Why I Oughta...

Just a week later and this is what our set of Paperwhite bulbs look like in their glass jar:  roots have gone wild and the tips of the stalks have all emerged and are starting to shoot upwards.  This happened REALLY fast (at least in my view) and I've tried to follow the recommendations so far - including keeping them out of a bright room while the roots establish.  Below is photo showing the current state of these Ziva Paperwhite bulbs : I went back and bought a 2nd bag of stones to help bury the bulbs up about half-way to help get them more solid ahead of the potential 'tipping' that happens with Paperwhites.   This am, I also began the poisoning of these bulbs in an attempt to keep them compact.  Below is the bottle of rubbing alcohol (91%) that I added in a small amount to the gravel.  It is about 5:1 water:alcohol added.  This will, hopefully, stunt these enough to keep them from 'flopping over'. I've used a similar alcohol treatment to Amaryllis bulbs in

Every Christmas season, I have usually planted a few Amaryllis bulbs with the kids in different-sized containers as a little winter-time project.  That has meant - historically - that we've bought a series of Amaryllis bulbs each November and planted them in hopes that they'd bloom near Christmas.  This past season, we had five planted in three pots .  Normally, I toss these bulbs and don't get them to re-bloom.  But this year, I'm trying something new:  trying to get them to re-bloom after spending the Summer out on our patio taking in sun and water.   What do they look like today?  They're full of green, strap-y foliage.  Here, below, are a few photos of the bulbs in their containers: After watching a few YouTube videos and rooting around on the Web, I think I've figured out that I need to remove these from their soil, shake free all the debris and put them in a dark, cool spot for 60ish days to try to send them into dormancy.  I have about 75 or so days befor

I'm calling it:  our Amaryllis season lasted until February 23rd, 2022.  Early February showed this Lemon Star Amaryllis in full bloom and today shows the last flower in decline.   Our 2020/2021 blooms were last documented in late January 2021 .  The Star of Holland Amaryllis from 2019/2020 season was in FULL bloom in mid-February , so I'm thinking that season lasted longer than Feb 23rd.  And, our 2018/2019 season went the longest - with this full-double-bloomed flower all the way late on March 3rd, 2019 .  My plan is to leave this Lemon Star bulb to leaf-out this Winter/Spring indoors and then move it outside to the patio come Spring/Summer and attempt to keep it for next Christmas.  2022 to-do list should include bulb management and reuse, right? 

When you plant a series of Amaryllis bulbs in November , they tend to go off on different schedules.  At least that's been my experience.  And that's one of the big reasons that I like to plant a variety of bulbs - so we get blooms throughout Winter.  In my ideal outcome, I'd see blooms starting the week of Christmas.  Then, carrying all the way through January and parts of February.   This year?  That's exactly what we've seen.   Are all of them still blooming now - in February?  Nope.  Just one.  The Lemon Star .  It was the slowest starter.  But now?  It is the last one left and is getting its time in the spotlight (meaning...it is the only one on our kitchen counter right now).   These bulbs and some of the tending that I'm doing to our houseplants is a good bridge through the dark, cold Winter in terms of gardening.   Below, you can see the blooms on the shorter of the two stalks that emerged this Winter.  Lovely green centers.   The last time that I posted

The Lemon Star Amaryllis bulb - that we planted in early November - sure missed the Christmas (and even New Year's) window, but it is now the real star of the show.  After the other blooms are (now) past their peak, this one is currently putting on a lovely green party in the center of our countertop.   The flowers are pretty big, but there isn't a ton of them - and they're not double-bloomed.   The other Amaryllis' that we've grown over the years have always tended towards the red/pink/maroon-type.  The Bird picked this one out because it was different.  Pretty sure it was the only green one at Wannemaker's this year.  Would recommend it to anyone - looking to do something a little more unique.    Looking back at this post from January 5th , it appears that 9 days of difference shows the growth from a closed, pointy bud on top of the stalk to having flowers on all four sides open and in bloom. There's another, lower secondary stalk with a bud emerging, so

