Mrsroadrunner Photography | Amaryllis Flower Project
This is my Red Amaryllis Flower Cluster. This is one of my indoor plants that flower. The lighting is artificial and rather funky to photograph within my room.
This flower species is from South Africa and I just do not want to get into the species thing going on since two species have been put into the name "Amaryllis", category sold here in America (other countries too?).
This bulb is HUGE. All these flower bulbs are large, they are a large flower. I have had all my bulbs for gosh over 6 years. I do have several and different colors. I have done this and that with them. From pulling them from the room keeping them in a breathable paper bag in the dark, to planting them in large, medium and small containers. To putting them directly in the ground! Results, the bulb seams to like the small containers best in my environment. Perhaps even root bound??
This bulb produced two clusters of flowers, the one above and another cluster. I waited for this cluster of flowers to open and I hand pollinated ONLY one cluster. Not real hard to do, just a little time consuming! Not as bad as hand pollinated African Violets!!
If I would thought of it I would have put something near the pollen sacks there but.... I dint. Bright yellow and on these flowers they are a good size.
I went ahead and just pollinated flower to flower.... We get house flies in my room who do pollinate, however the frogs take care of the flies. I put in organic matter to attract gnats, however the frog eat them too. So I just hand pollinate. This way I am sure things are going to pollinate what I want pollinated.
The other cluster of flowers not shown here, I left alone. Just to see if anything was pollinating for me... nope! They all died away.
After some time I got these seed pods, not all four flowers took. Three out of four is not bad odds!!
I have had indoor photographers give me advice on how to photograph indoors, however this is not my main way of photographing things so ......
This is the seeds pods maturing. Three out of Four flowers took. The first one there you can see it slowly breaking open. Keeping these seed pods dry is vary important, since mold will set in and ruin everything!!
Living here on The High Desert of Oregon humidity is what it is and making humidity is what it is as well!! Other issues which I can make a whole other blog post about just our dry conditions!!
A lot of waiting goes on doing such a thing as this..... wait, wait,wait!! I am giving this project a year or more to get or not get results! Nature is what it is.... breeding plants can take some folks years and years!! Or depending on the species may only take a year to produce seeds, the nest year to grow the seeds. Grafting is a quick way to get results. You take one species of whatever, use those roots to grow the top of another species which there is a lot more to it then that but.... again another blog post!
We do have quite a lot of cross breeding going on outside within our flowers..... this is just because of all the species of flowers and all the pollinators out there doing their job. We never know what it going to cross breed outside until the next year. Outside is not a controlled atmosphere. Some pollen can travel miles on the wind..... however typically hitchhiking on someones boots, legs of insects, dogs, cats, on and on. If a breeder does not allow you to get out of your vehicle, or to walk around their property, dont take offense these folks are just protecting their work. I learned this as a kid and wanted to see a Orchid breeders flowers.....
The pod there in front I photographed that one for it was going to pop open first. You can see it getting ready.
Again if I thought I was going to do a post about this I would have left the seeds within this empty seed pod for you all to see!
Three chambers of seeds came from this one seed pod. I have breed bugs in the past. Ya, Ya why bugs.... well this reminds me of a egg sacks of the bugs.... the seeds are attached in rows. Dried as these were some fell out others were still attached however dry enough to harvest. Some seeds did not ripen and this was ok too! Heck I do not even know if these seeds will grow!!
Guy calls me a seed queen for I just can not throw away seeds! Seeds are a potential flower and I like MOST flowers. Not all of course for weeds are flowers too!
Mind you I am also not a professional flower breeder so I can not impress you with all those big names in and out of the latin , or some other language. I started learning this stuff when I was a little girl in grade school. This stuff just fascinated me is all! This kind of stuff just came natural. No pun intended.
These are the first Amaryllis seeds I have ever seen. Encased in a nice casing that should do well in the wind. They do remind me of other species of seeds. Plants , flowers are like everything else in this world. They want to take over the world with their seed. This is survival, more seeds that are produced, take hold and grow , wins!!
I have put these seeds from this one pod in a plastic baggy. When everyone is done I shall have three plastic baggies. The seeds will be grown inside kept warm. When this time comes I will have to do research on South Africa's climate and it would make sense to copy their climate the best I can in my controlled atmosphere..... if that is I want to see any of these seeds grow into a bulb.
This can take time, lots and lots of time and waiting....... This is just something I am curious about. Bulbs are easier, the bulbs produce a "baby", you take that "baby", off and grow it by itself, and another flower is produced. Flowering and producing seeds will make some species die off. So if you are going to experiment do not be surprised if the host dies. This is life, produce young and life is over. Living and dying is what life is all about.
Thank you for coming by and spending time with me! Check out my other photography at
mrsroadrunner.com . I do sale my photography so I can head out and observe our off the beat and path places here in Oregon!
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