You remember how I walked into the garage in April and found those amaryllis bulbs that should have died of neglect, having been dried out far too long, that were instead shooting up buds? And how I gave one to Nicholas and his family to celebrate his recovery from falling off the ski lift?
Yeah well. Our garage is fairly dark, and it doesn’t help that the lightbulbs are in places nearly impossible to reach when they burn out. So. Last night I was squinting in there, looking for–what else–the lightbulbs. And thought, nahhhh… But… I looked under a tarp that was folded up inside its package, and there…
…You guessed it. My friend C. is going in for that surgery, and I’ve been madly knitting her that shawl. There it was. I found one more pot buried under there. I laughed, marvelling at it, although a bit ruefully, and asked my son, “Do you think this one could bloom too?” I poked fingers from both sides at it: if they met in the middle, it was toast, toss it.
The outer edges were indeed soft, but the inner core was as solid as you could ask for under the circumstances. I soaked it in water to break the dormancy.
Four hours later this appeared. That’s not a leaf, that’s a bud. FOUR HOURS. Go C.!!!
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Cooool!
Comment by Romi 05.17.07 @ 1:15 pmThat’s amazing!
I have two pots of bulbs in my garage… think I’m going to go check them out to see if they’ve died or if I can resurrect them…
Comment by Amanda1 05.17.07 @ 2:29 pmWow. I have absolutely no idea what you just said. It makes my head hurt a little. So it was in your garage and it bloomed, and it wasn’t supposed to be alive? It’s aliiiiiiiiive! (How very Frankenstein) All that said, I’m glad there’s a bud in your flower pot.
Miss K, an Original Brown Thumb
Comment by Miss Knotty 05.17.07 @ 10:26 pmAmaryllises typically grow for 6-9 months or so, then the leaves yellow and die back, you tuck the bulb away, let it rest for maybe three months, max, then start watering again and hopefully they’ll bloom again. It’s a potshot whether you get leaves or flowers first or both coming out at the same time. They usually set the next year’s bud within the bulb by the time the leaves go.
This one had been dried out for easily six months. They’re my favorite flower, and now, given how resilient these have been, even more so.
Comment by AlisonH 05.17.07 @ 10:54 pmLeave a comment
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