More please!

Here we are in September, the month during which amaryllis fans in the Northern Hemisphere begin salivating over (and ordering in earnest!) those new varieties that companies are lining up for autumn shipment. As usual, Royal Colors of the Netherlands has some offerings that just can’t be purchased from domestic U.S. suppliers. One such cultivar that popped up quite recently is the comely double, ‘Pink Glory’. One of the first things I do upon seeing a new variety is to check for name registry, and in this case it did bear fruit. This one is newly registered to Fa. Kwekerij Van der Ende Flowers, a company whose web presence was useful in researching the ‘LaPango’ situation. They are a prominent cut-flower producer of Hippeastrum. So, Emaryllis is thinking that maybe, just maybe Royal Colors could use their in-country connectedness to persuade the grower to spare some bulbs of their other fine new varieties this season. Last season’s limited offerings from the Berbee program were astonishing (OK, so we documented some issues, but hey). Consider this an open letter of request.It appears that in current production are the 2015 registrations ‘Green Valley’, and ‘Sofia’, alongside the fetching 2014 registered ‘Autumn Valley’. They showed up on Floricode early this year, so it all seems possible if the grower wished to diversify their income towards some dry bulb sales, and satisfy a cadre of avid collectors. For good measure, Van der Ende has been added to the resource page, as they seem to be really stepping it up in our amaryllis realm. In addition to the aforementioned, they are currently producing everything from the 1953 heirloom, ‘Bouquet’ to their own smaller white ‘Costa Blanca’, to Penning’s ‘Twinkle Star’, to ‘Tarantula’, none of which (aside from ‘Bouquet’ many moons ago) has been offered in North America. While there isn’t much time left for dreaming before those amazingly robust bulbs begin their journey to our homes and gardens, perhaps there is little time left for a few more wishes to be made!