What’s an Amarine and should I grow it? Also, when do you plant the bulbs?
x Amarine is a cross of the South African bulb Nerine and Amaryllis belladonna (Naked Ladies). According to the Pacific Bulb Society, the plants have larger flowers than Nerine. The cross was developed in the Netherlands in 1940, according to this article by Graham Duncan of Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in South Africa.
This British commercial gardening site says that x Amarine improves upon Nerine’s reluctant and unpredictable blooming habits. x Amarine keeps its foliage while it is blooming. Nerine, on the other hand, produces foliage in the spring and flowers when the foliage dies back in autumn.
In his article on Belles of the Autumn Border, Graham Rice says that × Amarine tubergenii is in between its parents in flower numbers and flower size. For a Pacific Northwest perspective on growing Nerine (and its cousins), you may find Susan Calhoun’s article in Fine Gardening useful. As far as when to plant these fall-flowering bulbs in the Northwest, we suggest doing it in May when all danger of frost is long past.