I agree Kevin, this one is my favorite of the new additions to my collection this season. Quite a stunning flower!

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Yes Kev this is although not big but a great cultivar and it is a reliable grower and offset former after having bloomed. The only thing which would make GIRAFFE more perfect would be a higher count of blooms per stem. I experienced mostly 3/stem, rather often 2 seldom 4...
But as I already described previously this cultivar (sometimes named as a "Cybister" Hybrid, but clearly - for my opinion - has H.papilio blood, too "in its veins") - is well forming a cluster over the years if left undisturbed.

OK I like to show you my "photo of prooooof":
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Actually sprouting despite my efforts to delay it by keeping at 8 to 11 degC:
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An impression of last season flowers is shown here
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Yes GEIRAFFE IS SOOO GREAT.

Wow, that is a great clump. I don't mind the lower bud count. In some way, I think it kind of adds to the charm.

Kevin

Well, Kev:

You know, an amaryllis breeder always has imaginations of a more perfect flower and flower arrangement, respectively.
The single-flower-stalklets in Giraffe are rather LONG, making the umbel compostion very LOOSE that means some more flowers per umbel would not be so bad.
And therefore I SHALL crossbreed it with "Chico" another Cybister hybrid which is bearing up to 6 flowers per stem. I shall perform this on all time fitting blooms of Giraffe and reciprocally on Cico, too. This hybridization must be performed on the largest scale as possible because both are very poor seed setters...yes unfortunately.

Hans-Werner

Greetings from Duesseldorf; Germany

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Oh my...what have you been feeding her...So many flower and beautiful...

wow,i am speachless!

Well,
Patricia;

The single bulb I bought 6 seasons ago has been exclusively fed with a German liquid fertilizer 6-3-6 which is not perfect (for bulbous plants; I guess 4-4-8 would be perfect) but it worked as you can see. This fertilizer is applied every time in a dilution of 1 to 1.5 mL/L lukewarm water which I administer carefully every 2nd day - from the bottom, into the "saucer" (too giant to be a saucer as you can guess *ggg*).

Imagine; I never saw "Giraffe" available in Germany; so under normal circumstances I should not possess this cultivar. I detected this bulb which was among others labeled as "Yellow Goddess" but the shape of this one individual bulb was different. What a luck I have had that I picked it up. 4 Years did I NOT know what the name of this hybrid was, BUT: I was overwhealmed by its wild charm from the first flower on . Enough motivation for me to do the very best for this tiny treasure (not being tiny any more with a medium stem length of 60 cm).

Today I performed the following statistics for this season:
9 bulbs, 6 with one stem, including the mother bulb; 3 with two stems.
Bud count 2 on 4 stems; 3 on 5 stems; 4 on 3 stems. These latter 3 stems where the first stems of the 2-stem bulbs; every 2nd stem bearing 3 buds (funny that).

29 blooms have been self-pollinated. Until now I have not been successfull in that, and therefore the attempt on a bigger scale now. The last 6 flowers are reserved for pollination with my first 1 y old H.cybister 'Chico' which I failed to time appropriately and which is to open its first flowers on Easter Sunday. I am putting big hopes for - and in this crossbreeding.

This modern hybrid can be very much recommended, as I can tell from my experiences. It does need less heat than other gardener's amaryllis (this feature should be a gift from H.papilio) and multplies well. If you provide a longer cultivation period indoors ( -> more leaves) you can yield up to 3 stems on a 26+ cm-bulb. (I did NOT because these BIG cluster pots and this jungle of leaves do not fit to my growing tables indoors). There is no considerable bulb shrinking when the stems have emerged. Although at the time of bloom only 3 new leaves are present you obtain finally a nice bush of leaves during summer.
These green based blooms are up to 16 cm in diameter (top to bottom) perfectly shaped and vividly (coarsely) frilled and exactly horizontally directed on their individual long, 6 to 10 (!) cm flower stalklets.

And the best thing is coming now, at the very end of my description and my appraisals of GIRAFFE:
No single word is lost about it in a modern booook on gardener's amaryllis which has been released from Great Britain a few years ago.
Meanwhile I believe this indicates something which I should have to find out. And yes, the same thing applies for 'MELUSINE' an outstanding hybrid, too.

Hans-Werner

What do you think of fertilizer of 10-60-10? This fertilizer is very good for my other plants including African Violet. Flower for me non-stop tho...:0)

Hi, Patricia;

This sounds interesting.
Before we begin to discuss the matter:
Can you confirm the 60% content of P2O5 or should it not be 6%;
and furthermore:
Is this a solid or a liquid fertilizer?!
Thank you in advance

Hans-Werner

Hi Han,

On the bottle did not indicate percent. I believe is percent. It's a powder form and will desolve instantly when the powder in the water.

Sorry, Patricia;
I could not give a qualified comment on your fertilizer. I never heard of such a formula with such an extreme relative phosphate content. For my part I strongly prefer a formula, at least for bulbous plants, with is "emphasized" on potassium (K); NOT on Phosphate...

I presume that your fertilizer is particularly designed forr continuously blooming plants, for example Saintpaulia.

Ok; now;
as I already was pessimistic of by previous experiences: Giraffe failed as mother plant and completely refused setting seeds with its own pollen and that from H.cybister"Chico", too.

On the other hand, as regards to the crossbreeding attempt I was successfull in the reverse direction:
H.cybister"Chico" x "Giraffe".
Although "Chico" once more confirmed my previous experiences that it is a rather weak seed former. Yes from 12 seed pods I received "only" approx. 300 seeds, and - good news, making this thread "round" - they are germinating rather quickly.

Hans-Werner

Hi HANS
I am lucky to have seen this.
Do you realy grow them crowded as they are or do you seperate them after the bloom.
ARIF

Hello Arif:

Your question is not referable to this particular case!

This is not a case of "Custom" or "habitude" because these knight star lilies were never planted together.
They are indeed derived from this one central bulb during 6 growth seasons.

The question - for me is a little bit different: How long can I still afford to let these plants so crowded together?! _ At least THIS season I did not separate them (thus having destroyed this wonderfull symmetrical hexagonal cluster strucure) - but it is only a question of time.

Hans-Werner

Hello HANS

I love them in clusters.I under stand you bottom feed them NPK 1-1-2. 800PPM-N sol. everey 2nd day.Am I correct?

Doesnt. it lead to accumulation.Do you leech them too, if so how often.

I just speculated about that a solid or liquid fertilizer with the formula N:P:K (or more precisely m(N):m(P2O5):m(K2O) like 1:1:2 or a multiple of it like 4:4:8 would be still better than what I am actually using, and documented above.
I actually still use a 6:3:6 liquid preparation from Substral and I dilute it to 1 mL / L eq. 1000 ppm with every water administration from the bottom, the concentration n/V of total Ca+Mg being 2.7 mmol/L eq 15 German hardyness degrees.

The unidirectionality of the water stream from down to up is never interrupted by leechings.

Why SHOULD I have to leech when I simply divide the weekly dosage of fertilizer into smaller quantities what I can deliver every day?! This is the only thing I did...

If you use a fertilizer 4:4:8 you should dilute to a concentration of 800 (to 1000 ppm, too); without ever facing the need to leech. Leeching bears the great risk of transmitting bulb scle mites.

Hans-Werner

BTW: What, did you say, are your experiences with this imo valuable cultivar "Giraffe" ?

No I do not posses this beuty.
Very few bulbs are avaiable in shops and that too not every year.
People you can exchange the bulblets with are also few.
My varieties are the results of cross breeding.
ARIF