Why I Oughta...

There I was, buying some self-leveling concrete gap filler at the Home Depot big box store when I (of course) found myself wandering into the garden center to see what they had doin' in there.  In addition to all of the Christmas decor they've put up (trees, inflatables, those *REALLY STRONG SMELLING* bags of cinnamon pinecones), they also have a large display of Amaryllis bulbs.  This display seems larger than in previous years where they (iirc) mostly had those 'kits' of bulbs with peat pucks and little plastic pots.   I took a couple of photos showing the bulbs and thought it would be best to go home and try to figure out if any of these were worth buying.  We normally buy sets of these from Wannemakers, but maybe this year we should try some of these slightly smaller Christmas flowers? Here is a photo of the first set: And, here below, is a look at each of the ones in this part of the display: Blossom Peacock Amaryllis: Via Amaryllis Bulb Co :  "Bl...

We're about half-way between when we planted our annual Christmas Amaryllis bulbs and the big day - December 25th - when I would (ideally) want blooms.  This is a (partial) progress report showing the three newly acquired bulbs .  Why just these three new ones (and not the bulbs that I kept from last year)?  Because these are the ones that are showing action on the stalk growth and the three that are furthest along.   All three of these bulbs were bought from Wannemakers in early/mid November and were planted up right around Nov 17th.  That puts these three weeks from their first watering.  And just over two weeks until Christmas Day.  Will any of them bloom in time?   First up is the Flamenco Queen Amaryllis .  This is what I think is the most unique of the three - with green centers and white-speckled red petals.  The leaves and first flower stalk are up out of the neck of the bulb, but not too much height so far.  Phot...

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.