our spring) .
Continually use this amazing resource
Thx michael barrett cliviaman
So nice to have friends down under! Of course we love Clivia as well as Hippeatrum. Happy spring to you, as we are just ending our growing season up here. Thanks for using emaryllis.com 🙂
I have an amaryllis that bloomed and the bulb dried up. I lifted the top off and there was several small green bulbs under it. Will these bulbs turn into plants? What do I have to do to get them to produce flowers?
Yes, the offsets took over when the main growth died (sometimes this is from Narcissus Bulb Fly if grown outdoors.) You could just leave them as a clump for another year, or separate them and replant each in its own small pot, bringing the nose of each little bulb just above the soil surface. Fertilize and keep evenly moist through the growing season. Since they will be too small to bloom the first or even second year they could be grown on during the first winter or two indoors in a sunny window, or better yet under plant lights to extend daylength. It takes some patience to grow them on for bloom! Once they reach blooming size, they can be treated as outlined on our Amaryllis Care page.
Oh, boy….no good! My tracking status is still shown as “In transit” but considering it was mailed around the same date as yours, I am not counting on it arriving. I actually wanted to place a second smaller order a few weeks back, and that’s when they stated that they are no longer going to sell outside of Europe. They cite the cost of phytosanitary certificates as the main issue. You are so right…what a shame. I hope you and others get refunds if they did not succesfully get the bulbs to customers.
Considering that Sonatini dissappeared this year, and now Royal Colors, the amaryllis world just got a bit smaller.
I’ll post back here when and if I get a package…empty or otherwise.
Thanks for the heads up, even if it is bad news.
Not even a “no” on a request for refund? Not the best business practice. I too received an empty (and very beat up) box about about a week ago. My box was intercepted at JFK for no phytosanitary certificate. Contents destroyed. The box was marked as though it was a “gift” and merely stated “garden products” as the contents. I might try asking for a refund for the bulbs themselves (and not the shipping) to see if that gets a response. A sad and frustrating situation.
Yay! Welcome back Emaryllis – I’ve missed your posts over the summer! Can we look forward to some more bulb/box kit reviews this season?
I’m having to forego the box kits this year as I can’t go out to the shops, but I’ve just ordered ‘Mont Blanc’ and ‘Orange Souvereign’ as loose bulbs from a mail order site. Be interesting to see if they end up flowering true to label, as the box kits hardly ever do.
Welcome back to you as well! I’m sorry you are being limited by the current situation. Mail order is a great way to get bulbs, and even box kits. I haven’t been overly adventourous either, but have tried to get as much as possible in far fewer trips than usual. Box Kits are definitely coming along, hopefully initial posts to go up next week. A few cutflower varieties will be added to broaden the site a bit more also. Thanks for following the site 🙂
Any tips on obtaining rare hippe bulbs in the US ?
Good day!
I hope you are well.
I would just like to find out whether you can help me, if I would want to register a new Amaryllis hybrid, how does one go to work? I am from South Africa and I don’t know who to contact regarding this. Can you please advise?
Greetings Fredrich,
The international registrar for Hippeastrum (and many other bulbous plants) is KAVB in the Netherlands. They used to want some bulbs to grow on as part of the process, but I think that requirement may no longer be in force. Here is a page from their site with a link within to the registration form:
https://www.kavb.nl/english/registration
I have never bred anything that I felt was good enough for registration, so I am excited for you! Please keep us posted on your progress, I hope that your hybrid(s) can be featured here on Emaryllis.com some day!
Stay well through the pandemic.
Kindly,
Bill
hallo Fredrich
Hope you are well from where in south africa are you.Iam also from south africa,and love my cybisters.
Skyler, I hope everything turned out well. Normally they will just keep growing as long as daylight hours and temperatures are to their liking. Growing them in brighter light should help keep the leaves from being as long and floppy. Trimming back their length would be a better option than removing them entirely.
I picked up a boxed kit at Lidl yesterday for £2.79 – no labelled varieties but they come in a choice of pink, red or white. My white one proved to be a 27cm circumference bulb with no sign of disease or sprouting and some fat, healthy roots. It came with a sturdy grey plastic pot (with great drainage holes) and matching saucer and LOADS of coir. Obviously don’t know how it will flower yet, but compared to the £9.99 ‘de luxe’ boxed kits I’d seen earlier in the day at the local garden centre (small, shrivelled bulbs, suffering badly from scorch, with no roots and hardly any growing media), this is already looking like great value. And bearing in mind 50% of my garden centre named varieties didn’t flower true anyway last year, I think I’m sticking with Lidl’s unnamed bulbs this year!
Sounds like you picked up some nice bargains, Phil! It is very true that spending more on a bulb kit does not necessarily mean a better bulbs waits inside. Let us know how they turn out!
It’s grown really well – two scapes with beautiful big flowers…in red & white! So not the ‘white’ I was promised on the box, but very beautiful.
