Hippeastrum 'Cinderella'

I actually have one plant currently blooming in my apartment, so I figure that’s a good place to start. It is probably at least vaguely familiar to most as a commonly grown indoor bulb, and likely is also in recent memory due to its popularity around Christmas. However, those of us like me who don’t begin thinking about Christmas until at least a week or two into December usually find it coming into full bloom right about now.

Hippeastrum ‘Cinderella’ (‘Cinderella’ Amaryllis)

The name Hippeastrum (which apparently refers to the morning star, a medieval weapon to which I see no resemblance), may seem a little surprising as the plant is commonly known as the Amaryllis. This is one of the few common names which sounds like a botanical name, though misleadingly is actually the botanical name for a different (though very closely related) group of plants. Another common name for Hippeastrum I’m aware of is “Naked Ladies”, presumably referring to the fact that these bulbs produce flowers without leaves (fully) present. It seems to be rarely used however, for reasons I feel are obvious. Though my gut is to go with potentially offensive (well, really more weird than offensive…) over taxonomically misleading, I think I’m just going to keep calling it Amaryllis. I guess it just sounds classier.

hey, wait a minute, mine doesn't look like the picture on the box!

I bought this bulb in one of the standard kits the Netherland Bulb Company puts out everywhere. Though I appreciate the lining of supermarket isles with these kits seems to be what reminds me I wanted to buy one of these, I’m less of a fan of the cheap looking plastic pot and the dehydrated disc of coco peat which ends up being about three times as much as needed (though I will confess, it is cool watching it expand.)

and this would be how my Hippeastrum usually looks around December 25h. Pot on the right is Paperwhites.

This is actually the first time I’ve had an Amaryllis flower, which isn’t quite as embarrassing as it sounds. I tried to grow 'Minerva' last year, a similar looking hybrid coming from a similar looking kit from which I discarded a similar amount of excess media. Once again however, I bought it too late and it wasn't even remotely close to flowering before I left to visit my parents for the holidays. The sensible thing seemed to be to bring it with me. Surprisingly, the problem wouldn’t be the fact that it was repeatedly ejected from its cheap plastic pot during the drive down one of the dirt roads on the island, but the fact that my mother immediately stole it upon arrival, and it would not flower until I left for Boston without it. This year, having learned my lesson, I was wise enough to leave it at home before visiting my parents, and found it just beginning to bloom following my return.

As you can see from the photos, I did relatively little to dress the plant up, but a quick way to do so is to partially cover the bulb with Spanish moss, which gives the plant more of a rustic appearance, particularly if in an older terra-cotta pot. I personally like seeing the top of the bulb however, so I’m not likely to use too much.

Due to their popularity as decorations on Christmas or gifts on Valentine’s Day, I can’t help but think of all the wasted bulbs which are discarded after flowering, or those which are simply left out and eventually die due to being deprived their period of dormancy (So I guess they’re either discarded when they no longer produce, or they’re killed via sleep deprivation? The ways we torture plants…)

Thankfully, Hippeastrum is a perennial, and can be fairly easily reused. As there are a multitude of sources providing instructions on this (I find http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/faqs/AmaryllisBloom.html particularly helpful), I won’t list the procedure here, but there are a few key things you should keep in mind if you want to do this.

1. You’ll need to allow the plant remain out until the leaves die and turn yellow of their own accord. This is to allow the plant enough time to photosynthesize and store energy prior to entering dormancy. Now this will take a few months, and these aren’t the showiest plants when out of bloom, so if you have limited space this may not be your best option.
2. You’ll need a place where the bulb can be cooled for about six weeks while dormant. This area needs to be a dark, cool (40-50⁰ F), and relatively free of moisture. The refrigerator crisper reputably works pretty well, but the bulb needs to be kept away from fruits and vegetables (apples are apparently particularly problematic) . This is as they can release ethylene, a gaseous hormone and plant growth regulator.

My mother actually used this method to store the bulb I “gave” her, and last I was home it was beginning to leaf out, so I can vouch for its effectiveness. I’ll try to get a picture of it when it blooms. Now where I run into trouble, is I have only one fridge, must share it with roommates, and have been unable to successfully pitch monopolizing one of the crispers for at least a month and a half in order to save $10-12 yearly on a bulb. Then again maybe I can find a cheap fridge when students are moving out of the dorms this spring.

The Hippaestrum is currently my favorite of the Christmastime indoor plants. I find it much more interesting than the simpler Paperwhite, or the foliar interest represented by the Poinsettia. Not sure how I feel about the Christmas Cactus, most of the ones I’ve seen seemed to scream “dead jellyfish.” One factor for this decision is the sheer variety of colors represented by the different hybrids. Due to the plant’s popularity around Christmas and Valentine’s Day, red, white, and pink seem to be the most common, but selections are available in yellow, orange, and even green. Mainly though, it is the size of the flower I find impressive, not just for the diameter of the blossom (5-8”), but for how exaggerated all the flower parts are, almost as if they have been magnified. I particularly like how the stigma (a female part of the flower) hangs lower and further outside than the anthers (pollen sacs), almost as if one finger is beckoning a pollinator to come inside.

Next year’s goal: To buy a Hippeastrum bulb (or two…) from a proper garden center as opposed to a supermarket, put it in an actual pot, dress it up, force it to bloom around Christmas, and to see if I can get at least two years out of it. I’ll likely settle for 3/5 of those.

A few cultivars that caught my eye:

• ‘Magic Green’: Though I understand I enjoy green flowers more than most
  
• ‘Ambiance’: From the photo at least, it appears to have a greener eye, fading to white further out on the petals where they become streaked with red
  
• ‘Splash’: Interesting Petal shape

Further Reading:

• Section on Hippeastrum from the Pacific Bulb Society
• And in case you’re looking to take it to the next step and start doing some hybridization yourself

Took all the photos of the plant in bloom with my Sony α230, and the others with the Droid2.