Why I Oughta...

Time to check in our our Winter flowering bulb project: our planted amaryllis for Christmas flowers.  All of them are at different stages and provide a nice contrast between the set of four bulbs in pots. You can see the three Menards bulbs in the photo at the top here with the Star of Holland bulb being the one that has shot up the furthest and is starting to have a flower emerge. For reference:  This is the full set of four from November 23rd  - three weeks ago - that shows all four of the bulbs including a few of the Menards ones that had some early (and pale green) growth from the bulb.  And here's a set of photos from the end of November that shows how far these have come in a couple of weeks .  I also tracked our bulb last year - here's a look at it on Christmas Day - no bloom .  Back to this year, we have a clear leader: The Star of Holland - a red flower with white stripes.  Here's a closer look at the Star of Holland: The bloom is right around 10&qu

Here's a current look at our four Amaryllis bulbs.  One of them - the Star of Holland - is out in front in terms of growth as it has two buds that have emerged and are starting to gain some height.  You can see that one on the left of this photo above.  At center - near the bottom of the photo - is the Cherry Nymph bulb that cost almost 3x the other ones .  If you look closely, you'll see a little leaf emerging from the bulb, so things are moving on it. As for the other two, you can see them in the background of the photo above, but for a closer view, check out the photo below.  The bulb at the bottom of the photo is the Apple Blossom Amarylli s and is a little bit further ahead than the one in the back - the Red Lion Amaryllis . I've switched over now to watering these all with a alcohol-blended water mixture to try to limit the height/leggy-ness of the stems.  What is most striking is that all three of the Menards bulbs have taken off.  The last time I tried o

A few days ago, I posted about the Cherry Nymph Amaryllis bulb that I bought at Wannemaker's and planted in a pot to get the season started .  I mentioned in that post that we were going to try (again) a few smaller (and much cheaper) bulbs from Menards.  I found the receipt from Wannemaker's and the bulb that I bought there was $15.99 and after tax came in at $17.27.  The other ones that I bought at Menards are sold as a "gift box" and as you can see from the photo below are going for $5.49.  So...about 1/3rd of the price.  We bought three of them - one for each of the kids to do as a project.  These 'gift boxes' come with a plastic pot (with no drainage holes), what they call 'growing medium' (which I'm pretty sure is peat) and the bulb.  We bought one of each variety.  First is the Star of Holland.  Next is the Red Lion. And last is the Apple Blossom.  Here they are in their pots alongside the larger Cherry Nymph bulb.  E

This year's large Amaryllis bulb is this double-flowering Cherry Nymph bulb that I bought at Wannamaker's last weekend.  One year ago today, I posted about last year's Christmas Amaryllis getting started  but, that version ended up falling a little bit behind of schedule.  By mid-December, it was just starting to send up the trunk . And it didn't bloom for Christmas .  It eventually bloomed in January  and then we were treated to a second flower in March . I treated it with an 8% alcohol treatment last year and I think that worked to limit the height and make it leggy.  I wonder if that kept it from blooming on time? This bulb was $14.99 from Wannemaker's - as those are the ones that seem to work every year.  But, I'm also going back to the Menards Amaryllis to try those again - with the kids. As for this Cherry Nymph - below you can see the large bulb before I stuck it in the pot. And here is it planted in the new clay pot. I am planning on

It is March and we're still getting this big, beautiful bloom of double flowers from our Amaryllis bulb .  I planted this in the last week of November of 2018.   One week in, it showed no promise .  By the end of 2018, it still had not opened .  So, we missed our 'Christmas flower'.  Not the end of the world.  After giving it a constant drink of an alcohol mix, I was able to restrict it's height.  And it bloomed at the end of January .  Then, in February, I posted about how we were getting a second shaft coming from the bulb and that we were going to be getting a second set of flowers .  Today, I'm sharing a photo of this second bloom.  The variety is called a " Double Flowering Nymph ", but that notion of 'double flowering' has to do with the flowers in one bloom.  They have an inner and outer flower.  But for us?  We're getting a double, double flowering.  The second stalk is the first double.  The fact that they have rings of flowers i

In January, I posted the results of how I successfully used an alcohol mix to limit the height of our amaryllis bulb .  This was the first year that I tried to keep it from getting too tall in an attempt to be not so top-heavy.  Welp, guess what?  This bulb has thrown up a second stalk and it looks like we're going to get a second bloom.  The photo above is of this second stalk that has emerged from the bulb. And in the bottom photo below, you can kind of see the withered part of the initial stalk that I cut down at the top of the bulb.  From a look around the web, getting a second bloom (in winter) isn't that rare, it is just something that our bulbs haven't delivered in the past.  Just look at the images on this sales page - where they show multiple stalks shooting up in some of their bulbs. I haven't tried to keep an Amaryllis year-over-year, but now that I see this one paying off twice, maybe this is something we should try??

