Amarine – a Manmade Gem

Looking great in the garden in November are our collection of x Amarines. These are a fascinating man-made group of hybrids between two South African genera of bulbs, Amaryllis belladonna and Nerine, first described in 1961. These grow their foliage in winter, which is a problem in climates as cold as ours. If the foliage gets damaged in winter, they rarely have enough energy to flower the next year. We actually weren’t expecting any flowers this fall, since we experienced 11F last winter, so this is a lovely surprise. We find these grow best in open shade to part day sun, as long as the drainage is good.

Below are several selections from our collection of Hemskerk hybrids, introduced in 2012. The top is xAmarine ‘Anastasia’, followed by xAmarine ‘Elvi’, ending with xAmarine ‘Emanuelle’.

xAmarine ‘Anastasia’
xAmarine ‘Elvi’
xAmarine ‘Emanuelle’

A Marine

You’re probably thinking that we’re referring to a branch of the military, but instead we’re writing about a plant by the same name. x Amarine is a man-made amaryllid hybrid, created from a bi-generic (think humans x gorillas) cross between Amaryllis belladonna and Nerine. As a rule, most Amaryllis belladonna are fairly ungrowable in the Southeast US, as are most nerines. In theory, the hybrids should be completely ungrowable, but fortunately, that isn’t the case.

Amaryllis belladona is difficult for us to flower because the foliage, which grows during the winter, gets blasted by cold weather, which in turn prevents it from sending energy to the bulb, resulting in a lack of flowers. The same holds true with the hybrid x amarine. It’s only after a mild winter or two that the bulbs have enough energy to produce flowers. Thank goodness, this is a great year for x amarines to flower. Below are one of our patches of x Amarine ‘Anastasia’, which has been flowering at JLBG for several weeks.

 x Amarine 'Anastasia'
x Amarine ‘Anastasia’