Narrative
Hippeastrum x hybridum ‘Sigh’ is a moderately tall bulbous herbaceous perennial. Bulbs are 5-6 cm diam at first flowering, maturing to 8-9 cm, producing 1-2 offset bulbs annually. Leaves are strap-shaped, green, two to four per bulb, 55-65 cm long, 4.8-5.5 cm wide. Scapes are 45-50 cm tall, 2-3 per bulb, each bearing 3-4 flowers per scape with pedicels 5-7 cm long. The spreading funnelform perianth is 13.5-15 cm long, laterally 15 cm and dorsoventrally 14 cm wide. The six tepals are of medium texture, and slightly ruffled along the margin. The outer tepals are 12.5-13 cm long, and 7-7.5 cm wide at their broadest; the inner tepals are 11.5-12 cm long, the inner laterals 6-6.5 cm wide; the ventral inner ca. 5.3 cm wide. The tepals are uniformly striated a reflective salmony-red, with RHSCC red 43B the closest match, with broad, light, white median keels, and a salmon-red picotee. The throat has a short green zone at the base of the tepals. A short, ring of fimbrae occurs at the throat. Stamens are 11 to 12 cm long, lightly freckled salmony-red white below, green in the proximal 0.5 cm; pollen is yellow. The style is ca. 13 cm and colored similarly to the staminal filaments; the trifid white stigma is ca. 7.5 mm wide. This a complex, fifth generation hybrid that began with a primary hybrid of H. ambiguum x H. papilio, with successive crosses with H. brasilianum and the cultivars ‘Mt. Blanc’, ‘Bouquet’ and ‘Wonderland’.