Hippeastrum papilio

Hippeastrum papilio, Butterfly Amaryllis, is one of the very best of the species Hippeastrums and is staggeringly beautiful. Its flowers are produced in pairs on short stems - usually in the Spring - and are pale whitish-green striped with maroon with pale green anthers on long elegant filaments. Although it had been known and described from a cultivated specimen it wasn't discovered in the wild until the 1990s when Fred Meyer found it growing epiphytically in forest in the extreme southeast of Brazil.

Hippeastrum papilio is reasonably cold-tolerant and will stand temperatures down to freezing point but not much beyond and must be considered tender in UK conditions. It is best grown indoors or a cool conservatory in the winter until it has flowered then placed outside in a moist warm location in the garden - sheltered and shady. Its pot can be plunged into the soil for the summer and early autumn where it will benefit from the light. Adventurous and experimental exotic gardeners in southwest coastal locations that are both sheltered and frost-free may wish to experiment with Hippeastrum papilio outdoors on a more long-term basis. A well-drained substrate and warm mulching of leaves would be a good idea.