One of our Christmas traditions for at least the past 10 years has been growing amaryllis bulbs. Actually, the correct term is "forcing" them, but we needn't go into that. We started out just doing the single bulb in a special glass vase and water (no soil) - a kit for which you can find at K-Mart for around $7.99 starting near the first of November.
And in a couple of years it was a couple of bulbs.
Then it was a bulb in soil, watered with Miracle Gro food.
Then three bulbs from a nursery in one large pot. With Miracle Gro potting soil, Dutch bulb food, a place in the house where they got lots of sun (keeping the pots warm and giving the bulbs "warm feet").
The craziest we went was nine nursery bulbs treated as described in the last paragraph.
Well, here's ours from this year (only three bulbs):
These were the first four blossoms with four more ready to open. (Yes, I took this picture - we have a natural lighted backdrop which I can explain later.)
Now you can see the three bulbs, now with 12 blosssoms and three buds that will produce 12 more...
And they get huge!
And there's no camera angle tricks - I'm sitting right next to them. The stalks are about 24" tall, and the largest blossom so far was 9" across. There's 8 more to come - 4 white and 4 red.
Here's a bunch from 4 years ago when I did all white bulbs:
Somehow, it fell to me to do this over the years, though this year TLMK had agreed to do one bulb apiece. But when we got to the nursery and she saw these dark red bulbs, she couldn't resist and bought two.
Me? I always go with the "White Dazzler" bulbs. Absolutely beautiful.
They've become symbolic of Christmas and new life, as have many Dutch bulbs (crocus, narcissus, paperwhites, tulips). And for us, it's become tradition at Christmas. Well, at least one of them...
PRETTY!
ReplyDeleteThe tree too.