Well, we didn't have Christmas flowers.  But, we sure do have New Year's flowers in two of our containers.  We came home from a long weekend to find out that both the trio of Red Lion Amaryllis bulbs and the red and white striped Sunshine Nymph have bloomed and opened up wide.  The last time that I shared photos of these was on December 28th , so in just a week they went from "beginning to open" to "full bloom" that you can see below.   The Lemon Star Amaryllis (our first green-colored bulb) is at the front of the table in the photo above and you can see that it has grown to be the tallest of the flower stems (Despite being watered with the alcohol/water mix), but the furthest behind in terms of blooming.  Thinking we'll see that one open up in the next week or so. Below are a few photos that I've taken over the last few days of the Sunshine Nymph flowers.  They're quite striking and have red petals with a white stripe down the middle.  The pet

All three of the containers are up with flower stalks, but the Red Tiger and the Sunshine Nymph are well ahead of the Lemon Star.  In just two weeks since my last photo update on these Christmas flowers, the buds on these two have opened wide and the flowers are beginning to unfurl.  Pacing-wise, these two are ahead of last year's version, but the Lemon Star is noticeably behind AND also pretty skinny and lean.  I'm not expecting a H U G E flower explosion from the Lemon Star (based on the bud size), but we should get flowers well into January this way - so I suppose that's a win of sorts.   Also, a note for the diary here, I began to water them with a 10:1 water:rubbing alcohol (91%) when they were about six inches tall.  I'm unsure if it had any impact on them what-so-ever.  

The last time that I checked in on the five Amaryllis Christmas bulbs was almost two weeks ago .  We have five bulbs in three planters.  And three different varieties .  In late November, we had growth from all five with the initial appearance of a few of the flower bulbs.  Today?  We have stalks shooting up in four of the five.  And good foliage growth in the final one.  Below, in the photo, you can see all of them.  On the right is the largest bulb (Sunshine Nymph).  Behind it is the slowest starter, but another good-sized bulb (Lemon Star).  And on the right is the trio of the big-box bulbs (Red Lion).    Now is the time that I'm going to begin to start 'poisoning' them with an alcohol/water mixture in an attempt to stunt their growth (so they don't get too 'leggy' and flop over).  Without a true 'control' bulb, I won't really know if the alcohol mixture is working.   One other note:  when were picking out the bulbs, so too was another woman.  Wh

It was just a few days ago that I posted a photo of some of the buds that had emerged on our Christmas Cactus and today that very cactus has the first bud that has opened and is VERY tropical-looking.  The flower is white/(very) pale pink flower petals with a bright pink stalk that has emerged.  (Is that the stamen?  The pistil?).  I'll be watching to see how these die back and if they need to be removed. In the photo below, you can see a few of the other buds that are growing up and out.  The one on the far left is about to open while the others continue to get larger.  I watered this thing in early this morning, but have to get read up on how much water it wants now that it is flowering.  

This Christmas season, we added a new Christmas plant - a Christmas Cactus - to our normal Amaryllis bulb setup that we plant every year.  I mentioned the Christmas Cactus back in late November and posted a photo then that showed tiny buds were already on the plant .  Today - about 10 or so days later, those buds are getting larger and getting ready to unfurl.  See below for current state of Christmas Cactus: The instructions said that this particular cactus (non-cactus) will bloom more if it is root-bound , so I'll have to remember that and not transplant next Winter (if it makes it that long!).   I'll try to track the blooming of this one to see if it stays in bloom all the way up through late December and lives up to the "Christmas" in the name.  

