Difference between Anglo-American and Ordinary hybrid Amaryllis

The Difference between “Anglo-American” and “Ordinary hybrid” Amaryllis

As several of you ask about the difference between my “ordinary” hybrid Amaryllis & my “Anglo-American” hybrids I’ll explain again, though I think I’ve really explained a few times before!

(The 4 scapes (flower stems) in the middle of these two photos are “Anglo-American” hybrids, only the end two are older, “ordinary” Amaryllis hybrids)

The “ordinary” hybrids are the ones I’ve been growing from my own seeds since before I joined GoY back in April 2009! (One of the first blogs I ever wrote on GoY was about growing Amaryllis from seed!)

These came about because in October 2001 I bought 3 Amaryllis bulbs from a Dutch trader, in what was the very first International Market held in Huntingdon. These were unnamed, unpackaged bulbs I bought in a street market. These bulbs grew & flowered for several years until one year it occurred to me to try & cross-fertilize them & try to get some viable seed. I’d tried some years before, when we still lived in Cuenca, Spain. At that time none of the seeds germinated. This time I had an overwhelming number of seeds that germinated!

After 4 years these flowered for the first time & I used a photo of me standing in front of them all, (now we call them “selfies”, back then we called them “self portraits”!), flowering on our living room table, as my avatar photo on GoY for many years.

Then, in 2012, a lady, on another gardening forum I also post on, sent me some, unsolicited, pollen from her Amaryllis. As I had some in flower when it arrived I tried cross-fertilizing some of my plants with the pollen. Only one bulb gave me a couple of seedpods full of seeds. I sowed some & sent some to the lady in the USA who’d sent me the pollen.

(Unfortunately she has never told me if she sowed them nor if they have grown or flowered for her :-(( )

When these germinated I thought I need some way of identifying them in the future as they all look a like & to be able to send a “progress report” to the lady in the USA. The name “Anglo-American hybrids” came to my mind, as, after all, the pollen came from the USA but the original bulbs from the UK.

So there you have it – in a (rather big) nutshell! – why some are just simply called “Amaryllis hybrids” & others are called “Anglo-American hybrids”.

Of the “Anglo-American hybrids” I currently have 4 bulbs on our living room table, one of which has opened its first flower today for the first time since sowing 4 years ago! There are 3 more in bud, one of which will flower in a day or two, while there are two others which will still take a few more days. While, in the bedroom, on the windowsill, there are more bulbs with scapes at differing heights which will flower during February.

I have 20 pots of these “Anglo-American hybrids” in all! One has finished flowering, one is opening today & several more will be opening their flowers for the first time ever as the week progresses.

The photos I’ve included in this blog are for illustrative purposes really as most of my photos from the past few years are still locked away on the hard disk of my old desktop computer which I have no access to. :-((

Some of them, nevertheless, are relevant to what I’ve written in this blog. As they all have the date they were taken written on them you will easily see which photos relate to the present time.

Allotments during April – May 2012

Allotments during April – May 2012

I had a nasty experience on the plot the other week! I was shifting compost from the heap to the bed I was making up for beans in a few weeks time. On the 2nd or 3rd trip with the barrow chock-a-block with compost I found it was impossible to push it! After struggling for a few minutes I looked at the wheel – I had a puncture! Fortunately a fellow allotmenteer lets us use his barrow so I had to go over & get it & transfer the compost from one to the other! As his barrow is smaller than ours I had to make two trips!

On one of the previous trips – now I think about it that was when it must have happened – I found a pane of glass from the greenhouse had fallen out & I’d had to stop & pick up all the broken pieces.

Around about that time also I had a third accident I stepped on a piece of iron with rusty nails in it & one nail went through my shoe into my foot! Fortunately it was at a point where I have quite a thick callous & when I checked my foot I didn’t find any blood on my sock, (I was wearing white sports socks), nor when I took them off to go to bed later that night. I was worried about Tetanus at first but, seeing as there was no blood, there should be no danger. I had my last booster about 5 years ago so I should be alright.

My brother, who has been helping me out for the last few weeks, wasn’t there at the time. But his work has been invaluable! He really has been a Godsend!

