Back in 2018 I started the “Great Amaryllis Experiment” — well, that may have been a bit over the top but I was partly spoofing myself because, truthfully, I didn’t think it would pan out. I had been fortunate to have a couple of amaryllis bloom at the same time, a white with some lovely pink striations and a deep, rich silky red. What the heck, I’ll try cross-pollinating them. Got some seeds, planted them, and about 9 or 10 sprouted!

And man were they tiny, especially in light of the 3 to 4 inch diameter parent bulbs. A little reading confirmed: can take five years to reach blooming stage. As I tucked their pots away in the cool basement late last fall for their dormant period I was thinking, nope, gonna need another summer. And when cross-pollinating flowers you can’t say for sure if you’ll get a decent result or a dud.

Surprise! One of them decided to honor us this year, right on schedule year 5:

As you can see it is a lovely dark salmon color, making it closer to it’s red parent than the white by far, but a very pleasing addition. (I can’t remember which flower was the pollen donor and which the recipient.) We now have nearly twenty bulbs crammed into half a dozen pots, which, given our very limited window space, is all we can handle. Assuming they put on some bulk this summer in their outside stay I’ll have to gift a few of them to neighbors. In the meantime, loving this result — especially after the long wait!