In addition to the five Amaryllis bulbs that we bought and planted last week , we also came home with a Christmas Cactus.  This was picked out and planted by the KotBTs - as he has a love of cactus (thanks, Preston Playz ).   We haven't had one of these before, but have come across them just about every holiday season.  But, is it a cactus?  The answer is *kinda*.  At least according to the Farmer's Almanac : Unlike other cacti, the Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera x buckleyi) and its relatives don't live in hot, arid environments such as deserts or plains. In fact, these epiphytic succulents are native to the tropical rainforests of southern Brazil, where they grow on tree branches and soak up the high humidity, dappled sunlight, and warm temperatures. The bottom line: Don't treat a Christmas cactus like it's a run-of-the-mill cactus or succulent. They can't take the same sort of sunny, dry conditions that other cacti can. It's important to water these cacti

Earlier this week, I posted photos of the three tags of the Amaryllis bulbs that we selected for Christmas 2021 .  We went with a few smaller, more common Red Lions and two larger (more expensive) flowers - one red/white (Sunshine Nymph) and the other one greenish (Lemon Star).  That means that this year we have five total bulbs planted up.  Below, is a look at all of them after a couple of days in the soil. The trio of Red Lions (on the right) are in a low, wide pot.  We topped that one with a little moss and a couple of rocks.  The Lemon Star is in the slightly smaller pot on the back left.  That, one too, has moss.  The largest bulb (Sunshine Nymph) is in the larger pot with no moss. Below is a look at the Lemon Star.  This is the one that The Bird picked out and is the only one of the five that hasn't gotten started just yet.  Still dormant.   Below is a closer look at the trio of Red Lions.  All three of these have small green shoots that have emerged from the bulb. And, final

One of the first 'moments' that kicks off the holiday season each year for me is the annual purchase and planting of Amaryllis bulbs (or what my kids call: "Christmas Flowers").  Normally, I buy a couple of varieties - some from big box stores and some from Wannamaker's.  This past weekend, I was at Home Depot and found what you normally find at big box stores:  Amaryllis kits.  That's a bulb, a little pot and a disc of 'soil' that expands when you add water.  I don't love those - especially since it seemed that when I opened the boxes for the kits, I noticed that the stalks had already emerged from the bulb, but due to being in the dark they were white(ish).  But, right next to the kits was a bin of bare bulbs - both Paper-whites and Amaryllis.  The Amaryllis bulbs were $7.99 - about half of what I normally pay for a high quality bulb.  I grabbed three of them.  And a low, wide clay container to plant all three.  Those three are all the same vari

Almost three weeks ago, I posted my last update on our 2020/2021 Christmas Amaryllis bulb that Nat picked up kind of last minute at Trader Joe's.  This year, we went back to basics with a no-name flower and a bulb that was dipped in wax.  My expectations were really low.  But, this thing has - despite it's low-end roots - has done as good of a job as almost every other Amaryllis that we've had over the years.    Back in early January, this one was in peak bloom , but today?  It is still blooming.  I'm thinking these three blooms that are on the stalk might be the final ones, but they're showing off deep into January.  See the current state below: Last year,  one of our Amaryllis (the Cherry Nymph Red Amaryllis) was blooming late into February , and one of ours in 2019 went through March , so I've certainly had blooms well past January 26th.  But, those bulbs were hand-picked and potted in soil.  I suppose that this might serve as as much of a *proper* debrief

 Just two days ago, I posted a photo of our waxed-based Amaryllis Christmas flower from Trader Joe's and mentioned how one of the flower buds was set to open .  That photo was from Christmas Even.  Today's post is dated January 3, 2021, but the photo below is from December 28th, 2020.  Just three days late and we have a lovely opened red Amaryllis flower with a bright yellow stamen.  So, this flower did far better than most that we've had and opened just three days post-Christmas.   This is the first time that we did a wax-base Christmas flower bulb.  And, based on the experience, I don't think it will be our last.  Not only did the flower bloom close to Christmas, the stalks weren't too terribly tall - which usually means that you loose them to flopping over.  These were short and sturdy stalks and a nice bloom on top.  The downside to this version is that we have NO IDEA what variety of Amaryllis this really is, but we can guess if we look at the most common varie

 The calendar says 2021, but I'm still talking (and posting) about our 2020 Christmas Amaryllis.  This year (a year unlike any other), we didn't go all-in with Christmas bulbs.  In fact, I'd say that if it wasn't for Nat saving the day, we would have likely just skipped our Christmas flowers/Amaryllis altogether.  We didn't go to Wannemaker's for their Holiday Open House.  And I haven't been in a hardware store in months.  But, thanks to an impulse buy at Trader Joe's, we have this small, unnamed Amaryllis bulb in a wax base that Nat brought home in mid-December .  I'm posting this in January, but this photo is old.  I took the photo below on Christmas Eve and you can see that the flower was just beginning to emerge.  I'd say that this one got pretty.close to being right in terms of timing.

