Can’t keep’em down
Monday May 14th 2012, 11:16 pm
Filed under: Amaryllis,Friends

Last week Nina gave me a box she’d been meaning to get over to me for months.

Inside was an amaryllis bulb–not the pink and white one pictured there, but one that had sent up a shoot that bloomed red in the dark, then another stalk that didn’t open and that stayed ghostly white.

And then. A third (!) stalk. It had not yet shriveled. It had a foursome of white leaf tips pointing up next to it.

Now, amaryllis buds are begun in the bulb before the next year’s season, so this one came from a superb grower for it to have had three sets: one is normal for your average Christmas-gift kit, two from a bigger bulb is wonderful, and three is the best your average nursery will have.

The bulb was still alive. The case over the buds inside had opened, just like the first stalk, but like the second there was no color.

Just four tiny white flower buds, open to the world in the darkness, waiting, sure that light and water must be out there somewhere.

I planted it. I watered it. I put it in the window.

That was Thursday. The tiny leaf tips poking out have tripled in length and gone from white to barely green yesterday to deep green and red by this afternoon. The first flower started to open this morning–and by afternoon and to my surprise, its vivid red had a white-to-green center. Had I not been running errands I probably could have watched the color flow in in slow motion. Glorious!

The other three buds have already doubled in length and started coloring up.

Sometimes you just have to get a good thing started and then, as they say, it takes on a life of its own.

(Speaking of which. For those who want to advocate on behalf of Milk Pail, you can write to Mountain View City Council via the left column, six down, here. )


5 Comments so far
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So pretty! I need to remember to ask the Knight if he watered the amaryllis in the kitchen that is shooting up shoots all of a sudden…

Comment by Channon 05.15.12 @ 6:40 am

Oh, shoot, I don’t have one of those flowers. But nature in action is a wonder to behold.

Comment by Don Meyer 05.15.12 @ 9:04 am

“I probably could have watched the color flow in in slow motion” WOW, what an amazing mind image this is —-

Comment by Bev 05.15.12 @ 9:12 am

What a beautiful life lesson in such a lovely gift! 🙂

Comment by Suzanne in Montreal 05.15.12 @ 12:06 pm

You have such a knack for lovely word images. Thank you.

Comment by Sherry in Idaho 05.15.12 @ 8:36 pm



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