Today’s flower subject is Amaryllis.
How do YOU feel about them? Do you like them? Do you grow them?

I’ve only grown them twice, in the very distant past. But this year I was given one by Marian St. Clair who stayed with us for the night while giving a (fabulous!)
talk to our Garden Club.

There it is! “Cherry Nymph”, kindness of Marian.

Because I was/am fascinated by this plant, I decided to do a daily photo journal. Would you like to see? Read on…..

I planted it in soil on December 12 and, because I didn’t read instructions carefully (sound familiar?) I put it in a cool, fairly dark spot. NO  NO NO!  Nothing seemed to be happening, so thanks to Longfield Garden, I moved it to a warm, sunny, bright spot with lots of sun. And so it flourished . I didn’t start the photo journal until I really had something to show you, which was the day before Christmas, December 24th.

And then, on the 24th I noticed ALL the pesky fruit flies around the plant and in the kitchen . Oh yuck, what now? Google it, of course. THIS is where I found the best solution. I did just what they said: took the pot outside and scraped off about an inch of soil at the top. I filled in with some soil right from my garden. Then I put the small rocks all around the top of the bulb. It definitely worked: no more fruit flies at all!

Finally, the night of the 30th/31st the flowers came alive!

Just gorgeous, aren’t they? I’m waiting now for the second, smaller flower to come out.

The final portraits: these last two were taken yesterday, January 4th:

And it’s still going strong, ready to show me some new flowers. Next fall I will most definitely buy several (many?) Amaryllis bulbs and I’ll do a post letting you know the best sources. I want some of the white flowers…and maybe the two colored variety. So many choices!