Why I Oughta...

Just a few days ago, I posted photos of the three different Amaryllis bulbs that we're growing this season and showed how the new (to us) Spider variety - La Paz - was way, way, way ahead of the others.  Just a few days later and the La Paz is putting on a full holiday show.    It has three tall, slender (maybe too tall) flower stalks that each have multiple flowers dangling from the top.   See below for the current state: I say 'maybe too tall' because I didn't get around to watering this with an alcohol mix until it was too late, so it shot way up.  I've used a single-prong flower stem support to keep them upright.  As the stalks were growing up, I was able to sort-of 'tuck' them into the support and keep them centered and (hopefully) stop them from flopping over. Here, below, is the Amaryllis support that I use to keep the top-heavy flowers from flopping-over.  It is about 12" tall and I stick it into the soil at the base of the bulb.

We're one month past Christmas.  I think that's enough time to pass for me to officially declare that my PaperWhites are a failure.  No blooms at all.  I bought them in early November - a week-plus ahead of when we traditionally buy and start our Amaryllis bulbs.  But...here's the key (I think):  I bought them from the orange big box store .  I planted them as directed:  in gravel.  And watered them in up to the middle of the bulbs.  They responded immediately.  And strongly.  With a thick, dense and vibrant root mat that came off of each of them.  They also shot up new green shoots from the top of the bulbs.   Based on what I've done before (with Amaryllis bulbs) and what was suggested on the Web, I watered them in with a diluted alcohol mixture .  In an attempt to stunt their growth and keep them from 'flopping over' and getting too leggy.   I last checked-in on these in mid-December.  More than a month after the roots emerged.  And they all had multiple green

The last of the new Amaryllis bulbs is in full bloom this season.  A week ago, I showed the Flamenco Queen flowers on a very tall, slight stalk .  Today I'm posting a photo of the red and white striped Sunshine Nymph in full double bloom.  This is the second-straight season that we've grown the Sunshine Nymph and in both situations it bloomed after Christmas.  Here's last year's post from early January (just about a year ago today) when that version of the Sunshine Nymph was in bloom .    I attempted to keep and force last year's Sunshine Nymph this year , but so far, no stalks or buds.  

We didn't get Christmas blooms out of this Flamenco Queen Amaryllis bulb, but the wait was worth it.  I last posted a photo of this plant at the very end of 2022 and showed the stalk had shot up with a bud at the tip .  Today?  It is wide-open.  And has two of the most-striking flower blooms on opposite sides of the stalk that we've ever grown.  See below for a look at the Flamenco Queen with red and white-striped petals and a lime-green center. Below is a photo showing that 'opposite' set of blooms.  And the two more that are on their way: This is also - by far - the tallest, lanky-est Amaryllis we've ever grown.  Even after we 'poisoned it' with an alcohol mix in December.  How tall? It is showing blooms that are 25.5" above the top of the bulb.  See below for the measurement:  It has started to lean, so I stuck in a plant support that you can see below.  The hard part with these Amaryllis bulbs and plant supports is that the width of the bulb forces

Twelve days ago, I showed our first Amaryllis bloom:  A magic touch set of two flowers that didn't grow up at all - just bloomed straight from the bulb .  Weird.  The other two (new) bulbs still haven't flowered.  But, they've shot upwards.  This post shows the post-Christmas view of just the Magic Touch - I'll get to the other two tomorrow.   Did we get Christmas blooms this year?  Yes.  We did.  The Magic Touch.  We're going to get New Years blooms, too.  Here's what the top of the Magic Touch looks like today:

A week ago, I posted an update on the three new Amaryllis bulbs that we're growing this year and talked about how they are at different stages of growth .  One of them - the Magic Touch - is what I'd call the furthest along and has two flower stalks.  But, those two are VERY different, too.   One of them is taking a normal shape and form.  Tall and proud.  With a flower bud at the top.  The other one?  Failed to launch.  Didn't grow much up from the bulb at all.  But what did it do?  It flowered.  ALREADY.  A mid-December Amaryllis bloom.  Holy moly.  This is a lovely red, too.  What do I mean by 'failure to launch'?  See the photo below showing the two flower stalks.  The one in bloom is barely out of the bulb: And, here's a look at the backside of the bloom showing that ANOTHER flower is set to open in the same spot: Magic Touch Amaryllis is a fast-mover (for us, this year) and has produced the earliest flowers of any bulb we've grown.  Kinda nice, right? 

