A Summer Treat

Many hippeastrums are native to South Africa and I guess my 'San Remo' thinks it's still there. It's blooming in my garden. BLOOMING. I know it's not all that rare that an amaryllis will rebloom, but I've never had it happen. In the summer. In my garden. Until now.

My amaryllis spend summers in the ground, in not particularly good soil. In fact, I call this area the 'orphan garden.' Anything that isn't doing particularly well gets banished to the orphan garden and pretty much ignored. If it somehow survives a season there, it gets to come back and play with the rest of the team. If not, it's gone.

I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, but somehow it works and I've rarely had to throw anything out. And when I say it's not good soil, I mean it. Tough, ugly, native clay. It's never been amended. The amaryllis seem to like it just fine.


Some people leave the bulbs in their pots and sink them in the ground, but I take mine out and plant them in. Last year was the first summer that I did this, and it worked well. Several of them produced baby bulblets by the time I dug them up in late September.

'San Remo' is definitely the star of the orphan garden this summer!