Hippeastrum cold hardiness

Nicholas plummer nickplummer@gmail.com
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 05:59:50 PST
The old Mead hybrids with a lot of H. vittatum in their background are
supposedly very hardy.  Plant Delights had some for sale last year.
They're now sold out, but I suspect that a lot of what is labeled H.
vittatum in the trade are actually these hybrids.   I put the Mead hybrid
and H. xjohnsonii in the ground last year, so it's too soon to say how well
they will do in my garden (Zone 7, North Carolina)--if they don't survive,
I will really regret not keeping an offset of the Mead hybrid in a pot.

The red Rhodophiala bifida does fine in my garden and is sort of like a
miniature Hippeastrum.  Foliage is still green after -9.5 C this winter,
and the bulbs have survived -15 C for short periods.

Nick

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 12:21 AM, Eugene Zielinski <eez55@earthlink.net>
wrote:

> I'm glad Jim Waddick mentioned Hippeastrum x johnsonii as one of the
> hardiest garden amaryllises.  Scott Ogden (Garden Bulbs for the South)
> lists this as an old (ca. 1810) hybrid of H reginae and H. vittatum.  Thad
> Howard (Bulbs for Warm Climates) said he was "amazed to find H. vittatum
> growing in sandy woodlands (in Brazil) at a depth of 6-8 inches."
> I used to live in Augusta, Georgia, and H. x johnsonii grew very well
> there.  The large Hippeastrum hybrids also did well.  This doesn't surprise
> me since the ground rarely froze during the winter, and when it did, I
> doubt that frost penetrated deeper than an inch.  Augusta receives rain
> year round, so I don't think H. x johnsonii and other Hippeastrum hybrids
> require a dry dormancy -- a dry dormancy may actually be harmful.  I've
> seen H. x johnsonii bulbs and seed offered on Ebay; the bulbs seemed
> overpriced to me.
> In zone 7 Oregon, it would be an interesting experiment to plant some
> inexpensive Hippeastrum hybrids deeply (say, in a 10 inch hole) and see how
> they survive.
>
> Eugene Zielinski
> Prescott Valley, AZ
> USA
>



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