Amaryllis ‘Papilio’

In the depths of winter, one of the great floral delights that we can grow indoors (in the UK), are Amaryllis. This is A. ‘Papilio’, which is now in it’s third year of flowering. I have two others that flowered for the first two years, but I’m not sure if they will again. Once again, the natural light in the greenhouse made it easier to photograph. Note to self: get some nice material to use as a backdrop.

Two very large flowers (bigger than my hand) facing off opposite sides of the large central stem. The colours are faded to lime green, with strong dark red markings running along the ridges on the petals, making it look stripy, except in the middle where the colour has joined up. It's a fabulous flower and wants us to know it.
Focusing on one flower, which is now almost fully open and you can see the ridged dark red markings very clearly.
A view of the side and back of the large flower. The back is much more lime green, then as the petals come out you can see the dark red colour of the petals coming through.

I was particularly fascinated to see how the pistils (female parts) and stamens (male parts) develop when in flower.

An emerging flower, which is mostly still closed, by you can see the long pistils and stamens reaching out. The stamens are 4 long and thin 'buds' that are purple and white. You can only just see the white tip of the single pistol.
The emerging stamens and pistol.
The flower is out fully, but the focus is on the pistols and stamens. The stamens have opened up and reveal the yellow pollen inside. The single pistil is a very faded green to white.
The stamens opening to expose the pollen.
At this stage the stamens have shrunk with to a small bean like shape, with the pollen entirely exposed. The single pistol is now longer than the stamens.
The stamens are fully open and only the pollen sides are seen.

It’s not always easy to get repeat flowering from Amaryllis, so I consider Papilio to be a bit of a success. It’s even got some young bulbs offshoots developing, which I’m going to pot up.

Two very large flowers (bigger than my hand) facing off opposite sides of the large central stem. The colours are faded to lime green, with strong dark red markings running along the ridges on the petals, making it look stripy, except in the middle where the colour has joined up. It's a fabulous flower and wants us to know it.

Will I make it to year four? Stay tuned.

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