Amaryllis from bud to bloom
At the beginning of January we brought our three Amaryllis plants up from the basement where they’d had a two and a half month dormant period.
Other than the few pale leaves that they had growing at the time I didn’t expect more than leaf growth until the end of February or the beginning of March. After that I expected March blooms.
Two plants seem to be sticking to the plan, but one decided to send up a flower shoot only a week after I’d brought it upstairs into my sunny kitchen.
By January 23rd their was a flower bud on the Amaryllis’ stock and it was just beginning to open:
The next day the flower bud split in two and looked like a lobster claw for a few hours. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of it when it was like that. I was instead surprised to see how fast it went from partially open bud to this:
Three days after the bud had first started to open I discovered that the first flower was beginning to bloom (Jan. 26th):
Only hours after the first flower started to open the second one opened as well:
By January 27th, only four days after the bud began to open, all four flowers were fully open and HUGE!
Each flower was probably almost the size of a small bread plate! I didn’t get a photo of all four flowers in bloom this year though … Chris ended up being admitted to the hospital on the 31st and all photo taking stopped for a while. By the time things were ok health wise the flowers were pretty much done blooming. Oh well.
By the way this Amaryllis is the one I inherited from my parents. It’s a vibrant red/orange. My other two have white petals tinged with coral, peach and pink – like this.
Do you have any flowers blooming in your home right now? I just wrote a post on my main blog Tricia’s Musings about how we’ve pretty much been treated to flowers indoors and outdoors all year round over the past year.
February 15th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
[...] finished it’s flowering), a small hibiscus that puts out one or two flowers every few days, one Amaryllis that just finished blooming and when my husband was in the hospital the nurses that cared for him [...]
February 15th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
I saw this post and thought I’d come torture myself! I have 8 very healthy amaryllis bulbs that have continued to rest in my cool basement since the end of October! One bulb began to grow about a week ago. Should I take them upstairs and begin watering them anyway????
February 16th, 2009 at 1:19 am
thanks for these pictures. they are beautiful. i’ve never tried to force an amaryllis bulb. maybe i’ll have to give it a try if it’s going to be that beautiful.
February 16th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Thanks for the lovely pictures. They did wonders to brighten an otherwise gloomy winter day.
February 17th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Next year we are going to give away amaryllis bulbs as gifts at Christmas rather than Poinsettia plants that have to be forced and then thrown out (as they get so leggy and untidy).
Amaryllis bulbs can be purchased at any good garden centre and are little miracles. We have one that has 3 stems with 4 flowers per stem.
The gift that keeps on blooming!
February 19th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Those are some beautiful pictures thanks for sharing
February 21st, 2009 at 6:43 pm
My GTS post will appear tomorrow! And two of my amaryllis bulbs are growing… I brought the rest upstairs this past week and began watering them. Hopefully they respond. I was tired of waiting for them to take the initiative!
Have a nice day!