Early in January my husband and I read an article in one of our gardening magazines about growing multiple Amaryllis bulbs in a pot to produce a lovely show. They didn’t have to be planted only for Christmas!
Shortly afterward he noticed that the local Agway store had Amaryllis bulbs on sale for $1 each. That sounded like a great bargain, so he brought home four and I planted them in a pot.
When the leaves began growing I thought they looked rather narrow for Amaryllis, but who knew…..maybe the bargain bulbs were smaller than normal?
Then I noticed the beginning of blooms…already! A few days later I noticed little white bulbs forming on the top of the stem and I said to Ross, "I don’t think our bulbs are Amaryllis!
Guess what they turned out to be?
When the leaves began growing I thought they looked rather narrow for Amaryllis, but who knew…..maybe the bargain bulbs were smaller than normal?
Then I noticed the beginning of blooms…already! A few days later I noticed little white bulbs forming on the top of the stem and I said to Ross, "I don’t think our bulbs are Amaryllis!
Guess what they turned out to be?
Paperwhites! (narcissus)Pretty little white blooms with a yellow center and a beautiful fragrance.
There are several more blooms forming, so the show will go on for a while.
It’s lovely to have something blooming….we really don’t care what it is!
Maybe we’ll try some ‘real’ Amaryllis next fall……
8 comments:
Those are my all time favorites. They smell so nice especially in the evening. ummmmm! I can almost smell them.
Those are very pretty flowers.
Lovely, and what a bonus for the end of Winter. Did you have to force them by placing the pot in a darkened area, or did you just keep the soil moistened and in sunlight?
I know that you were expecting amaryllis, but what a nice surprise to see a flower blooming at this time of year.
I just want to see something BLOOM...anything!
I am going to have to try this next year. Thanks for sharing.
The fragrance of narcissus just tells you it's almost spring. My lilac is budding and I am eagerly awaiting those blooms.
It's still very cold here, so I'm sure we'll need more sun before that happens.
Sue
I bought some very early daffodils, and planted them in a pot on the patio, so that I could watch them grow from inside the house! They have flowered well before all the other daffodils (which are late this year in UK) But we've had subzero temperatures for over two weeks and they are flopped over every morning. Now its warmer, we have gales and they are still suffering. Poor things, I feel quite sorry for them! Maybe some Paperwhites indoors next winter!
It's hard to recognise one bulb from another when they look so similar. I personally think the narcissus may have been a better buy than the amarylis. I know the latter are more showy, but the value for money is in the narcissus, although they may become a bit of a pest. The early harbingers of Spring are always a delight - even more so, I'm sure, when you've been buried under snow all winter.
In Canberra we have prunus coming into flower in early July which fools us into thinking Spring is just around the corner when there's still another two official months of winter to come.
That's beautiful, mummy!
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