Nerine 'Hirao h81h'
10th November 2013
Compact heads of warm pink flowers.
There is a story about the Hirao Nerine, told by Kees Sahin and related by John Grimshaw in his online blog (23.10.2010)
"Breeding was not confined to Europe however, and Nerine sarniensis hybrids are also popular in Japan. Kees Sahin, the remarkable Dutch plantsman and seedsman,
for whom I used to work, had an extraordinary tale about them. There was an old breeder who had a superb collection of plants, the result of a life's work.
One day at flowering time he cut a bunch of the best stems and sent them to the famous Japanese plant breeder, Dr. Hirao, then destroyed all his plants
and comitted hara-kiri. What he had not bargained with was that Nerines mature their seeds very quickly after flowering, and can do so even on a cut stem;
Dr. Hirao was thus able to gather seed from the best clones in Japan and continue the breeder's work. The plant shown above is known as 'Hirao H81h' and is presumably a derivative
of this original stock."
8th October 2021