My first year up in this neck of the woods, I bought some Amaryllis bulbs from the local supermarket to give as a Christmas present to my landlady. I knew she loved plants and gardening (she didn’t know how much I loved them too) and while I’d never had an Amaryllis before I knew lilies and I knew their flower power was always extraordinary. And man, these bulbs were packaged so beautifully in a fluted hurricane vase, with the perfect amount of moss at the bottom cushioning them – their leaves just starting to protrude. I had to get one for myself too!
I remember that during the Christmas period everybody thought the staging of the plant was great. It was starting to flower and the guys (my dad and my other half) just couldn’t get over how low maintenance the plant was! It was the perfect houseplant to them.
Then the inevitable happened, the flowers wilted and the bulb was just that a bulb with leaves. Knowing this bulb was probably forced to flower at the Christmas period, and having planted enough spring and summer bulbs in my time, I knew I had to do something. Everyone I casually talked to said there was no hope for it. As a young forced bulb it wouldn’t flower again, so I should dispose of it.
Now, see – I don’t like ‘throwing away’ things that are live. It just doesn’t sit well with my being. So I did research, a lot of it and I gathered that this bulb wouldn’t flower for a couple of years but that there was a chance it would after that if treated properly.
Gardening isn’t an instant pastime if you’re doing it from scratch. There’s a lot of patience involved. So was I ready for a two-year investment in a boring pot taking up extremely limited horizontal space in my house? You betcha! And the internet was right, that plant was a mass of happy leaves for two years. Not a peep of a flower. Not a one!
And then, after two years I suddenly saw a bud. It had been cannily disguised as a broad leaf earlier, and halfway hidden, but when it was about 12 inches tall I saw the stalk protruding with a beautiful pointy top and I knew a flower was coming. I was so excited I may have squealed and jumped up and down. All the watering and application of tomato feed was paying off!
It flowered. And man did it flower! I had a crown of flowers in March for nearly a month, and another crown of flowers the following August.
That was a year and a half ago. I’ve since divided and re-potted my supermarket miracle. Given away the little babies as gifts to like-minded friends and guess what’s happening now? The March installment of flowers is being followed by ANOTHER stalk of flowers. Two in a row!
I’m squealing. And doing a victory dance. And taking pictures!
Happiness – it’s the simple things eh.
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