Why I Oughta...

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 ...

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 ...

Time to check in our our Winter flowering bulb project: our planted amaryllis for Christmas flowers.  All of them are at different stages and provide a nice contrast between the set of four bulbs in pots. You can see the three Menards bulbs in the photo at the top here with the Star of Holland bulb being the one that has shot up the furthest and is starting to have a flower emerge. For reference:  This is the full set of four from November 23rd  - three weeks ago - that shows all four of the bulbs including a few of the Menards ones that had some early (and pale green) growth from the bulb.  And here's a set of photos from the end of November that shows how far these have come in a couple of weeks .  I also tracked our bulb last year - here's a look at it on Christmas Day - no bloom .  Back to this year, we have a clear leader: The Star of Holland - a red flower with white stripes.  Here's a closer look at the Star of Holland: The bloom...

It is March and we're still getting this big, beautiful bloom of double flowers from our Amaryllis bulb .  I planted this in the last week of November of 2018.   One week in, it showed no promise .  By the end of 2018, it still had not opened .  So, we missed our 'Christmas flower'.  Not the end of the world.  After giving it a constant drink of an alcohol mix, I was able to restrict it's height.  And it bloomed at the end of January .  Then, in February, I posted about how we were getting a second shaft coming from the bulb and that we were going to be getting a second set of flowers .  Today, I'm sharing a photo of this second bloom.  The variety is called a " Double Flowering Nymph ", but that notion of 'double flowering' has to do with the flowers in one bloom.  They have an inner and outer flower.  But for us?  We're getting a double, double flowering.  The second stalk is the first double.  The f...

These photos of our Christmas Amaryllis are a few days old, so let's call it mid-January in terms of the timing of the bloom.  Look at that beauty!  Double blooming variety that is still going strong for us.  But, this post isn't about the blooms.  It is about the height of the bulb stalk.  I placed a ruler in the pot and you can see in the photo below:  11.5" tall to the top of the bloom. And, just for record-keeping sake, here's a photo (below) of where I placed the bottom of the ruler:  at the top of the bulb - NOT at soil level. Amaryllis have a tendency to get long and leggy and with the size of those blooms, from time-to-time, they tip over because the stalk is too lean and long.  How does one solve that?  By poisoning the bulb.  Seriously.  I mentioned in my post in December that I'd been giving this bulb an 8% (approximately) blend of vodka and water .  In an attempt to keep the stalk from growing too...

Still no bloom .  But, plenty of progress as the bud is opening up and beginning to show how many flowers it is going to show off this January.  This went into a pot in Mid-November, so we're now sitting at seven weeks of growth.  Two or so in November.  Four in December.  And almost one in January this year.  This is the second year that I've bought the bulb at Wannemaker's annual Christmas Open House and I'm sitting at 50/50 in terms of timing it right for a Christmas bloom.  My instincts (largely based on this year) is that I should start these earlier - mostly so they'll be ready for the Babe's annual Birthday party - which takes place about a week before Christmas.  But, there isn't enough data.  One bulb:  six weeks to full bloom.  This bulb?  Likely eight weeks or more.  Year three will, I suppose, tilt the operation one way or the other once we see how long that one takes to bloom. 

One week in with our 2018 edition of the amaryllis bulb and I'm happy to report that there's a little bit of action going on here.  Here's the post showing the bulb both before it went into the pot and right after .  If you look closely at this photo above, you'll notice two things:  First, the tiniest little green shoot emerging from the middle (top part of the bulb in this photo) and a good-sized 'gap' that has been created near the bottom of the bulb in this photo.  Thinking that the 'gap' that is being made is the result of some growth down below and just kind of *making room* for even more green shoots to emerge.  As a reminder, this is a double-flowering Nymph bulb that has white flowers with some red/pink accents.  I'll keep an eye on this, but I'm hoping that by mid-December, we'll have a nice-looking plant beginning to head skywards.  Here's the bulb from 2017 on December 16th to give you a sense for what should take pla...