Hippeastrums are very compatible but most of the large flowered ones are tetraploid and should only be crossed among themselves. It's important to apply the pollen only after the style has curved up and the stigma has trifurcated. If you want to do a lot of crosses, you can store pollen for a year or two. Buy a plastic card file box, some stamp envelopes (glassine) and some desiccant (online or hobby shop). Write pollen ID on an envelope, pop the anthers into the envelope with a (hair) comb, and store in the card file box with desiccant on the bottom in the fridge. If you want to freeze til next season, add fresh desiccant a day ahead of time. Tim Eck “Time is nature’s way of preventing everything from happening at once.” Anon. > -----Original Message----- > From: pbs [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net] On Behalf Of > Robert Pries > Sent: Monday, October 29, 2018 10:52 AM > To: Pacific Bulb Society > Subject: Re: [pbs] Pollenation of Hippeastrum bloom? > > I am interested in crossing and getting seeds from Hippeastrum. I had > Hippeastrums in bloom from January , February, March and April last year > mostly in the house but some were set outside in April. Even though I enjoyed > lots of blooms and tried making all sorts of crosses, out of about fifty crosses > only one took and that was at the very end of the season. Are modern > Hippeastrums relatively sterile? Is there anything I can do to improve my > results? I am especially interested in the new dwarfer hippeastrums, Cybister > hipps’ , and Papilio, not so much the huge flowered ones and definitely not the > double varieties, although I do acknowledge they are beautiful. > > Bob Pries > Zone 7a > Roxboro, NC > (336)597-8805 > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…