Gerry’s Broad Beans

Just planted out …

A fortnight later …

Another 3 weeks have gone by …

Daffodils & Tulips:

Gerry’s Daffodils & Tulips looked fantastic at the end of March & they have continued through all of April though they had finished at the start of May:

Daffodils & Tulips beside our shed with Rhubarb plants:

Here you can see the Tulips in full flower in front of our shed:

Onion sets ‘Sturon’:

These were planted by my brother, Ken & myself …

Here they are 5-6 weeks later:

Early potatoes

Gerry got 2 green pots full of seed potatoes which I calculated to weigh about 3kg each but we don’t know what variety they are.

Here is the ‘Unknown variety’ (from the green pot) now sprouting as well as my ‘Arran Pilot’ …

He also brought down a couple of bags of 1st Early ‘Rocket’ which Ken planted for him on St Patrick’s Day! Last year I discovered that St Patrick’s Day was the traditional day for putting in the first seed potatoes. It was just sheer coincidence that we planted them that day as it was a beautifully sunny, warm Saturday morning & many of our fellow allotmenteers took advantage of the day to plant theirs as well!

This photo is of ‘Rocket’ at the bottom of the 1/2 allotment Gerry has …

Here are the same spuds a few weeks later …

This photo is of ‘Rocket’ at the top part of the 1/2 allotment Gerry has …

Here are the same spuds a few weeks later …

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My own allotment – Plot 12A

These Beetroot ‘Bolthardy’ were planted out in early autumn & have been there all winter …

Here is the result of the Beetroot once harvested …

The only problem is that they had started to ‘bolt’! I took them home & cooked them but they were, for the most part, totally & absolutely tasteless! UGH!!! I had to throw the majority away! I’d been looking forward to eating my first Beets of the year as well!

Beetroot ‘Bolthardy’ seedlings:

These Beetroot ‘Bolthardy’ seedlings were put into the ground at the beginning of April …

Here they are just a few weeks later …

These are the same plants a few weeks later …

Lettuce Paris Island Cos:

I’ll show you more photos very shortly.

Hippy, hippy, Hippeastrums!

Hippy, hippy, Hippeastrums!

The Hippeastrum Olympics 2012

In case there is anybody who doesn’t know, Hippeastrum is the ‘Official/Botanical/Latin’ name for ‘Amaryllis’.

As it has been a v e r y long time since I last wrote a blog of these outstandingly beautiful flowers I thought the beginning of a new year would be a good time to update my blogs of these beauties!

December 2011:

Just as December was getting underway the last Amaryllis of the year began blooming:

At the beginning of the month the Red with white stripes Amaryllis opened for me:

Towards the middle of the month it stopped feeling so lonely as two more joined in:

At the far end of the month the pure red one just had to get a look in before the Old & New Years exchanged places with each other:

The Hippeastrum Olympics

The Gold Winner

The white with red veining Hippeastrum managed to achieve fame by being the very first of 2012! So it is awarded the Gold medal for winning the sprint by a nose:

The Pure Red one however practically tied with the white with red veining one for the Gold medal:

(well we are in an Olympic year!), but it had to settle for the Silver instead:

The Bronze medal goes to the slightly darker, smaller pure red which came in a few days later:

The Hippeastrum Olympics podium:

Here we have the three medal winners for the Hippeastrum Olympics of 2012:

Hippy, hippy, Hippeastrums!
Hippy, hippy, Hippeastrums!
Hippy, hippy, Hippeastrums!

Close up shots of our protagonists of these Hippy Olympics:

Well we won’t dwell on the rest of the field –
– there are no more competitors! (Yet!)

Hope you liked this light hearted play on the Olympic Games of 2012 to be held in London later this year as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

Lotties in winter

Lotties in winter

At long last I found time to do the promised blog of our allotments at the end of the year. Today is Boxing Day & it’s a very quiet day, in spite of the strong winds forecast! We began the day with a fair amount of sunshine though this only lasted a few hours before the clouds came over. No rain though. In the late afternoon we had a little sunshine once again before the night time pulled its veil over the evening sky.

Beetroot Bolthardy harvested:

This first photo is of the last of the Beetroots that I had been growing at the top of the plot. They’re in the bag because I forgot I wanted a photo with them just taken out of the ground.

All in all I’m pretty pleased with the way they have gone this year & will again sow them at intervals in coming years.

