The Journey of an amaryllis flower
Four years ago, in December, I bought two Amaryllis bulb Christmas vase settings. It was a lovely setting in a beautiful curved hurricane vase with the bulb set in moss with cute Christmas decorations around. The instructions said just keep moist and the bulb would flower, no need for soil or planting. So i bought two. One as a gift and one for myself. The instructions were correct, the flower bloomed and looked so lovely in that large, wide curved vase. Then the flower was spent and I wasn’t sure what to do. I don’t like throwing away anything with life in it, so I turned to the internet. I read many articles, all of which said that forced flower bulbs like this wouldn’t do well after the season they were designed for. But life is life right? There’s potential there. So I kept reading. And then I found it! A little article that said that while it would be a long road (two years or more) before that bulb would flower again, given the right treatment it could indeed flower and return to it’s natural flowering seasons.
I tried the care recommended (which wasn’t onerous at all, just basic good care) but the big tip was to use tomato feed every few weeks. I learned that tomato feed helps all bulbing plants giving them the nutrition required to store energy to flower. Two years later the bulb flowered! That was 2 years ago and it’s flowered twice a year since. This year, for the first time ever, my humble supermarket Amaryllis has flowered twice in one shot. I wasn’t expecting this. I enjoyed the first flowering and then I noticed a second flower shoot.
This time I decided to document the unfurling of the flowers as it always amazes me how such a huge crown of flowers come out of one bud. I documented this over what I now know is 16 days. What a long lasting beauty – I fall in love with this flower every time I walk into the room. I hope you love it as much as I do!
Day 1
The bud finally started to open.
Day 2
It’s slightly more open.
Day 3
And, it’s just a little more open today.
Day 4
The bud is taking it’s time to unfurl just right.
Day 5
And then, all of a sudden, a lot happened in a day!
Day 6
Things are really starting to pop out now.
Day 7
In one day things have gone from unfurling to plopping out and spreading. We can see 3 flowers today.
Day 8 PIC 1
A fourth flower bud is unfurling from the centre.
Day 8 PIC 2
Different angle to properly see the unfurling fourth bud.
Day 9 PIC 1
Bud 4 still unfurling while the rest of the flowers open even wider.
Day 9 PIC 2
Different angle.
Day 9 PIC 3
The first fully open flower, bud 1.
Day 10
Today we can see a fifth bud coming from the centre, while the fourth still unfurls.
Day 11 PIC 1
The fifth bud is getting larger.
Day 11 PIC 2
Another fully open flower. They’re so beautiful.
Day 12
There’s a little more budding action going on in the centre today.
Day 13 PIC 1
Here we go! The sixth and final bud makes an appearance.
Day 13 PIC 2
There are many large open flowers to enjoy at this point.
Day 14 PIC 1
The buds are unfurling – they seem to do so in a balanced way, one side then the other.
Day 14 PIC 2
Closer shot of the final couple of buds.
Day 15
The crown of flowers is becoming complete.
Day 16 PIC 1
The flowers are almost all fully opened. The first is starting to look a bit tired and the last bud hasn’t totally opened yet.
Day 16 PIC 2
Isn’t this a majestic flower? The second bloom in the space of 1.5 months – and baby plants too!
Gorgeous flowers! Thanks for sharing the tomato food tip – maybe this can help me encourage some other bulbs we have.