posted 11 years ago
Can't put up photos - no camera, not even mobile phone. Am in Oz, but believe it is exotic, but absolutely not 100%
I have some REALLY big bulbs, I found, 4 to 6 " WIDE and longer, length wise. They have had a tough time, and taken years to flower, and now, each of 2 bulbs, have sent up a single stalk, one over 2' high, the other over 2'6" high. One has flowered, and it has about 12 necks coming from original long, inch to half inch wide main stalk. Each neck seems about 6 or more inches long, with a single bright strong pink coloured flower, about 4 inches long, with the stamen heads a very dark cherry crimson colour. There were some leaves in earlier years, but they have nearly died, several times. At the moment, there are only the stalks, no leaves and it is autumn, here in Australia.
I only know of bella donna lilies, (naked ladies), that flower without leaves. These bulbs make bella donna bulbs look like babies, and the flowers are smaller, and have much slenderer petals, with pointed ends, than bella donnas. Some of the flowers have 4 petals, some 6, but I missed the start of the flowering, and some have been damaged. They arent clivia, they aren't the same flowers I've seen on the hippeastrum, which are much bigger and voluptuous flowers, but don't put out the quantity of these flowers. More a tree person but I am intrigued. Are there different styles of hippeastrums? That is more the bulb size
Any ideas? Thanks.