MySecretGarden: Amaryllis

Showing posts with label Amaryllis. Show all posts

February In My Garden

When it is sunny outside, I go to the garden to do an inventory of what is poking from the ground, what is blooming and what needs to be done as soon as possible.

Love this plant - Sedum rupestre (Angelina Stonecrop). It's evergreen and always looks bright and fresh! It's low and spreading, so it's a good groundcover! I've never seen a single weed growing through it. It has lovely star-shaped flowers, but even without them, it looks good. It is trailing, so it's suitable for containers. It easily breaks, but it easily roots too. What else is on my potting bench? Periwinkles and helleborus. I always plant extra seedlings into small containers for an easy giveaway, as pot fillers and as ready plant material for new beds.

I cut Sedum Autumn Joy for a February outdoor bouquet. I love this plant too. It looks wonderful all seasons.
What are potting benches for? For potting! This is a bowl that I filled with three Amaryllis plants.

Since they won't withstand winter temperatures, I took the bowl inside.

Moss is always available in my Pacific Northwest garden.

Helleborus is another favorite. It's time to cut its old leaves. It'll allow to see the white flowers better, and it'll give a chance for new fresh leaves to grow.

Helleborus foetidus also is hardy, reliable and easy to grow. Love its pale green flowers!

New to my garden - dark-flowered Helleborus that I got from my friend:

These pansies were covered by the snow for several days in January. Here they are, undamaged and blooming again!

Miniature daffodils and primulas are another staple in my garden:

Alliums join the ranks of tough and beautiful plants:

And, this is a surprise! My fall-planted white cabbage were eaten by rabbits and slugs. Only a couple of them were left on the raised bed just as some decoration. Well, I noticed in February that the plants not only survived the winter but developed new heads!

Sun doesn't last long nowdays, so it's time to do at least one garden chore - pruning clematis. Tangled with magnolia vine Eastern Prince, it didn't bloom well the last two seasons. I decided to do a radical pruning and left only several inches above the ground. I don't have anything to lose!

All in all, February was not a bad month.

I am linking up with Outdoor Wednesday

Amaryllis Blooms Twice in 2 Months

Can I brag a bit? I want to show you my Amaryllis arrangement which is blooming for the second time in two months. The first blooms were shown here: Amaryllis. My Picture of the Day and this is the photo taken in January:

Photo: January 2011

It is early March now, and this is what I have:

Photo: March 2011

Two of the same three plants have blooms again. The plant in the middle has five huge blooms. Actually, they look even larger than those in January. The second bulb shows one unopened bud so far. The third bulb doesn't have buds yet.

Photo: March 2011

Want to know my secret? How I forced them to bloom again? I won't share my secret with you. You wouldn't want to follow it. It's too complicated and time-consuming. It involves calculus calculations, chemistry and a bit of voodoo. Just kidding. I am just pulling your leg. Do you use this expression often 'You are pulling my leg"? No? Yes? For me, it is one of those expressions in American English that stands along with 'Raining cats and dogs', ' You are in the doghouse' and 'Couch potato'. Oops, I got carried away. Back to our Amaryllis. What is usually recommended? When amaryllis finishes blooming, they recommend the following: 1- cut it a couple of inches above the bulb; 2- do not remove leaves since they provide nourishment for the bulb; 3- place the bulb in a sunny window til the danger of frost has passed; 4- water when the soil dries; 5-move Amaryllis outside when temperatures are above freezing.

Photo: March 2011

My secret of making these bulbs bloom a second time is: Leave it alone! I mean it. Do nothing. I left my container with three bulbs alone where it was standing all the time while blooming: on the breakfast table. Nothing special about that place, just no direct light. I didn't water the bulbs after the blooming ended. I cut down the stalks with the spent flowers. Several nice green leaves were so pretty, I enjoyed watching them. If all the leaves got yellow, I'd cut them down and kept the bulbs til spring when I would plant them in the garden and let them grow til fall. In fall, I'd follow the tips which you left in your comments here. Because the leaves looked so nice, I left the container alone. New leaves grew, and then I noticed bulbs! What fun! Actually, I recall one special thing I did: I was very excited with those three amaryllises and kept showing them to my family, praising them and asking: Aren't they beautiful? Aren't they gorgeous? I hope the third bulb will show a bud soon. In the picture below, it’s on the left.