The ‘white’ amaryllis turned out red & white, which you have kindly identified as ‘Ambiance’. I guess Lidl were half right! Still a pretty flower though. And a good strong plant. If I can keep it free from scorch, I’ll rebloom it next year.
My ‘Half & Half’ from last year (which was supposed to be Christmas Star!) is flowering again and looking beautiful. I picked another ‘Christmas Star’ out of the garden centre’s bargain bin in January – be interesting to see what this one flowers as, but at £0.99, I’m not too bothered if it’s wrong!
On April 27 & 28 at Apopka Art & Foliage Festival in Apopka, FL You can find information on planting & growing large flower hippeastrum bulbs in limb forks of large old Live Oak trees in both South & North FL. Ask Bill or June at the Amaryllis Spectacularis booth(15th year). You can use your own bulbs.
Amaryllis Study Group
Agapanthe, To be honest I am not 100% sure that the species is correct. I have thought it might be H. miniatum, variegatum, fuscum and others in its related Peruvian group. It is what is sold in the U.S. as H. machupijchense, and that is what I am standing by for now. Thanks for your comment!
Hi Barbara,
Unfortunately I have had two orders refunded by Royal Colors this year. I’m not sure that any regulation has changed since other companies that import into North America haven’t been hindered this year. Most bulbs are sent to a company that imports (and has import permits), then distributes from within the U.S. Since RC ships into countries directly, the problem may be that they are circumventing the needed import permits to receive the bulbs from a foreign country. This is just a guess, but I hope the issue can be resolved as Royal Colors has been a great source for a unique variety of amaryllis cultivars.
That’s great, Barbara! Had you already been refunded? If so, I wonder if there are some stray boxes that may yet be delivered to those of us who had placed orders as well. Thanks for letting us know!
Oh, that is interesting. My orders (placed in May and September) were both refunded, so I hope the bulbs made it back home for someone else to grow. I imagine the U.S. is a significant market for RC, so they will undoubtedly make every effort to iron out any regulatory issues. Let us know how your bulbs prosper, and thanks for the update for all readers here in th USA.
Barbara, I just got one RC box today, also shipped Oct. 30. Mostly things are OK, but some had sprouted out and there were damages. The box looks like it was kicked around a lot during its journey!
Barbara, Royal Colors now has the U.S. listed in both their FAQ and in their dropdown menu in the shipping section of the order form. Good news, if late in the current season. Let’s hope for trouble free shipping next season! Ordering from Hadeco was a smooth process in my case; most of the bulbs were correctly labeled and it is the only way to get some of their newest creations.
Charlene, Thanks for using the website, and my apologies for the gallery pages being down. At first the titles and descriptions went missing, and soon after the galleries became invisible. The Emaryllis website tech guru knows what the problem is, and will address it soon. These are the vagaries of an open source platform!
Cheryl, It looks like they have not been shipped to the U.S. this season, but should be available next season. Check the Hadeco My Amaryllis website next summer to see if that cultivar is available by direct order.
‘Orange Sovereign’ is only used as a marketing name these days, the original cultivar was close to scarlet in color, and huge! You probably are looking at two bulbs of ‘Naranja’ which is one of the best orange flowered amaryllises in the trade today, along with its sibling ‘Tineke Verburg’. I am hoping that the ‘Orange Sovereign’ name will be used to market ‘Souvenir’ in the future, as it is also stupendous!
Is it common for a box kit amaryllis not to flower in the first year? I bought Queen of the Night (according to the label) at the beginning of December and it has produced loads of healthy leaves, but no sign of flowers. It has had the same treatment as my two amaryllis from last year which I started back into growth about the same time – one of those is flowering and the other has two well-developed scapes, but just leaves on my new one!
Phil, typically these bloom quite well, if not true to name. If the bulb is making only leaves, it was either “blind” beacause the flower initials aborted (this can be caused in many ways) or it was not cool conditioned. In the latter case, it may yet bloom, as spring is the normal flowering period for Hippeastrum. Don’t give up!
Thanks! If the flower initials aborted, does that mean it will never flower? Or is it worth keeping it till next year if it doesn’t flower in the spring?
They will bloom in the future. Most Hippeastrum hybrids make one bloom scape per three leaves. That is why I always look at the number of fleshy leaf bases on the top of a dormant bulb at purchase…more leaves = more flowers!
Yikes, Rosie! So many mislabeled bulbs have been reported this year, its disheartening. Older named varieties are so often substituted with robust growing newer types, and ‘Popov’ is a very strong grower.
Thanks for missing the blog posts, it has been a very busy year for the author, but I do apologize.
Thanks for the kind words Rosie! You may have an example of ‘Naranja’ for ‘Rilona’, or perhaps the smaller but very regular ‘Desire’. Both are excellent growers in high supply these days. I’m glad you like ‘Popov’, it is an excellent selection, and the scent is subtle but permeating.
It was very good of Amaryllis Bulb Company to offer the correct variety the following season. Let us know if this one blooms true to type! Thanks for letting others know about last season’s issue as well.