Broccoli Purple sprouting:

The Broccoli was given to me by a guy on the conjoining plot. I happened to read about their anti-cancerous properties just before going down to the plot. This guy was planting something, I didn’t know what, when I asked him if he knew about the anti-cancerous properties of Broccoli. He said he did & that he was planting his Broccoli at that very moment! He offered me the last half a dozen he had left over & so I planted them here. Mine have done better than his!

Godetias flowering:

The Godetias I sowed originally in the greenhouse to later take home & put on the balcony but which I put in the plot have been flowering for some time. I must say this has surprised me as I expected them to die at the first whiff of frost! They have survived at least 3 frosts – one of which was forecast to be 3 degrees C below freezing!

Lettuce Tom Thumb:

These miniature Lettuce, Tom Thumb, are still going strong after several frosts.

Lentils & Calendulas at top of plot:

This is the top of the plot where I sowed Lentils & Pinto beans. I had potatoes growing here a few months earlier. After lifting them & raking out the soil level I sowed some rows of Legumes. The Pinto beans didn’t survive more than one very, very light frost but the Lentils are not fazed by a few degrees of frost! The Calendulas have been there all year! They came up with the spuds & I left them after lifting the spuds.

French Marigolds in flower:

I sowed these French Marigolds in a seedtray with the intention of pricking them out into bigger flowerpots hoping, with the protection of the greenhouse, to get some flowers from them during the winter. I was so occupied with the digging of the allotments that I never got around to doing it! So, here they are flowering, still in the seedtray!

Annual Chrysanthemums:

A guy from Spain sent me some seeds of these Annual Chrysanthemums last year. I grew them on the allotment & some seeds fell into the ground & survived the winter/spring/summer to come up amongst the Carrots I sowed there. As they still hadn’t flowered when I lifted the Carrots I decided to try & save the plants. I put them in the greenhouse, in the growbag where Tomato Mallorquin had been growing all summer. They are flowering at the time of writing this blog!

Garlic sprouting:

During November I put in a few Garlic cloves from a head of Garlic one of our sons brought over from Spain when he came to spent a couple of weeks holiday with us. He said they were probably the best Garlic you could buy in Spain! I told him at the time it was far too early to plant them but I would do it when the time was right. So here they are just poking through the ground right in front of the greenhouse.

Peanuts at an end:

Many of you following my allotment blogs during the year will remember my experiment with growing Peanuts on the allotment, well I can report that the experiment has been unsuccessful! Not surprising to anyone I suppose, but I did get at least ONE (1) peanut!!!

You must realize that I also started them very, very late. I’m determined to have another go next year & will start the seeds off much earlier, I may even give them some protection from the elements as well.

Pinto beans harvested:

Here are some of my Pinto beans as I was removing them from their seed pods in the greenhouse. I left them to dry for a couple of months before I removed them from their seed pods. Really I was too busy, & lazy!, to do it earlier! They had been picked more than a month before.

Pinto beans bagged:

Here is a bag with some of the beans once I took them home & put them in a bag. We have had a meal with some & there are still some waiting for me to remove the beans from their seed pods!

Tomatoes Mallorquin in Greenhouse:

This is the last photo of the tomatoes Mallorquin. I sowed them in January 2011 in the greenhouse. They were from the packet of seeds my wife brought me back from Spain in September 2010.

Tomatoes Mallorquin harvested in Greenhouse:

A few days later I decided it was no use keeping them on the plant any longer so I picked them & here they are laid out on the bench in the greenhouse.

Runner beans

These were the last of the runner beans for this year. I collected the last few seedpods to save for next year & I’ve now cleared the ground of them. We had a huge crop from them!

Fig trees with frost protection:

These “wigwams” are the winter protection for the two Fig trees we have. After two year of losing the fruit in the very late spring frosts I thought I would protect them this year & see if we can get something to eat from them. I shan’t take the fleeces off them until the middle of May next year. The two previous years we have had frost as late as the first week of May!

Tomatoes Mallorquin in greenhouse just harvested:

These are the very, very last of the tomatoes Mallorquin. I harvested them on 5th December. I then removed the plant from the growbag & threw it away.

Godetias at top of plot:

I showed you a photo of these Godetias at the top of the plot further up but this photo was taken several weeks, & several frosts later! Even on Christmas Eve they were still flowering!

