Remember the Amaryllis!

Since Thanksgiving, we have had an Amaryllis (Hippeastrum sp.) in bloom every single day. I don't time it like that on purpose, it just happens like this. Of course, it helps that I have many, many Amaryllis bulbs, but still. If I would try and plan for them to do this, it wouldn't happen, you know. It's one of the Murphy's Laws of Gardening.

But the last of the blooms are in their prime this week. Even that is good timing, because this week, I started taking all of the rest of the bulbs outside and planted them in the ground for the summer. There, they'll gather strength between now and September for next winter's indoor blooms.

So, I look back fondly on Amaryllis days, and another enjoyable season of blooms. They really do help me make it through the long winter.
La Paz

Picotee (also above)

Dancing Queen


Royal Velvet


Rilona


Piquant


Red Peacock


Blossom Peacock


Misty


San Remo


Papilio

There were others, like Lemon Lime, Emerald and Red Lion. There was Apple Blossom, too, except that it only produced foliage for the second year in a row. I've yet to see that bulb bloom. And then there was Pink Floyd that clearly wasn't Pink Floyd, but looked more like Misty which had bloomed earlier.

While it's irritating to have one bloom red when you were expecting white ('Christmas Gift'), the truth is, you just can't not like an Amaryllis no matter what color it turns out to be.

So now, all but Red Peacock are enjoying their days in the sun, beefing up for November, when the show begins all over again. Actually, the bulbs that my friend Kat gave me when I visited her in Florida in March, are putting out new foliage and not knowing whether they had bloomed yet when I pulled them up, they may surprise us with blooms in a month or two.