Amaryllis Hippeastrum Mont Blanc

For two years I've been attempting to buy a white flowering Amaryllis with little luck. White flowers aren't uncommon and usually not highly sought after but since I was buying Amaryllis bulb kits I usually ended up with a bulb that flowered something other than white. Mislabeled bulbs in kits are unfortunately very common and they're always a gamble when you want a specific flower color.

This year I finally lucked out and the bulb in the kit was the color that was represented on the Amaryllis kit photograph. Amaryllis Hippeastrum 'Mont Blanc' is what was promised in the kit and it looks like my bloom is pretty close to what 'Mont Blanc' is suppose to look like. The name for this white-flowered Amaryllis is French and translates to "white mountain." While not as spectacular as the name implies the pure white flowers of this bulb are rather charming and have a sparkle when the sun hits them that reminds me of sugar crystals.

Amaryllis Hippeastrum 'Mont Blanc'

The scape of my bulb is ten inches tall and atop the scape there are three blooms; all perfectly white except for the green-yellow center. The white flower of this bulb is five inches across and after opening the edges of the flower petals are ruffled. To be honest I was expecting a much larger flower and scape than what my bulb has produced, something resembling a white version of Amaryllis Hippeastrum 'Red Lion.'

My expectations for the flower were probably set high by the photograph of the Amaryllis flower that can be found on the bulb kit. I purchased this kit at Home Depot around the Christmas Holiday and you may notice a dramatic difference between the flowers on the packaging and the flower picture above. After examining the photograph on the bulb kit and looking at my Amaryllis flower I think the photographer may have taken some creative liberties in representing 'Mont Blanc' or maybe my bulb isn't really 'Mont Blanc.'

The Amaryllis photograph on the box and the one that I own are both white and have the ruffled edges and green centers but the flowers on the box are much larger than mine. My flower also has the "sparkle" to the petals that 'Mont Blanc' is known to have. The differences in the sizes of the flowers could be attributed to the size of the bulb and how much fertilizer my bulb received when it was being grown. But when I look closely at the photograph on the box I can see what I think are signs of photo manipulation. The reason the blooms on the box look so large is because they were probably extracted from enlarged and pasted together to give a more flattering representation of 'Mont Blanc.' The information on this Amaryllis Kit doesn't give many clues as to who the grower of the bulb was other than to say the bulb was grown from cultivated stock in Brazil. While not as dramatic as the flowers on the box I'm still pleased with the purchase of this Amaryllis and plan to keep it and use it in my propagation experiments.

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