Emaryllis,
Do you usually keep the amaryllis you have photographed?
Very few, Rob. I keep a few for breeding stock and some of the varieties that I favor and are no longer sold. I have very limited space, so when a lot of new amaryllis varieties get released, I part with some of the others.
I see. Perhaps you can find a way to reintroduce those varieties that are no longer in circulation.
Ahh, if only I had the space to grow them all!
Perhaps you need to develop a network of Amaryllis foster homes to grow and reintroduce those varieties that are no longer in circulation.
Ahhh, if only Emaryllis didn’t have a very busy day job! It would be nice to develop an ark of sorts for the cultivars that often disappear just as they are introduced.
Hi! I’m a very great fan of this website and love them! greatful! Congratulations!
I love Amaryllis and have many of it!
Do you know where I can buy Hadeco Amaryllis bulbs in Europe? I wish to had a bulb of hadeco’s ‘Honeymoon’
As I was a child, there was hadeco bulbs in trade here. And I have had a ‘honeymoon’ since a long time in bloom in my children room.
I’m very affraid that my english isn’t so good. Please excuse me for that.
kindly regards,
Michael
Michael,
Your English is very good! Hadeco bulbs are becoming scarce here in the USA too, as one of the nurseries that carried many of their varieties stopped selling this year. Since Fluwel and Royal Colors also don’t sell Hadeco amaryllis, you are left with Amazon.com searches and more general holiday gift catalogs. Often Hadeco bulbs are sold for sale as potted, forced plants here, maybe in Europe too. Maybe someone from Hadeco will read this and offer advice! It looks like they are mainly selling ‘Miracle’ this year, but ‘Honeymoon’ is noted as a 2018 available variety. Good luck and thanks for using Emaryllis 🙂
Hello Calvin,
Emaryllis.com is just a hobbyist site, we do not sell any bulbs. Nice to hear from Hong Kong!
Take care,
Bill from Emaryllis
I’ve never heard of either. I know the term ‘flag’ can often refer to some irises though.
Rosie, I have seen amaryllis stall for no apparent reason fairly often. Once the daylight hours exceed 12 hours a day, they should all come into growth. Just remember that the stalled bulbs need minimal watering, and no fertilizer until actively growing. It’s so nice to hear that you are taking care of these “passalong” amaryllis bulbs 🙂
It sounds like you have done the right things, and they should grow much better in new soil. They are pretty tough!
Have you ever known an amaryllis to go dormant for 18 months? I bought a bulb that shipped to the states from Iran. It leafed out but did not bloom. Then it went dormant for a good 18 months. Now it has finally decided to leaf out again. The bulb is good and solid, the leaves look great. I just wonder why it went dormant for so long.
One year yes, but never 18 months! With a huge change in environments and bare-rooting we now know that they can wait that long. Thanks for sharing your information with the Emaryllis world 🙂
Christie, please share your results when it blooms!
Ahh, sorry Adelaida, Emaryllis is just here for informational purposes. Some of the varieties I have photographed over the years are commercially extinct. A few cultivars are only available for 1-2 seasons, while others like ‘Apple Blossom’ have been easy to purchase for many decades. The best selection is by way of mail order companies…which ones depends on where you live. Thanks for your interest!
Thanks, Barbara the confirmation is much appreciated!
So glad you find the site useful and fun!
Hello Brenda, just send them to info(at)emaryllis.com and I will have a go at naming names!
Hi.. I want to buy your amaryllis special double , please help me to buy your collection
Thanks for enjoying this so much that you want to purchase. Emaryllis.com is here for information purposes only, sorry that none of our amaryllis varieties are for sale. Probably Royal Colors in the Netherlands is your best bet, as they ship internationally.
Thank you for the helpful comments
Judith
I raised amaryllis bulbs indoors for the first time this year and chose H.’Terra Cotta Star’. They are indeed gorgeous but the stems are weak. I have two bulbs. In both cases once the inflorescence emerged fully the stems toppled over at the junction with the bulb. If the breeder is out out there, could you work on that for the future please?
Thank you.
(author of “Visions of Loveliness:great flower breeders of the past”)
Greetings Ms. Taylor. Yes, the fact that many of these are naturally tall sees them perfectly suited to the cut-flower market, but less so to the lower light of the average home interior. There are more compact varieties that bloom on shorter, sturdier scapes. Hadeco of South Africa in particular focus on this trait. Dutch hybrids such as ‘Mambo’ and ‘Floris Hekker’ were selected specifically for pot culture as well. The “cybister” hybrids, owing to the lightness of their blooms offer a way to have the elegance of great height with less likelihood of toppling. Thank you for your comment!
I am looking for Amaryllis “Apricot Parfait”. Very difficult to find pne. Any help ???
‘Apricot Parfait’ was only offered by one firm (Dutch Grown) this year. We don’t see it on wholesale production lists anymore, so it may be down to one grower or out of production altogether. If we see it offered next season we may pick it up to see what we get.