French Marigolds & Cosmos on Christmas Eve:

The French Marigolds I showed you a few photos earlier were still flowering on Christmas Eve & there were a few Cosmos amongst them! They had been affected a little by the frosts lately but, as you can see, continued to flower!

Sweetpeas Royal Family just sown:

I finally sowed my Sweetpeas. I had tubes & compost all waiting in the greenhouse but I had no seeds till the 15th December! On the 20th I sowed about a 1/3rd of the seeds. The tubes are placed in a standard seedtray in which over 20 tubes fit.

Onion Alisa Craig sown on Christmas Eve:

When I spent an hour or so on the plots on Christmas Eve I sowed a few of my Onion Alisa Craig seeds in a seedtray. This is a little later than last year I think when I believe I sowed them a week or two earlier. I was quite pleased with the results of the sowing when I lifted the bulbs in July. I want to sow more this year as our stock ran out about a month ago!

Well that’s the last from the plots I share with Gerry for this year. I have to make up one last one with what I’ve been doing on my very own plot (12A) which I got from the Town Council on 1st September.

Wishing you all a happy end to the year 2011 & a fantastic New Year 2012.

My very own plot – This time 12A!

My very own plot – This time 12A!

As of 1st September 2011 I’ve become, officially this time, the new tenant of PLOT 12A! Just this morning, 3rd September, the papers came in the post & I’ve filled them out & sent them back to the Town Council offices with a cheque for £12 – the year’s rent till 31st August 2012.

I spent a disheartening/discouraging 15 -20 mins walking around them before deciding on one. I’d already turned down two plots on 2 previous occasions this year! I couldn’t go back with a negative the third time! So when I got home I immediately phoned them & told them I was interested in Plot 12A. I was told the paperwork would be put in the post right away.

Here is a view of my new plot taken from the central path & looking down the length of mine. The plot only goes a bit beyond the rusty barrel you can see:

I think I may have found the one with the least work to do on it & which I can make a go of. It’s “major” drawback is the out-of-control Raspberry bed, that will need digging out I’m very much afraid! That will be a major job as well! That will have to wait till they die back for the winter. It will probably also be a job over several seasons till I eradicate it all! They make a lot of suckers & the roots can go quite deep & extend a couple of metres to the sides of the bed! I’m not sure whether I’ll keep any plants as yet, I’ll need to examine them closer up to see if it’s worthwhile.

Raspberry bed:

Raspberry bed:

It’s not very far from Gerry’s plot either but on the other side of the central path for cars. No doubt Gerry will offer me the continued use of his shed/greenhouse/tools. When I thought I had plot 19A in June he said I could continue to use his things as I have none of my own, well who would need gardening tools on a balcony!

While I was checking the plots out I checked out 19 B. No work has been done on it in months! The Sunflowers, both Tall & Mini, are now flowering but, as they haven’t been watered in months & we have had little rainfall in that time, they are all stunted & the Tall ones are little higher than the Mini’s!

Here’re a couple of photos that I took:

Sunflowers “Mini”:

Sunflowers “Tall”:

Like in June I will continue to help Gerry with his plots, obviously not quite as much but after running 1 & 1/2 plots for almost 2 seasons my own 1/2 plot will seem very small indeed!

A couple of more views of the overrun plot I’ve taken on:

There are some runner beans growing up a framework:

I gave them a couple of canfuls of water as the soil was so dry.

I discovered a row of Beetroots & gave them a watering as well after removing the weeds. Likewise with a row of Carrot seedlings I also found. I also found what look like Spring onions seedlings – I say Spring Onions as you wouldn’t sow normal onions so late in the year. These also got a good soaking!

Where the plot begins, alongside the central pathway, there is a compost heap that runs the entire width of the plot:

I shall have to empty it & divide it in two, only it will have to wait for some time yet as I discovered that there is a wasps’ nest in it!!!

Gerry came down while I was digging a bed alongside the compost heap & brought a load of bags of horse manure in his trailer! He asked me if I wanted them & I accepted so we lugged them out of his trailer & dumped the bags on top of the compost heap for the time being – but away from the nest!

Well I shall be posting updates on my new plot in the future though until Spring next year there won’t be much to blog about! I’ll be posting a new blog on Gerry’s plot soon.