Amaryllis!

[rodeosweetheart]

Isn't that a line in the Music Man? Seriously, folks, I wanted to report that my experiment is working and my amaryllis seeds have sprouted into tiny little amarylli.

Can this be done with lilies--have you tried this with lilies, Iris Lily? I've got some likely looking pods out there.

[iris lily]

oooooooh! plant your lily seeds and then you will be a hybridizer! Sure, they will grow, will take them about 3 years to flower.

Personally, I don't grow seeds. I do grow bubils, though--I've got a tray of them going right now. Bubils are the little black seed like things that grow in the crotch of stems on some lilies. They are clones, exact replicas of the mother plant.

[rodeosweetheart]

Bubils--I have seen those and had no idea what they were--thought they were bugs!! I like that word. To think I have been ignoring whole new lily plants, right under my nose.

Okay, I am going out to grab those pods and see what is inside.

Thank you for being excited about my new plants. I feel like I have won the lottery.

[rodeosweetheart]

Iris Lily, I just pulled pod apart and it's not dry. The amaryllis pod was dryed out on the plant. Should I let the lilie pods dry out on the plant? When I opened the pod, there are like a gazillion little lilly seeds stacked up, so cool. Can these grow or do they need to reach dry out maturity on the plant? Thanks!

[jania]

Growing amaryllis from seeds!....amazing! I'm always keen to do experiments and am so happy to hear about other's successes. It will be interesting to see what the flowers look like, the same as the Mother or maybe some variations. Keep us posted.

[iris lily]

Keep the seed pod on until all is dried. Unless you are getting horrid amounts of rain, it's better for the seeds to dry on the mother plant as nature intended.

I am hopeless at getting seeds to sprout, so I can't give good advice on that. That's why I love lily bubils--they are ready to put down roots and put up a leaf the same year they appear. They are EASY.

[rodeosweetheart]

Okay, thank you, Iris will do! And I will be on lookout for bubils--I had them up north, adn have not seen any down here, but these are first year bulbs,that I planted in the fall, so maybe that is the problem.

I too love gardening experiments--I have four avocado trees ready to go, and the Charleston master gardening folks were saying that about one in a hundred will actually bear fruit. I just hate wasting the pits, so I am going to plant them out to screen a corner of my yard--we will see how they do. The mother plant was an appleblossom amaryllis that my sister in law gave me two Christmases ago--it was a houseplant up north, bloomed hugely the year I got it, and I put the bulbs in a box when we moved, and then planted them in November here in SC outside--they grow in ground here like lilies and you don't have to lift them.