Hippie Days

So many possible hippie post titles. Hippie ever after, peace love and hippies, happy hippies. But anyway, you’re not here for my poor jokes.

Hippeastrum are also known as October lilies, amaryllis, striped Barbados lilies and even occasionally Christmas lilies (though how it can be both an October lily and a Christmas lily is beyond me…). And technically Amaryllis is a genus of it’s own and not a Hippeastrum. But I’ve always just called them hippies.

Hippies used to be a member of the lily family (Liliaceae) but that whole family has been subdivided and re-classified over the years and Hippeastrum is now a member of the Amaryllidaceae family. Which is neither here nor there, but the reclassification is a bit days of your lives if you ever read into it. Botanists!

Hippeastrum flower bud

Back to hippies. They are huge bulbs with long green strappy leaves, and tall flower spikes that hold 4-5 large lily-like flowers. They are native to Mexico and northern South America, so do really well in the subtropics and tropics, but can even be grown in colder climates, though they should be grown in pots or lifted to protect them over winter.

There are around 90 different species of Hippeastrum, but lots of what we see for sale are hybrids, bred for colour and shape. In warmer climates the foliage won’t die down, and, like one of their common names suggests, they flower around October. The bulbs do like to be partially exposed which I think is part of their charm, especially when single bulbs are grown in pots.

The name Hippeastrum comes from the Greek words hippeus (mounted knight) and astron (star) in reference to the markings on some species flowers that look like a knight’s star.

Being closely related to lilies, they can suffer from the lily caterpillar, which bore into the leaves and chew their way (inside the leaf) down to the bulb, where they pupate in the ground. They make a right mess of the plants, and I haven’t had a lot of success treating them organically, although neem oil can help. Apart from caterpillars though (which I find come and go and can be worse some years than others), hippies are relatively easy to grow and flower. They are tolerant of most soils and like full to part sun. They’ll also gradually divide over the years so you can spread them around and get more bang for your buck!