Beautiful surprise

Over the course of the last two years I've lost quite a few plants as they've all been in pots sitting out on the deck, not the best place to be in cold, wet winters.

Some of the losses have been a surprise, some a disappointment, but some of the survivals have been a surprise too. This is Hippeastrum x acramannii,  or I think it is as I seem to have lost the label, and is one of a crateful of potted hippeastrums which have come through two winters outside with no protection; this is the only one which is flowering however.  I had some of these planted outside at Arduaine quite successfully and it's colder up on the hill in Oban. 

I take great delight, every time I show a picture of, or talk about hippeastrums, that they are not the same as amaryllis, though they are always sold as such. Amaryllis are from South Africa, hippeastrum from South America. Purely the stubbornness of the horticultural trade!