
Hayward Photo 
Amaryllis rutila var. fulgida—a rare semi-dwarf type of “species” Amaryllis as 
found in nature. It is a robust type of this attractive small-flowered species, the 
bulb in this picture producing three scapes with a full dozen blooms at Lakemont 
Gardens last spring. 
The culture of Hybrid Amaryllis on a serious commercial scale in America 
may be said to have begun in Florida with the late Henry Nehrling of Gotha and 
Theodore L. Mead of Oviedo, pioneer horticulturists of the Sunshine State. Dr. 
Nehrling, whose life and writings are an inspiration to the garden lover in the 
sub-tropics, imported the finest strains from England and the continent in his time, 
beginning in the 90’s when he first settled in Central Florida. 
From his collection came the bulbs which Dr. Mead used in his foundation 
stock, ultimately becoming the most widely grown strain of hybrid Amaryllis in 
the world. As even today from the carefully hybridized and selected strains only 
a few of the best flower types will come from seedlings in proportion to the 
total number grown, so it can be understood that in the Mead strain, produced 
entirely from seedlings or offsets, and without the care and attention to the 
parent stock that Mead and Nehrling exercised, the quality became more variable 
as the years went by and more and more Amaryllis were grown in the open field, 
sometimes by men who cared nothing about the quality of the flower of the bulbs 
they grew, and whose main ambition was to grow as large a crop of big bulbs 
as possible. 
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