We're growing Paperwhite bulbs for the first time this holiday season.  In early November, we bought an inexpensive package of Ziva Paperwhite bulbs at the orange big box store and planted them in a glass jar with some gravel at the bottom .  A couple weeks later - and one month ago today - we decided to add a little bit of rubbing alcohol to the mix in an attempt to stunt their overall growth .  (Everything you read on the Web will tell you that Paperwhites are prone to flopping over, so the alcohol keeps them compact in size.) With two weeks to go until Christmas, how are the Paperwhites doing?  Here, below are a few photos: They've grown up and most of the bulbs have multiple stems (and or leaves) that have emerged.  They're not yet to the top of the jar, but a couple of them are getting close (see the last photo that shows the tips compared to the rim of the jar).   A couple things of note here in the Paperwhite Diary.  First... is that *some* of the tips are brown.  My

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.  Photo of the mid-growth Flamenco Queen Christmas Amaryllis below

We typically have a few plants and flower projects around Christmas and this year is no different.  Most years, we do at least two kinds:  amaryllis and a store-bought poinsettia for the kitchen.  This year, we added a third thing:  Paperwhite bulbs .   We've had the typical poinsetta in most years.  Usually red, sometimes white or more interesting coloring.  But this year, we were at the orange big box store doing one of those kids projects when we wandered out into the nursery.  That's where we saw a rack of something that looked *kinda* like a traditional poinsettia.  But, was a little different.   The 'petals' (which...are really just different colored leaves) were curled under.  And were clustered on the top of the plant.  What is this?  Turns out, it is called a Winter Rose.  It is a poinsettia.  Just tweaked.  Here's a few photos of the red Winter Rose: I pulled out the tag of the plant and it read this:  Poinsettia.  Euphorbia pulcherrima.  So, it is a poin

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

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

Back in the middle of November, we moved ahead with our annual tradition of planting Amaryllis bulbs in an attempt to have some "Christmas Flowers".  Here's the post showing all five of the bulbs (2 large ones, three smaller ones) planted in their containers from earlier this month.   And, here's a post showing the tags of all three varieties of bulbs that we're going with this Winter .  About 10-or-so days after planting and watering them in, we have some good news:  all five of the bulbs have sprung to life.  Some more than others.  But, life in all five never-the-less.   First up, the trio of Red Lion bulbs from Home Depot.  These are the smaller ones.  All three have taken off and are showing not just some foliage, but all three of them appear to be sending up their first flower bud out of the bulb.  Those Red Lions are below: Next up, the Lemon Star.  This is one of the larger ones from Wannemaker's and was the one I was most concerned about.  While the

Earlier this week I flipped over my Christmas music tracking advice website to read:  "Yes" as of Monday, November 1st, 2021.  I've posted about " Can I listen to Christmas Music? " before including last year (when I posted on November 1st ) and have posted about it over the years. If you go to the Christmas Music Permission site and scroll down, you'll see that I have it listed as a project that I established in 2015.   Ever since then, I've posted about the project - and how I flip it from "No.  Don't be a lunatic." (which is up from Jan 1 --> Oct 31) to "Yes.  Go ahead." (which is up from November 1 --> Dec 31 - almost every year. In 2015, I started the "Can I listen to Christmas music?" project back in 2015 . In 2016, I posted on Christmas music from 2016 and included a Buzzfeed video. In 2017, I posted on listening to Christmas music from 2017 on November 2nd In 2018, I posted about the move to a new landi

 What happens when you do a couple of puzzles and your family notices?  And it is right before Christmas?  Well...that means you get MORE PUZZLES.  MOARPUZZLES.  This one, though, (as the kids say...) slaps .  <insert how do you do fellow kids meme> But...seriously....I am going to REALLY insert it here below. Why? Because, I read somewhere that if you start saying things that your kids have started to say, they'll start to think it is very UNCOOL.  So, I'm getting ahead of things with my kids and the phrase 'this one slaps'.   Well...back to the puzzle.  This scratches me right where I itch:  it is a Disney Parks pins puzzle.  Imagine laying down hundreds of Disney Parks pins and taking a photo of them.  That's EXACTLY what this 750 piece puzzle is.  See below for my photo of the box: You can find it on Amazon (non-affiliate link here, people), but go to your local toy store and ask them.  It is 18" tall.  By 24" wide.   I'm going to get this o

 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.

We started this 1000 piece Harry Potter puzzle on December 13th .  And by "we", I really mean "me".  The kids helped a little bit - mostly because the oldest one was desperate to get access to the project table in the screened porch where I set up.  That's become our LEGO and puzzle table.  By December 18th, I had the border mostly done and the colors sorted .  And by December 22nd, it was starting to come into focus .  Today is the 30th of December, but, I finished this back on the 23rd. Just getting around to posting it - what with the Christmas hysteria around the house.  A couple of busy, full days sitting and focused on the puzzle got it done.  You can see the complete puzzle below:  Or, really...complete in the sense that I'm done with it.  But, there were two missing pieces.  This puzzle was on loan from our friends.  They said there was one missing piece.  And now, I think we caused it to have a second missing piece.   This is the 3rd puzzle of quara

Doesn't look like much progress, does it?  Feels like I've sat in front of this puzzle for multiple hours, but all that I have to show for it is PARTS of four scenes.  There are twenty-one (21) total scenes in the puzzle across five rows. I have one scene in four of the five rows started so far.  I'm running out of time but, I suppose that means that I'll have to focus even more on this thing in the coming days. As a reminder, I called my shot with a 'Christmas Break' project puzzle back on Sunday, December 13th .  Five days later, on Friday, December 18th, I did my first check-in that showed the border mostly done and some of the color pieces sorted into piles .  Today, it looks like this: I'm fearing that I did all of the EASY parts, so now the project might only slow down.