Photo: March 2nd, 2011

I just took another picture that shows the second bulb's flowers opened. They are smaller than the January blooms and almost twice smaller than the flowers on the middle bulb. But, it doesn't make them less special.

Photo: March 6th, 2011

So, what do you think: do I have bragging rights or is the consecutive blooming of an Amaryllis typical in your experience?

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Amaryllis. My Picture of the Day

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January White and Reds

I wanted some snow. I got it. It came in the evening and was gone by the next night.

Streaks of falling snow can be seen in this picture:

While white was the color that excited me outside, red is the color which excited me inside.

The Amaryllis flowers are not very big but the dark velvety color is asking to be called royal, dramatic and even poignant. It looks much lighter in the picture.
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Do you remember the Apple Blossom Amaryllis from my Ugly Duckling Amaryllis Story? Its bulb took a month-long break and now has new leaves coming. Wouldn't it be neat if it rebloomed? No? Never say never! But even narrow long and flat green leaves make, on their own, a nice sight in a house in winter, don't you think so? I even love the bulbs themselves! It is said that Amaryllis is cultivated for its beautiful and colorful flowers. But, just look at these huge, roughly textured beauties:
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When I look at these bulbs, I think about the power, energy and promise hidden in them! Isn't it amazing that an Amaryllis bulb is able to produce blooms for up to 75 years! Do you move your Amaryllis bulbs to the garden for summer and let them grow there before the next holiday season?
This year, instead of a poinsettia, we bought an arrangement of live plants which I plan to transfer to my garden in spring.

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Poinsettia, cyclamens, variegated ivy and .... can anyone remind me of the name of the little evergreens with light edges? This planter came from Canada's Rainbow Greenhouses. Thank you Canadian friends!

I see three seasons in this picture: the lonely leaf is left from the autumn, the snow tells 'winter' and the light piece of the sky symbolises the spring. Spring is only around the corner.

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P.S. The third part of Sprucing Up a Vegetable Garden is coming sooon!

An Ugly Duckling Amaryllis Story

It was dark. It was dark and scary in the little box. And quiet. Very quiet. The box was stacked, with many others, on a shelf in the far corner of the grocery store's garden department.
I suspect that the manager of that store never studied marketing. It's the holiday season when people look for stuff to decorate houses, buy gifts and cheer themselves up. I am the one who suits all of these needs. I am an Amaryllis Bulb! I am the one who brings the holiday atmosphere, who makes a great gift and who cheers everyone up! Everyone likes to watch my green leaves grow and my buds open into a miraculous flower. Who doesn't know that? Obviously, the store manager doesn't know. He or she chose this remote location for the amaryllis and paperwhite bulbs. Who will find us here?????
One day, I heard light steps. Someone was circling around the garden department, walking down the aisles and muttering something. The steps got louder and louder and finally stopped near my shelf. "At Last!" someone said. My heart started jumping. Choose me, choose me, please! And She did! She put my box in a shopping cart and went to the cashier. "What is it? Do you plant them outside"- asked the cashier? "Oh, these are amaryllis bulbs. And some paperwhites. They are great... You might want to try them... You will love them... The instructions are here, on the box. By the way, it would be nice to display them somewhere where customers could see them. It is their time!"

The box was opened at home but instead of excitement and cheer I heard something that made me feel bad. What's the matter with me? Why doesn't She like me? I am big and full of energy. Just give me some planting medium, and I'll show you a wonder! She turned me this and that way, and I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window. Oh, no! No, no, no! I have some growth already! Long days in a dark box resulted in a weak, pale, sickly, bended growth! After some thinking, She grabbed scissors and click - cut my growth off. Down to the trash can it went... This, I thought, was the end to my dreams, ambitiions and expectations. "I needed to open the boxes! I bought a cat in a sack!", She said.

But wait, what is this? What is She doing? She reached into the trash can, moved away a yogurt cup, took the cutting into her hands, turned again left and right and finally, put it into a small bowl with water. It was left in the laundry room and forgotten. Forgotten til one day when everyone in the house heard: "Wow! Come here! Look! Our ugly duckling turned into a beautiful swan! This is what happened with a 6-inch cutting!"
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It was the born-in-the-box bud's moment! It opened into a beautiful flower, and everyone loved it.

It was so happy and so grateful to Her that it decided to thank Her in a special way. Look at these pictures. This is its second bud that appeared seemingly from nowhere.
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