I bought a Hippeastrum, or Amaryllis, bulb in a box, from the garden centre, in fact I bought three, one for me, one for my daughter and one for my son, to give to them when I saw them at Christmas along with various other things. We are all having a wonderful time watching our flower stalks growing, photographing them and sending the photos to each other. I started mine off in mid December and it is just now that the first flower is fully open, patience is a virtue!
For a long time, mine just grew and grew, it ended up nearly 3 ft tall.
The flowers opened, oh so slowly.
I love the red edge to the petals.
First of all, just 2 flowers opened.
Such beautiful large flowers.
But now, eventually, all four flowers are open on the first flower spike.
The flowers are so beautiful and measure a good 7 inches across.
I would say that they are well worth the wait and this is just the first flower spike. The bud on the second one is just starting to split open, so soon I will have more lovely flowers to enjoy. Looking down at the huge bulb, where the leaves are now forming, I’m not sure, but I think that maybe a third stem is starting to form!
I think these bulbs have been worth every penny spent on them, they are lasting far longer than a bunch of flowers would and causing far more interest and comments from visitors. I can see me buying more of them in future, but now I must read up on how to keep them going so that they will do it all again next year!
It was lovely reading about your Amaryllis Pauline and what a good idea to give them as presents and give each other progress updates! I was also given one for Christmas so will have to do as you and see how to repeat the show for next year.
I’ve been reading Denise that I must start feeding my bulb as soon as it finishes flowering, to encourage as many leaves as possible. Carry on feeding all summer, then about September time, stop and allow the leaves to die back. All the nourishment in the leaves will go back into the bulb. Keep dry for a couple of months, then repot and hopefully start all over again. Let me know how you get on!
The pure white flowers with that small splash of red are lovely Pauline; lovely to share photographs of their progress with you family too. I’ve had some success getting mine to flower for a second year by putting the bulb outside in summer in a shady protected spot and allowing the foliage to die down naturally, giving a little feed until that time. When I notice a new shoot growing I bring the pot back into the house.
Thanks for the information Christina, I’ll certainly do my best to follow it and get my bulb growing again next time.
Hippeastrum are such interesting and beautiful plants. I’ve had luck with them living on in the greenhouse but now, because I don’t let them dry out and go dormant in the fall, they bloom in the summer. A special gift to give your children.
They are so beautiful aren’t they Peter, so beautiful, they almost look too good to be true! My children definitely aren’t gardeners, in spite of encouragment from their mother, I just hope I can get all our bulbs to flower again next time.
Maybe the gardening genes will leap to one of your grandchildren? Like Pam in the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania.
I can always hope Diana, or maybe they will come to it later in life like I did. I wasn’t really interested in gardening until we moved here and I was nearly 50 then!
Oh, how stunning is that? Certainly worth the wait. Lovely seeing that photo of the Under Gardener too.xxx
Yes, the Undergardener sits on the coffee table Dina and I also have that photo as my screen saver. My bulb was planted mid December and with the second spike and maybe a third, there will be weeks more enjoyment, much better value than a bunch of flowers!
It was lovely reading about your Amaryllis Pauline and what a good idea to give them as presents and give each other progress updates! I was also given one for Christmas so will have to do as you and see how to repeat the show for next year.
Thanks for leaving a comment, I hope you are as pleased with yours as I am!
Oh such exciting promise Pauline. I hope that you’re going to return with a photo when it’s in full flower 🙂
I will continue to photograph them Anna, the flowers are really huge now and the second flower bud is almost fully open, it wont be long before I have 4 more trumpets! There is definitely a third flower spike emerging from the bulb, I’m amazed!