 Each of the past few years, we've grown Christmas flowers.  They're always Amaryllis bulbs that I've bought at the Wannemaker's Christmas Open House in early November.  That timeline has usually given me enough time get close to blooms on Christmas Day.  Last year, we grew four different varieties.  This year?  We missed the open house.  (Thanks, COVID.)  And I never got around to buying bulbs.   So, to my delight, Nat came home from (I think) Trader Joe's with this waxed amaryllis.  The tag doesn't list the variety, so it will be a surprise when it opens.   It seems that with this waxed version, you have to do literally NOTHING.  No water.  No soil.  Just turn it a quarter turn every few days to get it to grow straight.   So, while this isn't the best we've done with Amaryllis bulbs, at least having this on our counter keeps the tradition up of growing these things for the holidays.  COVID can shove it.

It has been just about a month since the last time I posted photos of our 2019/2020 Winter Amaryllis flowers in bloom .  At that time, the largest bulb - the Cherry Nymph was going strong and was putting on a pretty great (red) show.  The rest of the bulbs were mostly exhausted.  Fast forward to this week and you can see that the Cherry Nymph is STILL going strong - with a set of double blooms.  This late into February.  Pretty great. You might also note that there's a stick that I stuck into the soil and then used some wire to affix the stem to the stick and keep the bulb from falling over - and the entire pot from flipping over, too. I didn't use the alcohol mixture on this one and it shows:  it is long, tall and leggy.  And the blooms being SO BIG means that the thin stalk stems can't support the flowers.  Lesson learned:  focus on the alcohol mix all the way through the growing season. Below you'll see another look at these flowers.  I've come to the co

A couple of days ago, I shared some photos of the flowers of the 'double blooming' Cherry Nymph Amaryllis that I planted in November.  I only showed the flowers, but wanted to revisit (for record-keeping sake) all four of the bulbs for height and vitality in January.  The last time I posted photos of these flowers was on January 2nd.  You can see the photo of these same four flowers 2.5 weeks ago here .  Left-to-right, the flowers are:  Apple Blossom (Menards), Red Lion (Menards), Star of Holland (Menards) and Cherry Nymph (Wannemakers). Some notes:  The Red Lion bloomed first and exhausted itself first, too.  This had two stalks/stems. The Apple Blossom went second and is also exhausted.  However, this was the only one that had just one stalk/stem. The Red Lion has a bud that is about to burst open.  It was behind the other two, but the second stem/stalk will have flowers (I think) into February. And, finally, the heights were all over the place:  the Red Lion w

While two of the four Amaryllis bulbs are done flowering, the largest - and most expensive - bulb (bought at Wannemakers) is blooming.  It is a Cherry Nymph bulb that is billed as a 'double blooming' Amaryllis and the moniker is holding true for this beauty. Potted on November 21st, 2019 . A week in, this bulb showed no signs of growth . Mid-December and the tip of the first bud was just emerging from the bulb . Right before Christmas, it was just about 4" tall and thickening up the stem . On January 2nd, the first stem was up and trying to get ready to open . For reference, my large bulb in 2019 was just beginning to open up at end of December . On January 20th of 2019 - 25+ days past Christmas, the bulb was in bloom . And it was still throwing off flowers well into March .  Yeah....March. So, this one is blooming (for the first time) about the same time as last year's large bulb.  Will it stay blooming until March?  We'll watch and see. This r