Why I Oughta...

Just about a month after planting three Blossom Peacock Amaryllis bulbs in a container, we have a number of blooms that have arrived and opened up.  With my middle child, we put this together for my Mom and brought it over to her house.   Here's the post from mid-November showing the three (then dormant) bulbs with moss covering the soil.  And then two weeks ago, I posted a photo showing how they had progressed with some flower stalks shooting upwards with bulging buds , but no flowers.  Once the foliage and flower buds emerged from the bulb, my Mom moved the container closer to the window to give it some bright light.   After the stalks shot up, she moved it back away from the window and has watched the flowers open up.  Below is a photo showing the current state of these three bulbs - one of which appears further ahead than the others (but you can see some soon-to-open buds in the photo): Blossom Peacock Amaryllis in Bloom Back in my original ...

A little bit over three weeks ago, we planted three Blossom Peacock Amaryllis bulbs in a single container proceeded to tuck them in with a little bit of moss to cover the soil.  These were slightly smaller bulbs than the ones we get at the local garden center and they weren't showing any signs of life, so I wasn't sure what we'd get from them.   After arranging them, we brought them over to my Mom's house where she proceeded to tend to them and put them in a bright spot.   Fast forward three weeks, and these have taken off: All three bulbs have straps of foliage that have arrived and two of the bulbs have a bud that is gaining height.   When they're this tall is when I typically shift to the 'poison phase' of watering.  Instead of pure tap water, these will now get about 10% alcohol mixed with the water.  To (hopefully) stunt the height a little bit (without burning the roots).  Here's a post about how I did this Paperwhite bulbs ....

November is the time when the outdoor garden gets put to bed for the year, but it is also the time when I turn to some indoor (seasonal) gardening.  That usually starts with Amaryllis bulbs - or as we call them around here:  Christmas flowers.   Last month, I posted some photos and details of the $10 Amaryllis bulbs that my local Orange Big Box store was carrying and talked about how their smaller (than what we normally buy) size would work well for a 'multiple' bulb container. My mom has this faux birch cache pot that seemed like a perfect vessel for three smaller Christmas flowers.   I figured I'd fill it up and we can deliver it back to her for the season. At the story, I picked-up and handled dozens of bulbs until I could find three that 'felt good' to me.  That meant that they were firm, green, had *some* roots and the foliage wasn't all strap-y and exposed already.  I've had bad luck with Big Box Amaryllis bulbs before (I've also had duds f...