Growing Cool Plants: Hybrids between Amaryllis and Brunsvigia marginata

One of my favorite bulbs is Brunsvigia marginata, an Autumn-blooming South African plant that produces big globular flower heads with large scarlet-red flowers. It's incredibly eye-catching, but unfortunately it's also a bit fussy in my California garden. I don't know if the problem is my heavy clay soil, or the climate, or something else, but it's hard to get it to bloom reliably.

Enter Amaryllis 'Multiflora,' which is widely known in California as "naked ladies" because it has attention-getting flowers that bloom before the leaves grow. These plants are extremely reliable in California, and along the coast they're virtually bulletproof.

I wanted to mix the color of B. marginata with the vigor of Amaryllis, so I crossed them. The result has been a series of flowers with a look that's midway between the two parents, some deep pink and the others in shades of red. They are much more reliable than marginata. Unfortunately, these plants also appear to be totally sterile, so I don't know if I can take this cross any further. I'll keep trying.

Here's a family portrait of several of them (the white flowers in the background are Amaryllis 'Multiflora'):