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haweha

Amaryllis 'Chico'

haweha
19 years ago

Chico is the most originally and wild looking Cybister hybrid. Its strange beauty is enhanced by the long filaments which are elegantly swung. My preferred Cybister hybrid.

Seedlings of my crossbreedings are on the way... in CoCo soil *ggg*...

with H.aulicum v.robustum, H.papilio; and with hybrid "Pink Floyd", the latter crossbreeding yielding the tiniest amaryllis seedlings I ever raised.

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Comments (16)

  • aachenelf z5 Mpls
    19 years ago

    That is probably the most fantastic flower I have ever seen! I wonder if it is available in this country? Your plants look phenomenal. Congrats!

    Kevin

  • kniphofia
    19 years ago

    My plant has just finished flowering. I agree Kevin, it really is an amazing looking flower.

    {{gwi:2530}}

    {{gwi:2532}}

  • lora_in
    19 years ago

    What an astounding flower! Is this an evergreen type? And kniphoia,what is your source,pretty please? Lora

  • haweha
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Hello Lora

    Chico is quite the opposite of an evergreen.
    The flower stalks (2 on 24-26 cm bulbs) emerge, like in its ancestor H.cybister on the "naked" bulbs. Although I do not know exactly, I feel strongly that Chico is a direct crossbreeding result of H.cybister (but WHAT is the other parent?!). Unfortunately this information was not provided in a modern Amaryllis book from Great Britain, which I purchased with such hunger on authentic infos and big hopes thereof. BUT although I learnt from this book that several other Cybister hybrids, as "Lima" and "Jungle Star" are having H.papilio in its parentage I can hardly imagine this in the case of "Chico".

    Hans-Werner

  • haweha
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Both Hippeastrum cultivars "Chico" and "Reggae" which are named "Cybister hybrids" are no hybrids at all as far as I understand from the website below. They are simply something like selections of the true species H.cybister, released by Fred Meyer, a famous breeder of modern hybrids, particularly cybister hybrids. Yes that makes sense. I always felt "Chico" to be a "model" plant for H.cybister and I am seeing myself "justified" now *ggg*.
    Cultivation proposals include a minimum temperature of 10 degCelsius. This is very important to be mentioned because "Chico" and "Reggae" are subsummarized under H.cybister hybrids - elsewhere, for example in this modern book from Great Britain, thus uniting them easily with hybrids which are having H.papilio in their parentage. Those might be much more cold-resistant leading to the erroneous conclusion that these tiny treasures "Chico" and "Reggae" might be similarly cold tolerant, too.

    Hans-Werner

    Here is a link that might be useful: Hippeastrum cybister

  • devilx
    19 years ago

    WOW! Such Gorgeous Blooms! :-)

    Cheers
    Sean

  • haweha
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Yes: Gorgeous spider amaryllis blooms.

    Unfortunately H.cybister "Chico" has completely failed to produce seeds after self pollination. I do not want to generalize and therefore I add: ...under my husbandry... Some other hard necked hippeastrum breeders might finally be more lucky in hitting that target.

    On the other hand this is rather unprobable because this behaviour - which is to be regarded as unfavourate only (!) from the human's point of view - is not uncommon in diploid species and hybrids thereof.

    If I think like a COMMERCIAL this is a good feature to make a quick mass production from seeds impossible. Well you will immediately understand the implication thereof...

    The relevance of this feature is even more evident in diploid hybrids released on-to the market. In this aspect my first association is ... Pink Floyd. Needless to say that this precious trumpet IS self sterile. Mass propagation by seeds would be so easy and so quick.

    But as indivcated elsewhere I was now lucky in obtaining seeds after pollination with "Giraffe" and shall document the outcome later.

    Meanwhile, please do not hesitate and give ME any indication that this THREAD is still read and...ALIVE.
    Has anyone performed a crossbreeding experiment using H."Chico"?! No one?!

    Hans-Werner

  • haweha
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Before I continue to play my little part in this fruitfull discussion among passionate and hard necked hippeastrum breeders I like to show on more photo of a Chico blossom 6-pack arrangement:

    {{gwi:2534}}

  • kniphofia
    18 years ago

    Lovely photo Hans!

  • houstonpat
    18 years ago

    I have found Chico to be cold sensetive. I chilled it for 60 days at 39F, then planted it. after 8 weeks of no development I dumped it out of the pot and found the parent bulb to be mush, but about 8 baby bulbs had formed around the perimeter. I cleaned the whole mess up and replanted it. Now at the end of summer I have 8 small plants with 10 - 12 inch leaves.

  • haweha
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    That means you had stored it for 2 months at 4°Celsius in a fridge.

    I do NOT assume that this procedure killed your bulb.
    This treatment and its effects are well investigated for gardener's amaryllis. It is - solely - (!) designed to stop any further sprouting of bulbs which are ready-to-sprout
    after the MAIN storage at 13°C eq. 55°F for 8-12 weeks which is the perfect temperature for a rapid elongation of the preformed buds within the bulbs.

    So a subsequent 4°C treatment is performed in order to delay any further development when the buds are just "ready" and just before poking out of the bulbs,
    until they can be marketed or, for example, be forced for a flower exhibition which requires an exakt bloom-o-gene timing !

    I have observed that these both kinds of treatments are often confused with one another and I regret this a little bit. From what I have read on the GWBF it looks as if many people store their autumn-harvested knight star lily bulbs in a refrigerator OhOhOh

    The implication is that if you store your bulbs which you just dug up at 4°C then nothing happens.
    The bulblets you found around the dead mother bulb do not contradict to that - I am rather sure they were yet present at the beginning of this storage but invisibly hidden in the substrate. I guess that your poor amaryllis bulb was simply eaten up by a maggot of a big narcissus bulb fly.

    On the other hand - 8 daughter bulbs - that's good! H.cybister is not such a heavy offset producer.

    Hans-Werner

  • haweha
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    I completely forgot...
    and I like to indicate now that I HAVE finally-successfully pollinated "Chico" outdoors and obtained several seedpods. But oh my - how low the count of seeds per pod was - it ranged from 6 to 25. I buried all - immediately in order to obtain a maximal germinationrate

    So the message is finally that this clone "Chico" from the species amaryllis H.cybister can be propagated by generative means without needing another (pollen) partner

    Hans-Werner

  • snowdogmama
    18 years ago

    Hi Hans
    My Chico bloomed in my mountain desert heat this last August. It had leaves when it bloomed. It was the bulb's 3rd blooming. When it blooms again, I will see what I have blooming that might be a good cross.
    {{gwi:2536}}

  • haweha
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Thank you for this nice image which accents particularly the light-and-feathery character of this species vartiety blooms.

    Well I assume that my suggestion comes tooooooo late now:

    Have a try with self pollination.
    If you are successfull you obtain genuine pure species seed (as with H.cybister "Reggae", too, and you can rapidly multiply your stock.

    Hans-Werner

    Here is a link that might be useful: more images

  • manfredk
    17 years ago

    Hans Werner,
    I ordered two Chicos and just wonder why your first attempt of selfing failed, what did you change for your succesfull second attempt ?

    Regards
    Manfred

  • Kittykat747_earthlink_net
    15 years ago

    Sir Hans,
    I have become obsessed with cybisters, and in looking for good information, came upon this older thread. However, I only speak and understand English. Viewed the chart from your link, but missing out because of my inability to understand. Looking for listing of all cybisters and sources to purchase from, as well as good information. Have found a few, but they only have a couple varieties. I now have on my wish list about 12. I do have about six so far. I tried to self-pollinate Chico last spring -- failed. Thanks you for your time.

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