Copia parziale dell'e-mail di Jim Lykos inviata il 9 giugno 2009 all'autore de Il Sentiero Verde dei Bulbi.

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Your question about whether its important to distinguish between F1  and F2 hybrid Amarygia's is I think signficant.  I anticipate that  F1's will resemble the Brunsvigia parent  flower in shape, and that the F2 while retaining some elements of the F1 like colour and growth form, will tend to resemble the Amaryllis parent or in a few instances the intermediate or blended  form. Alternatively, it will be found that the F1 offspring will vary most according to whether they were from the  Amaryllis seed parent or if Brunsvigia was the seed parent and its possible that most  F2 Amarygia's are very similar to what we know as Amaryllis Multiflora. 

  

I recall reading one of A. Worsley's papers on the varieties of Amaryllis where he remade Bidwills hybrids - and he concluded that most genes of the Brunsvigia parent appear to drop out of the cross in the F2 generation. He also made the point as did the nurserymen Hoog and Van Tubergen that the F1 Amarygia hybrid was differently shaped according to its seed parent. However they didnt elaborate to explain the actual differences.

 

Its probably the only way of accounting for the fact that in chasing Amarygias in Australia there is apart from colour (more  or less red or dark pink/purple)  very few other differences between the flower  forms of the F1 Amarygia's that are found - our difficulty is really knowing the range of outcomes from both the F1 cross and that arise from backcrossing the F1 - and here Bidwill's letter of 1850 suggests that there were many differences in shape and floriferousness in the flowering of 1847.  However, it is likely that Bidwill saw only the Amarygias from the Amaryllis seed parent as these are likely to start flowering  around 6 years after  sowing whereas those from the Brunsvigia seed parent took probably around 12 years to initiate flowering.  The watercolour by Miss Fletcher (school teacher at the school in the grounds of Camden Park) which you have on your web page  does suggest that she may have actually  painted the F1 Amarygia from a Brunsvigia seed parent.  At the back of the painting in her handwriting "The first Amaryllis to flower in NSW 1866. Grown at Sir William Macarthurs Munderah Camden Park."  Since there is the suggestion that this is the first flowering of this hybrid it was either a different Amaryllis hybrid or the first flowering of  the Amarygia from the Brunsvigia parent.

 

I have seedlings of crosses both ways between B. littoralis x Amaryllis,  Amaryllis x B. josephinae, and Amaryllis x B. marginata. The B. littoralis crosses are 5 years old and I expect  the Amaryllis seed parent seedlings to start flowering in Feb 2011 - those with B. littoralis seed parents will probably require a few more years to form a large enough bulb. The leaves of these are similar to the species in being ground hugging.  The  Amaryllis x josephinea seedlings at Camden Park are now in their second season - and because they have been planted in nursery beds in a rich loam soil - they are likely to flower in 5 years time = Feb 2014 -  They do have the advantage that there will be a lot of them in flower - however Colin did tell me that most  of the seedlings from the Brusnvigia seed parent didnt regrow after their summer dormancy. 

 

Three years ago I was informed by an old Amaryllis grower from Tasmania that it took him 12 years to flower his first Amaryllis x B. josephinae seedlings and he  made the cross both ways.   I saw two photographs of  these flowers, one was the typical F1 Amarygia and the second was similar except for having straight instead of reflexed tepals!   I also obtained from him seed of a cross between the Amaryllis belladonna Multiflora x B. josephinae. These are the Multiflora's featured  in the Herbertia 1996 Vol 51 pp113-117,article by Vic Abela. This will be interesting as the seedlings are definitely from a large flowered Amarygia x B josephinea.  At the close of the article Vic Abela also mentions that he has seen another version of the F1 Amarygia which is similar but has a smaller semi-radial umbel and the flowers are not so deep pink in colour.   

 

 Emmeline Emily Macarthur married Sir Henry Watson Parker  who was then Secretary to the Governor of New South Wales (and later he became a politican and State Govenor) on  21 November 1843 in New South Wales. She was the  youngest daughter of John Macarthur and until her marriage she lived with her two brothers William and James MacArthur at Camden Park.  She and her husband returned permanently to live in England in 1858 and she took with her some bulbs of the white Amaryllis hybrid that grew  at Camden Park, we know this as she mentions it in one of her letters. She keep a diary of all of Bidwills visits and lengths of his stays at Camden Park. Its hard to know whether she also remade Bidwills crosses or if James Macarthurs daughters were involved in this.