Why I Oughta...

We made an early stop into Wannemaker's Garden Center this past weekend and checked out their newly-arrived shipment of Amaryllis bulbs.  We normally buy ours at their Holiday Open House (that takes place in a couple of weeks), but I wanted to see what they had on-hand.  As always, they have a couple of full, long shelves of boxes of Amaryllis bulbs that you can choose from.  Their bulbs are big and plump.  And, not cheap.  But, they perform.   I recently posted about some of the Amaryllis bulbs that Home Depot is carrying this year .  That post is here and includes a look at Flaming Peacock Amaryllis, Red Peacock Amaryllis, Blossom Peacock Amaryllis, Marquis Amaryllis, Glee Amaryllis. The bulbs at Wannemaker's are varied - in terms of colors and shapes.  The ones that caught my attention are included below.   Last year, we grew Shine Dream and Flamed Amadeus.   This year, we'll grow some new (to us) ones.   Try...

The Exotic Star Amaryllis bulb continues to bloom - now all the way until mid-January 2025.  I last posted about the Amaryllis' that we're growing was on January 1 - so a little bit over two weeks ago.  At that time, the first bloom had appeared on the Exotic Star, while the 'Double Dream' Amaryllis was still in dormancy.  Today....same situation.  Here, below, are a couple photos showing the Exotic Dream in bloom with the striped petals and candy-apple-green center. I like the 'dotted line' nature of the stripes.  You can see them in the close-ups below: The Double Dream is stuck - so we're (right now) hitting 50% bloom for the season. 

We grew two Amaryllis bulbs this Christmas season - an Exotic Star Amaryllis and a Double Dream Amaryllis .  Both were 'nice' bulbs from the garden center - not a big box store kit-type bulb.  I don't seem to have posted about these in December, but one of them - the Exotic Star - took off.  While the other one (Double Dream) stayed dormant.  That has held true all the way until today - early January. The Double Dream is still dormant.  But, the Exotic Star is in full bloom with three flowers opening up and showing their stripes.   See below for a what the Exotic Star looks like currently.  Note those bottom (and side) petals being a tad LONGER than the one sticking up at the top.  That's part of the 'design' of Exotic Star Amaryllis .  So, too are the red stripes on white petals and the 'green apple' highlights.   Once the stalk(s) started to get a couple inches from the bulb, I started to water this one with the diluted alco...

As is the custom around here, we planted some Amaryllis bulbs in small containers in the time right around Thanksgiving.  We picked this one up - the Double Dream - at Wannemaker's.  Below is the bulb set in the soil and below that is the plant/bulb tag showing the fully-grown pinkish full bloom of the Double Dream Amaryllis.