These photos of our Christmas Amaryllis are a few days old, so let's call it mid-January in terms of the timing of the bloom.  Look at that beauty!  Double blooming variety that is still going strong for us.  But, this post isn't about the blooms.  It is about the height of the bulb stalk.  I placed a ruler in the pot and you can see in the photo below:  11.5" tall to the top of the bloom. And, just for record-keeping sake, here's a photo (below) of where I placed the bottom of the ruler:  at the top of the bulb - NOT at soil level. Amaryllis have a tendency to get long and leggy and with the size of those blooms, from time-to-time, they tip over because the stalk is too lean and long.  How does one solve that?  By poisoning the bulb.  Seriously.  I mentioned in my post in December that I'd been giving this bulb an 8% (approximately) blend of vodka and water .  In an attempt to keep the stalk from growing too tall. And, guess what?  It totally

Still no bloom .  But, plenty of progress as the bud is opening up and beginning to show how many flowers it is going to show off this January.  This went into a pot in Mid-November, so we're now sitting at seven weeks of growth.  Two or so in November.  Four in December.  And almost one in January this year.  This is the second year that I've bought the bulb at Wannemaker's annual Christmas Open House and I'm sitting at 50/50 in terms of timing it right for a Christmas bloom.  My instincts (largely based on this year) is that I should start these earlier - mostly so they'll be ready for the Babe's annual Birthday party - which takes place about a week before Christmas.  But, there isn't enough data.  One bulb:  six weeks to full bloom.  This bulb?  Likely eight weeks or more.  Year three will, I suppose, tilt the operation one way or the other once we see how long that one takes to bloom. 

The last time we checked-in on our Christmas Amaryllis, I was hopeful that we'd see a Christmas flower.  Alas, Christmas Day has come and gone and we're still staring at a bud with no flowers.  But, what is most interesting is that this is a 'short' bulb.  I've been - basically - p oisoning the bulb with a 8% dilution of alcohol in an attempt to keep it from getting too tall .  It appears to be working.  But that doesn't change the fact that our bulb isn't going to flower any time soon.   

Back in November, I posted photos of the Amaryllis bulb I planted (Double Flowering Nymph) and about a week in, I shared what was then the first sign of life emerging from the bulb.  Last year, I posted a photo of our bulbs on December 16th and remarked how I was hoping it would emerge in time for Christmas.  Turns out, it was *right.on.time*.  This year?  Different story.  The photo up top shows how one of the stems has begun to emerge, but it is just that:  barely emerging from the bulb.  The other one - a little bit further ahead is all bud and no stem.  Compare them to December 16th last year .  Maybe eight inches of height difference.  With nine days left before Christmas, I'm thinking this is more New Year's Amaryllis vs. Christmas flower.  That's the bad.  The good? It appears that we're going to get two stems with big buds on them as the second one continues to catch up with the first one.  You can see a better look at both of them in the photo below.

One week in with our 2018 edition of the amaryllis bulb and I'm happy to report that there's a little bit of action going on here.  Here's the post showing the bulb both before it went into the pot and right after .  If you look closely at this photo above, you'll notice two things:  First, the tiniest little green shoot emerging from the middle (top part of the bulb in this photo) and a good-sized 'gap' that has been created near the bottom of the bulb in this photo.  Thinking that the 'gap' that is being made is the result of some growth down below and just kind of *making room* for even more green shoots to emerge.  As a reminder, this is a double-flowering Nymph bulb that has white flowers with some red/pink accents.  I'll keep an eye on this, but I'm hoping that by mid-December, we'll have a nice-looking plant beginning to head skywards.  Here's the bulb from 2017 on December 16th to give you a sense for what should take pla

Like a lot of you guys, I have a whole bunch of Christmas traditions.  Sure, there's the Christmas Train and all the various foodstuffs, but there's also one that is gardening-related:  Planting an amaryllis bulb.  Here's a post showing the two bulbs I planted last year (one from Wannemaker's and one from Menards) .  If you look at that post, you'll notice that the one from Menards - that cost $2.99 - never took off while the $15 version from Wannemakers shot up and bloomed right around Christmas Day.  This year, I simplified things and decided to just do one of these and (obviously) went with what worked last year and bought the $15 version from Wannemakers.  You can see how they pack the bulbs above in a kind of foam carriage to protect the bulb while keeping it free from trapping moisture.  When I was at the store recently, I couldn't remember what variety I bought last year, but remembered that I went with a double flowering version.  So, I poked arou

About 10 days before Christmas, our amaryllis looked like this .  But on Christmas day?  It had bloomed!  All four ways.  It was a spectacular flower and as luck would have it, the final of the four buds opened on Christmas day.   That's a shot of the white/red beauty above.  There were four of these double petal stars for us to enjoy for a few weeks.   You'll recall that this is the bulb that we picked up at Wannemakers and it was far outperforming the cheap one from Menards .  I'm really so pleased with how this - the $14 version one - worked out for us.  The Menards one ($3 one!), is still chugging along, but it is all green shoots and no stem so far. Next year, the Babe already has plans to get after these things at scale.  And by 'scale', we're talking about 4 or 5 of them.  She's thinking that in addition to us trying a couple different ones, we can work on a project together and be in a position of gifting them already planted around St. Ni

What you see in the two closest pots to the front of the photo are amaryllis bulbs.  In different states of growth.  On the left is a $14 bulb that I bought at Wannamaker's.  On the right - the bulb that is *barely* sticking out of the dirt is a $3 bulb that I bought at Menards.  I planted them at pretty close to the same time but they're at drastically different places in their growth cycle.  The Wannamaker's one seemed expensive at the time, but now I'm thinking it was money well spent compared to the dud that is the bulb from Menards.  I planted the Menards bulb in the puck of dirt that they sent with the bulb, but chose potting soil for the big one.  I threw out the plastic pot from Menards and put it in a pot that drains.  But...the coir (I think that's what the disk that expands of 'dirt' is called?) is contributing to the lack of growth?  That might be part of it, but there's clearly a difference between the two, right?  Like...the $14 bulb