Hi, everybody--
Seems I've had a bulb mix-up and could use a confirmation from you all, please--
Would you say this is 'Aphrodite' (or 'Mary Lou' or something else?). I'm thinking 'Aphrodite'...
I'm supposed to have an 'Aphrodite' and I think this one's it.
Thanks for any help on getting my labelling straight! (-: t.
I think that's what you have, 'Aphrodite'. Have you gone through the DG plantfile pix to compare?
Robert.
I'd say aphrodite, also.
Hum...Here's catalog pic of Aphrodite
I think it's Double Record. Beautiful!
Thanks everybody.
I think it is darn close to Aphrodite--perhaps my pic does not show the color quite accurately. I will plant a 'Double Record' to compare next year with this one.
Could be Mary Lou, too. http://www.donkihote.com/images18000000/17293706.jpg
Bought these from Smith & Hawken out of the end of season bargain bin and so the confusion...
I'd like to throw this in about the variability of double Hippis:
Veronica Read includes pictures of the first and second season bloomings of "Flaming Peacock" in her book on Hippiastrums. In the first pic the colors are normal and in the second, there is only a light tracing of red around the tepal edges (like a weak "Picotee") and just a couple tiny dots of red on the main part. You'd never believe they were the same flower!
She also gives an example or two of how exposure to "good light" greatly intensifies the colors of pastels and striped hybrids, single or double, which can explain much of the variation we see in different pictures of the same cultivar.
There are also differences in different clones of the same stock. These are small changes in the DNA that occur over time, like mini-mutations.
She also describes the findings of breeder John W. Deme regarding the consistancy or lack of it in some double hybrids. Sometimes they're fully double and sometimes only semi. Deme also discovered in the 1970s, that temps of 90F+ would cause some doubles to revert to single form!
Obviously this sort of change might make you think that you'd gotten the wrong bulb. The change might not show up til some time after being exposed to the high temps, adding to the mystery and confusion.
Robert.
Robert, Great info, thanks. "that temps of 90F+ would cause some doubles to revert to single form" During what part of the growth cycle would this cause the reverting? Thanks, alice
Sorry to have taken so long to respond-I didn't have this one on my watch list.
It wasn't clear from the text. I had wondered the same thing. She just mentions that Deme had discovered it and she didn't go into any of the details, darn it! I wonder if he had published this part of his research. It migfht be out there somewhere.
This is just me, but as I read it I took it to mean that it was during the growth period, but I could be very wrong about that! It had me wondering about my doubles here in Zone 7b where we get lots of days over 90 each summer.
But then there's this: My "Dancing Queen" just bloomed and I had it out where it got noonday sun last year and I know it had to have gotten very hot for hours at a time and it was double as usual. So I'd love to know which are those "certain doubles" that will revert from too much heat so I can move tham back inside when it gets really hot (if I should have one.)
Perhaps if the hybrid has H. reticulatum blood in it, it might be affected as that species occurs naturally in cool, moist and shady locations. But they don't tell you that kind of thing when you get your bulb, do they?
Don't know if there's any doubles with H. cybister, evansiae, fosteri, and parodii without reticulatum (or other cool clime species) but as they are from locales that get temps over 100F in the summer they should be OK, AFAIK.
In researching the "hot water treatment" for mites, nematodes etc., I read that too long a processing at required temps or with temps too high, the forming buds can be adversely affected (single and doubles). I would think this could affect future blooms a long way down the line as several flushes of bloom are in production all the time with Hippis.
Robert.
I can't say for certain. Could be Aphrodite. I know that mine look different from year to year. Same bulb, planted in my flowerbed can look different in color the next year.
If you don't have this site, it's worth a look.
cynthia
http://www.usna.usda.gov/PhotoGallery/HippeastrumGallery/AmaryllisA-L.html
