“No name red” shows its true colors

Ahh, the final box kit of the season. This purchased at a local full service nursery a week later than the ‘Minerva‘ ‘Mambo’ kit, just as the weather was getting quite chilly. Since they were outdoors, under a shed roof I was concerned that they had already faced some freezing temperatures. The nice thing about a full service nursery: you can ask questions. Turns out they wheeled the display carts inside each night. The other feature of full service nurseries can be cost: this was the most expensive kit for this season. And here are the stats:

Cost: US $12.99

Date purchased: November 16, 2014

Date planted: November 16, 2014

Bulb size: actual 22.5cm/claim size on box: none

Bulb origin: unclear

Pot size: 6″/15cm

Kit brand: TotalGreen Holland (Quebec, Canada)

Maybe #23 is lucky? We’ll see. The front of the box is emblazoned with the words “Holland Product” yet no mention of bulb origin is to be found. It does warn us not to eat the bulb, which is sage advice.

Well, some good some bad. This bulb has not prematurely sprouted out in the package. So, probably grown in either Holland or Israel. The bulb measures a puny 22.5cm circumference. To be fair no bulb grade or size is found on the box, so no false advertising can be charged. Still, that is a borderline bulb size for the Dutch hybrids. The little tangle of dry roots are all crispy, and so were just tugged right off of the base of the bulb. As usual, the coconut coir from Sri Lanka. Don’t forget the mosquito grade Bt or fungus gnats will have their way with your pot…especially since it has (yikes!) NO drainage holes. And it is made here in the USA, how embarrassing. Do not neglect to punch some decent holes in the bottom. You have been warned.

OK, just barely enough media for the pot, but with such a small bulb, we really don’t need to fill it that high anyway. Now, off to a warm, sunny windowsill.

So, about 8 weeks later here we are. One scape (I doubt it will make a second) just a bit past the holidays, but that’s alright. Big, bold flowers (six of them!) cheer up the house just as had been hoped. But Houston, we have a problem. While there are many shades of red, and amaryllis do scarlet oh so well, this thing is orange. A pretty true orange, not an almost red shaded orange. So, the production of 6 flowers along with the color ruled out what would have been expected, either ‘Red Lion’ or ‘Ferrari’, or the like. This is the same clone sold nowadays as ‘Orange Souvereign’. Maybe that extra “u” started being used around the time the original ‘Orange Sovereign’ (a larger flowered and nearly red orange variety) vanished from the marketplace. This clone was also offered under the unregistered ‘Orange Monarch’ name years ago. It’s a good selection, so I just can’t make myself see red over this situation. The verdict: orange is the new red.